Keywords

1 Introduction

This chapter presents an example of a UK-based entrepreneurship boot camp for creative industries undergraduate and postgraduate students and discusses considerations for arts educators when developing intensive online courses for creative industries higher education students, in light of this case study boot camp. Hence, the context for this work is the UK higher education sector.

The most recent UK QAA guide (QAA, 2018) for higher education providers defines the terms ‘enterprise’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ as follows (p. 7):

Enterprise is defined here as the generation and application of ideas, which are set within practical situations during a project or undertaking. This is a generic concept that can be applied across all areas of education and professional life.

Entrepreneurship Education is defined as the application of enterprise behaviours, attributes and competencies into the creation of cultural, social or economic value. This can, but does not exclusively, lead to venture creation.

Others have written about the difference in these disciplines and potential implications for in- and extracurricular training in higher education (e.g. see (Sewell & Pool, 2010)).

However, at the heart of these terms, theories and distinctions is a drive to equip students with competencies which allow them to graduate prepared to innovate and to lead new ventures, organisations, businesses and initiatives. These entrepreneurial competencies, which may include both the so-called ‘hard’ skills such as budget management and ‘soft’ skills such as team working and networking, are important for every student. The European Commission considers key twenty-first-century competencies to include creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-taking, risk assessment and critical thinking (Penaluna et al., 2014, p. 365). In 2020 the European Commission produced a report on ‘creativity, a transversal skill for lifelong learning’, which states that ‘Creativity is now central to discussions about the key competences and core life skills needed today. It is relevant in all subjects of the curriculum and all aspects of life’ (European Commission, Joint Research Centre, et al., 2020, p. 3). Moreover, an independent review of the creative industries recognised that ‘Creative Industries represent a testing ground for ideas that could boost the ambition and productivity of all small businesses’ (Bazalgette, 2017, p. 21) and described how ‘As part of a broader UK government initiative, the Creative Industries were selected among the top 5 industries to drive economic growth in the UK’ (ibid., p. 69). As the QAA (2018) guidance states, enterprise and entrepreneurship education plays a vital role in graduate careers (p. 3):

Learning about and experiencing Enterprise and Entrepreneurship while at university can have several benefits. It gives students alternative perspectives on their career options and ultimately, the confidence to set up their own business or social enterprise. Enterprise competencies will be useful to those in employment, or those who become self-employed and work on a freelance or consultancy basis. It can help develop a ‘can-do’ confidence, a creative questioning approach, and a willingness to take risks, enabling individuals to manage workplace uncertainty and flexible working patterns and careers. Enterprising competencies, such as teamwork and the ability to demonstrate initiative and original thought, alongside self-discipline in starting tasks and completing them to deadline, are essential attributes that have been identified by employers as priorities. The potential for portfolio career trajectories also suggests that these learning experiences will support the needs of our students.

This chapter will use the term ‘entrepreneurship education’ throughout. This will be used in relation to entrepreneurial and enterprise competencies, such as those identified as key twenty-first-century skills by the European Commission. The activity discussed in this chapter, which is part of the 2-year StART Entrepreneurship Project, aims to facilitate the development of student skills in all areas of entrepreneurship and enterprise, from idea generation, to start-ups, to resilience and leadership. The term is used to encompass all interpretations of these terms discussed above.

1.1 StART Entrepreneurship Project and KickStART Creative Lab

Taking place between September 2020 and August 2022, the project coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. Most higher education learning across the three partner institutions was conducted partly or solely online. The pandemic also impacted on other elements of the project, for example, the impact on the sector effected the ways in which students could work with new and existing industry partners. Along with the travel, hospitality and retail sectors, the creative industries in the UK were severely affected, with a projected £74bn turnover loss over the course of 2020 compared to 2019 (−30%) (Oxford Economics, 2020). For creative industry educators, the networks established to support programme delivery, for example, placement opportunities, were disrupted. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (and associated challenges) was a background feature throughout the planning and development of the StART project boot camp, for which planning began in January 2021.

1.2 Basis for Design

Despite the QAA guidance presented above, there is still a lack across the higher education sector in the UK of embedded enterprise and entrepreneurship content in degree-level education. Research undertaken by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy revealed that, across the 2014/2015 academic year, only 4.3% of undergraduate students received any identifiable training in enterprise; less than 1 in 20 students received formal training in business skills as part of their degree (Price et al., 2018, p. 4). Such a statistic demonstrates that entrepreneurship education is not reaching the vast majority of UK students in higher education.

