The focus of this article is to examine the impact entrepreneurial education programmes have on raising the attitudes and intentions of students to go on and become entrepreneurs, setting up their own businesses. In looking at this, the article also discusses which aspects of the programme (knowledge gained, inspiration from others and access to resources) are the most influential to students.

In order to ensure students are getting the most from these programmes, it is important to understand where the most value lies and how to tailor future programmes to most benefit them. This research aims to uncover the key motivators in raising entrepreneurs within an educational environment.

For this study students on similar programmes (in London and Grenoble), from science and engineering backgrounds, were tested to compare their attitudes and behaviours against a control group. The results of the study show that the programmes proved effective in raising attitudes towards self-employment and that inspiration was the most influential benefit in encouraging students into entrepreneurship.

In light of this research, it is suggested that how to inspire and the importance of the emotional motivations of entrepreneurship should be given greater consideration when establishing the structure and teaching of future entrepreneurial education programmes.