The Effect of Youth Entrepreneurship Education Programs: Two Large-Scale Experimental Studies

Recent years have witnessed the worldwide growth of entrepreneurship education (EE) as entrepreneurship is regarded as the key driver of innovation and economic growth. Most extant studies on EE have focused on its impact on entrepreneurial intentions. However, the application of the same EE measurements for both adults and adolescents has long been criticized; the indices developed for potential adult entrepreneurs may not be suitable for young entrepreneurs, considering the large time gap before they enter the workforce. This study aims to develop appropriate indicators for the assessment of youth EE in Korea and to examine the effectiveness of youth EE. Two large-scale quasi-experimental studies were conducted with pre- and posttest matched-comparison groups for verification. This study suggests six common variables for measuring the impact of youth EE: opportunity discovery, opportunity exploitation, entrepreneurship, creativity capacity, social problem solving, and entrepreneurial intention. The analyses showed that all these indicators positively influenced youth EE. We also proposed practical suggestions for the development of EE programs.