The boot camp format has been used by various higher education institutions, working with students on a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes, to develop skills in entrepreneurship and enterprise. Maxwell and Ibidunni (2018) usefully describe such a boot camp as ‘an intensive programme designed for individuals seeking to think and act entrepreneurially’ (p. 60) and recommend in the conclusion to their study of young entrepreneurs in Nigeria that ‘entrepreneurs in turn should seize opportunities of boot camp programmes to gain more insight, knowledge and skill based on hand-on training received from mentors and successful entrepreneurs during the boot camp meetings’, given that ‘it is expected that the outcome of the boot camp meeting would result in many start-ups that will help to enhance the economic wellbeing of the nation’ (p. 70). Other institutions have also found this boot camp format to be useful in developing entrepreneurial skills. For example, Tih, Hussain and Hashim (Tih et al., 2019) found a boot camp for 118 postgraduate MBA students enhanced their ‘entrepreneurial thinking and skills, as well as team spirit and self-confidence’ (p. 240). Boot camps are usually extracurricular and are often made available to students across different degree programmes and disciplines, for example, the University of Cambridge’s ‘Enterprisers Programme’ (a 4-day residential entrepreneurship education programme, which ran 20 times up to 2010 and included more than 1000 students) and the University of Manchester Masood Entrepreneurship Centre’s ‘Researcher to Innovator’ programme (aimed at developing an entrepreneurial mindset in early career researchers and beginning with a 1-day boot camp). This opportunity to work with students from other departments and institutions was a motivating factor for students to enrol in our event. Similar boot camps have also been used to teach entrepreneurial skills to high school students, for example, students interested in computer science (Hickey & Salas, 2013). The boot camp model is used internationally in a variety of education settings and offered not only to students in school and higher education but also to professionals and individuals designing start-up businesses (e.g. Hasan & Koning, 2019), which discusses such a boot camp that took place in New Delhi, India, in July 2014). This kind of programme may also be offered as a short course by higher education institutions, for example, Imperial College Business School’s 10-week ‘Innovation: Design Thinking Live Online Course’, MIT’s ‘Innovation Leadership Bootcamp’ and Berkeley’s ‘Method of Entrepreneurship Bootcamp’, which is available for students and industry professionals.

What is clear from existing research and models is that this format has been found to be an effective way to train entrepreneurial skills (such as innovation). Furthermore, the boot camp model appears to be adaptable to a variety of different demographics and disciplines. However, frequently such events are aimed at business school students, those who already run businesses or lead institutions or all students in a (often large, multidisciplinary) institution. The StART Entrepreneurship Project boot camp intended to build on existing research findings, courses and models but to be specifically tailored to creative industries students at specialist higher education institutions in the UK. Creative industries students are some of the most likely to go on to lead freelance careers (Clarke & Trainer, 2021), and the need for those embarking on creative careers to be equipped with skills such as being innovative, resilience, leadership and networking could be considered to have increased in the post-COVID world (when much of the creative industry is in need of rebuilding). Therefore, it is vital that entrepreneurship education which supports these skills is tailored to these students and their needs (e.g. managing their freelance careers) and available to all students during the course of their studies.

1.3 Designing the KickStART Creative Lab Boot Camp with a Focus on Its Audience

This boot camp was designed with the following two aims in mind, which were the aims of the StART Entrepreneurship Project:

  • To develop and test good practice for delivering an entrepreneurial scheme relevant to the UK creative industries with a student-focussed programme, which will be transferrable and scalable across all arts and design higher education institutions (HEIs).

  • To support the UK creative industries by developing students with the mindset to think ahead, work across disciplines, develop transferrable skills, network, collaborate with mentors and take charge of their own learning and careers.

In light of these project aims, the boot camp aimed to be relevant to students across multiple arts disciplines and to help develop a variety of skills associated with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Planning for the boot camp consisted largely of meetings with staff from all three institutions involved in the StART Project, who shared knowledge and best practice of their own experience in entrepreneurship education. Student co-creation was a core aspect of the StART Entrepreneurship Project as a whole, with students being considered as partners for many aspects of planning and delivery. Staff and students working together as colleagues was a key feature in our design model, and students were consulted extensively in the planning of the boot camp, meaning our target demographic for the event remained at the forefront of the planning stages. Student feedback emphasised what research had suggested, highlighting the need for this event to be an opportunity for cross-institutional and interdisciplinary collaboration. These sentiments echo that of Törnqvist (Törnqvist, 1983): Creativity flourishes when different specialities and competences are squeezed together on a small surface (p. 103). This is further evidenced by the boot camp themes, which were selected by our Student Advisory Board: connect, collaborate and create.

