Examining the Impact of Programmes for Entrepreneurship using Self-efficacy Abstract A review of the entrepreneurship education literature reveals that a more sophisticated understanding of the impact of the differing pedagogical approaches

A review of the entrepreneurship education literature reveals that a more sophisticated understanding of the impact of the differing pedagogical approaches is required. This paper starts to address this by offering the concept of self-efficacy and its measurements as one way forward for both research and practice. We argue that self-efficacy provides a robust and legitimate construct that can be used for the design and the evaluation of entrepreneurship education in all its forms and guises which allows for a blend of approaches as it addresses the outcomes of the education independent of pedagogical method. This approach supports inter-programme comparison and thereby can also be usefully employed in the assessment of return on investment to institutions and society and ultimately the future resourcing of programmes. The relationship between self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions, opportunity recognition and career persistence is well established in the entrepreneurship literature. In addition to being a predictor of entrepreneurial behaviour, an individual's level of self-efficacy has repeatedly been shown to have a lasting legacy on venture growth and success. Therefore, fostering and enhancement of self-efficacy is increasingly recognised as a key object in education programmes, yet as an outcome measure, self-efficacy is seldom used. The reasons for this are primarily that there are different conceptualisations of self-efficacy and the challenges in measuring self-efficacy. In an effort to address these challenges this study attempts to define different self-efficacy constructs and their measure and presents findings based on preand posttest data gathered from 192 postgraduate participants.