Date of Conferral

2016

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Said Benamar

Abstract

Jobs are available for university graduates with entrepreneurship skills, but unemployment in Morocco persists because of the dissociation between university entrepreneurship graduate skills and professional market demand. While university graduates have achieved academic standards, they have lacked the entrepreneurial attributes to be employable. The purpose of this case study was to explore the use of entrepreneurship learning initiatives at Université Internationale de Casablanca (UIC), a private for-profit university, to promote students' employability. The constructivism and learning paradigm frameworks served as the theoretical foundations of this project study. The research questions addressed the effectiveness of entrepreneurship learning strategies in the promotion of students' employment and self-employment and what challenged their implementation at UIC. Data were collected from 11 individual interviews with students, academic leaders, and business professionals and from accreditation application documents. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and hand analyzed for the discovery of thematic codes. Results indicated that the implementation of a capstone project model could cultivate entrepreneurial student experience. It was recommended that comprehensive business plan capstone projects presented the opportunity of integrating experiential learning activities and assessment tools to develop the entrepreneurial mindset of undergraduate students and increase their affective attachment to the course and the university. Implications for social positive change included the use of entrepreneurship learning to foster internal collaboration among faculty, promote university external partnerships, and create an experiential learning environment that motivates students to learn and achieve professional immersion.

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