The boot camp was consciously designed to be accessible to all students studying at the three specialist institutions and inclusive of all student demographics. Another outcome of our close consultations with staff and students suggested that those students graduating in summer 2021 also perceived the boot camp to be of value (particularly given the disruption and uncertainty around creative industries careers owing to the COVID-19 pandemic), even though they would no longer be students at the time that this was scheduled to take place. It was important that the boot camp was relevant for all students at all three institutions involved in the StART Entrepreneurship Project. As a result, the target cohort for this event included all undergraduate, postgraduate and recent graduates from the three institutions. The event was therefore planned not only to cater for those students already designing new businesses or enterprises (defined by QAA 2018 as entrepreneurship education) but to also support competencies including ‘creativity, originality, initiative, idea generation, design thinking, adaptability and reflexivity with problem identification, problem solving, innovation, expression, communication and practical action’ (QAA, 2018, p. 7). Such competencies are also core to specialist arts training, during which students are expected to be creative, to produce new innovative interpretations, to express themselves and communicate their work with the public and to generate new ideas, for example, for new pieces of music, stage productions or fashion designs.

Fundamental models and existing pedagogical principles employed in the design of the boot camp included the following:

  • Design thinking—the design of the boot camp encouraged students to utilise the design thinking model which encourages students ‘to challenge existing norms and to test new mental constructs’ (Penaluna et al., 2014, p. 384). However, important here was reference to recent scholarship which critiques design thinking models and proposes new models which account for wider contexts and needs of creative industries students, such as Penaluna, Penaluna and Diego’s ‘Design-based enterprise assessment model’ (Penaluna et al., 2014, p. 386), which encourages ‘multiple ideas and flexible thought’.

  • Prioritisation of the concept of creativity—creativity is central to notions of artistic identity and is also one of the competencies considered central to entrepreneurship. While historically creativity was regarded as uniquely an innate, artistic and often romanticised trait, it is now more readily understood as an ‘ordinary human ability that occurs every day and every-where’ (Bain, 2005, p. 30). Theories of how to train creativity have developed over recent years, using interventions such as events for children and within the context of the workplace (Birdi, 2016). These identify a rise in demand for innovation within professional settings, as companies recognise the need for creativity in organisational survival and financial prosperity (Anderson et al., 2014). Creativity may also be a useful term when framing entrepreneurship education for creative industries students.

  • The notion of artistic identity, starting with students’ own beliefs and values, and the importance of ‘Enrol(ing) your students’ hearts’ (Jones, 2019, p. 53)—as Bridgstock (Bridgstock, 2013) notes, ‘For the artist, the practice of entrepreneurship is multi-layered, and qualitatively different from the practice of entrepreneurship in the traditional business sense’ (p. 125). It was important that the boot camp used terminology which felt relevant to creative arts students and which students felt was aligned with their own artistic identity. As Schediwy, Bhansing and Loots (Schediwy et al., 2018) have acknowledged, ‘Arts educators could draw on this integrative predisposition by encouraging students to embrace both bohemian and entrepreneurial identity aspects and by helping them to accommodate their potentially disparate identities’ (p. 193). It was also important that the boot camp established a ‘safe space[s] for experimentation and failure’ (Dobson & Walmsley, 2021, p. 340), which is considered key to creative development. Given this prioritisation of creativity and the potential conflict that the word ‘entrepreneurship’ may have with notions of artistic identity for creative industries students, the name chosen for the boot camp was the ‘KickStART Creative Lab’. The boot camp therefore began by inviting students to introduce themselves and their beliefs and values.

  • Principles emphasised in the EntreComp model and QAA guidance, student-led elements of the design, digital skills and idea generation—the registration form which students completed to attend the boot camp offered another opportunity for students to shape the design of the event and asked for their own self-report on which of the core enterprising behaviours, attributes and competencies as identified in the QAA (2018) guidance they considered themselves to be stronger or weaker in (see QAA, 2018, pp. 22–25). The specific language used was ‘confident’ and ‘less confident’, as this wording was felt to be more positive than strengths and weakness. These are highly interconnected and relate directly to the language used in other important entrepreneurship frameworks, such as the EntreComp framework (European Commission, Joint Research Centre, et al., 2017) but are thematically categorised and offer useful definitions that were included to help students reflect on their own skill sets and experiences prior to the event. The seven themes were creativity and innovation; opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation; decision-making; implementation of ideas through leadership and management; action and reflection; communication and strategy skills; and digital and data skills. Each student was asked to select up to three areas in which they felt most confident and least confident. Capturing these data proved useful when establishing groups for students to work in, as we were able to ensure that the event addressed skill areas which students felt that they were weaker in. For example, 68.8% of applicants selected ‘digital and data skills’ as an area they felt least confident in. This consequently shaped elements of the event, as we were able to include a keynote speaker from the field of technology enterprise, who spoke on the application of digital technologies in the idea testing and piloting stage of business start-up. We also included a networking opportunity with the co-founder of a company specialising in carbon-footprint data tracking for fashion brands. Furthermore, day 3 included a session where students worked in groups to represent their ideas in a digital format, for example, in a video or website. This also responded to what the creative industries students themselves had identified as an important skill that they currently felt lacking in.

