Educating for innovation: using problem-based collaborative tasks and Belbin’s team roles to enhance the development of student enterprise skills

Educating university students about enterprise and entrepreneurship helps to equip graduates with skills and behaviours that are likely to have a significant impact on the success of their future careers. Enterprise education provides students with opportunities to generate ideas, show initiative, design creative solutions to problems, and gain experience of practical activities that can have social and commercial value. A key enterprise skill that is highly demanded of graduates is the ability to collaborate and work effectively with others. The current study investigates the use of problem-based, collaborative work to enhance student enterprise skills. In particular, it explores students’ perceptions of the development of specific enterprise skills during teamwork, and the extent to which skills development and academic performance were related to students’ own team-role preferences. Data on enterprise skills development are examined across seven academic cohorts of psychology undergraduate students taking an optional Social Enterprise module in one university.