The boot camp consisted of an introductory session and social activity on day 1 (Friday, from 5 pm), a day of practising skills around idea generation (in response to current industry challenges) and development on day 2 (Saturday) and a day of sharing these ideas (in digital forms—websites and videos—and also in professional presentations and pitches) on day 3 (Sunday). A more detailed schedule is included in the appendix for this chapter. Most sessions took place in small groups with a number of students from each institution and two facilitators from differing disciplines and HEIs. The event contained three keynote talks, two of which were streamed live on YouTube to students who could not attend the whole event and also to members of the general public. Days 2 and 3 began with optional networking sessions using a free online platform ‘Wonder.Me’, which was tested by the Student Advisory Board for its functionality to be used in this context. The event concluded with a diverse panel of alumni (one from each of the three institutions involved in the StART project) to discuss themes from the weekend. As shown in the appendix, some sessions were optional, allowing students the opportunity to practice ‘self-awareness and self-efficacy’, which EntreComp classifies as a ‘resources’ competency within their framework. Building in moments for autonomy for students here was simple, yet important, and helped us tailor the event to the different experience levels.

Given that students had expressed a desire to develop skills around generating new ideas in response to creative industries challenges (e.g. the decline in live events due to the COVID-19 pandemic), we also used an established framework to help develop skills in this area. The first day of the 2-day boot camp introduced students to the CLEAR IDEAS model, which is a structured programme that acts as an ‘innovation training model’ (Birdi, 2021).

The following were also important underpinning factors when designing the event:

1.3.1 Access and Inclusivity

It was important for the aims of the StART project that the boot camp included all students at the three institutions and that this could be accessed by all students (e.g. by those students with commitments relating to part-time jobs and caring responsibilities and those students who identified as having a disability).

To ensure that the event was, and was promoted as being, open to all students, we ensured that the content of the boot camp would cater for all students, regardless of their experience of entrepreneurship education and competencies, and that no prior experience was needed. The event was centred around idea generation in response to creative industry challenges and hence allowed for engagement from students who were already planning start-ups and new initiatives but also those who were inexperienced in developing new ideas and taking these forwards.

To cater for disabilities and individual needs, the registration form asked if students had individual access needs which we should be aware of in planning the event. Students who ticked this box were connected to an accessibility specialist, who liaised with these students on a one-to-one basis and made recommendations to the organising team about how best to cater for any needs. There was also a separate strand of research and evaluation undertaken by a researcher with expertise in entrepreneurship education and accessibility. This included collection of both qualitative and quantitative data, in the form of interviews with event organisers and survey questions given to students who attended the boot camp at the end of sessions.Footnote 1

We also took advice from one of the StART advisory board members, who had particular expertise in access and inclusion. Through consultation with the advisory board and students, we chose Zoom as the platform to host this online boot camp, as this was considered to be familiar to those taking part and to also be relatively accessible compared to other options (e.g. specialist conference software). Using an online format also allowed for everyone involved in the boot camp to include their gender pronouns in their Zoom name, which everyone was encouraged to do at the beginning of the event.

To help the event to be as accessible as possible, the two public keynote talks (which were streamed live over YouTube) were both live captioned (by a captioning expert) and live signed using British sign language.

In order to reach all students, including the graduating class of 2021, the KickStART Creative Lab was launched in May 2021, and recruitment marketing was sent out both at this time and in September 2021, when the new academic year had begun. A short promotional video was created, plus a professionally designed poster which was distributed over email and social media. This video ‘trailer’ used footage from previous online sessions at all three StART institutions, with a range of speakers representing different creative practices, businesses and perspectives, interspersed with engaging visuals and basic information to introduce the event.

1.4 Key Learning Points

The aims of the boot camp were that it should be relevant to students across multiple arts disciplines and should help develop a variety of skills associated with an entrepreneurial mindset. Student attendees fed back that they enjoyed working in cross-disciplinary groups; working on developing ideas; obtaining feedback on their ideas, presentations and pitches; the balance of talks and practical tasks; and opportunities to think about how to create positive change using their art and ideas. The boot camp was therefore deemed to have successfully met its aims and to have usefully contributed to the overall aims of the StART Entrepreneurship Project.

The following represents the main learning points from the event which we recommend are considered for future planning of any similar event (note that some of these are particularly relevant to the boot camp being delivered in an online format, and different learning points may have emerged if this event had been delivered in person).

1.4.1 Allowance for Volatility in Number of Attendees Expected

Of the 149 students who registered for the event between May and November 2021, around half of these students engaged during the boot camp. Factors influencing student decisions regarding whether they engaged or not (having previously registered in advance) may include other weekend commitments arising, part-time job or freelance work commitments, students feeling under pressure with other course commitments or perceived lack of value of the event (see Jääskeläinen et al., 2020, for a discussion of factors which may impact on music students’ perceived workload). For many creative industries students, weekends are likely to be a time when they have freelance work commitments. On the other hand, one of the benefits of an event where attendance is not mandated and flexibility in attendance can be accommodated is that this allows students to take charge of their own learning and base decisions about attendance on their own assessment of the relevance and interest of the event to their own learning and career trajectory. This self-awareness and self-efficacy competency links with the EntreComp framework (for guidance on how the EntreComp framework may be used in teaching, see McCallum et al., 2018). This volatility in engagement numbers is something the project is now looking into further as a research question, to better understand what might have impacted non-attendance.

1.4.2 Benefits of Cross-Disciplinary Working

Working with others from different institutions, and from different disciplinary backgrounds, was considered to have been hugely valuable by staff and students involved in the event. For students this offered a simulation of future workplace settings, and for staff it offered an opportunity to co-teach and learn from other members of staff (and students) from different institutions. These opportunities for knowledge exchange between higher education institutions are not usually a core part of day-to-day activity in the academic environment (Yusuf, 2008), but this boot camp demonstrated that they can be hugely valuable.

1.4.3 Appropriate Choice and Use of Technology

Ensuring that staff and students were familiar with and able to utilise the technology used for this online boot camp was an important element in the successful running of the event and the level of engagement. Initiatives used to help with engagement in an online environment included making use of breakout rooms and utilising the chat and poll functions for interaction and participation. Some students fed back that they would have liked some or all of the event to have taken place in person (COVID-19 pandemic restrictions allowing). However, we found that the event was successfully delivered online, providing that thought had been given in advance to how to make the sessions as engaging as possible (and to allow for breaks away from the screen).

One other aspect of the boot camp which students fed back had been useful was the creation of an online hub of resources, which was shared before the event, available throughout and also available after the boot camp had ended. This online space was used for recordings of keynote sessions and to give access to key materials such as presentation slides and the timetable for the weekend. Students found that this hub allowed for flexibility in how they engaged with the event and the supporting materials, and also meant that they could continue to engage afterwards and to connect with one another.

1.4.4 Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity

One of the main learning points of the event was that we found it to be important to consider any barriers to the boot camp feeling accessible by all students (e.g. those with disabilities or specific learning needs) and inclusive of the entire student body. This was also important for the aims of the StART project and the sector need overall (as discussed above). The initiatives in place for the boot camp as outlined above were important in meeting these aims (e.g. consulting with students with additional needs beforehand) and would be a priority in planning any such future events.

2 Conclusion

The goal of this chapter has been to discuss the benefits and share best practice in relation to a creative industries entrepreneurship education boot camp delivered online. The chapter focussed on the KickStART Creative Lab boot camp event and explored the basis for this in existing research and QAA guidance and other similar activities and programmes in educational settings in the UK and internationally. Finally, the chapter summarised key learning points from the boot camp.

As has been outlined in existing literature, the boot camp format was found to be a useful method to help students to develop skills associated with entrepreneurship, such as creativity. Moreover, the prioritisation of creativity may be important not only for such activities with creative industries students but also in relation to other entrepreneurship education contexts. As Dobson and Walmsley (Dobson & Walmsley, 2021) outline ‘enterprise education is increasingly being seen as a highly creative pursuit of innovation and wider value creation, and is presented by many scholars as a departure from more traditional business venturing’ (p. 343). Also, prioritising artistic identity and meeting the students at their starting point (e.g. in beginning with skills around idea generation) were found to be important.

While engagement numbers were likely impacted by a multitude of factors, the students who did engage were consistent, and this suggests the boot camp model is suited to some learners and not to others. A particular area of success of this delivery was the combined student and staff voice. Students were considered partners and key advisors throughout the planning of this event. It is hoped that this case study may provide useful guidance regarding how a boot camp for creative industries students may be successfully run in an online environment, while also prioritising access and inclusion. Our experience in running and evaluating the KickStART Creative Lab suggests that such a boot camp can have value for staff and students alike.