How to develop enterprise creation awareness by simulation?
The “Challenge”: “Projets d’entreprendre” first initiated in Évry and then transposed in Villeneuve D’Ascq is part of the initiatives carried out by the French “Grandes Écoles” and universities enabling students to become aware of entrepreneurship. Further studies to measure students’ entrepreneurial intentions and/or capacities have already been undertaken, for instance by Boissin since 2005 on identical populations at the INT (Institut National des Télécommunications) of Évry and at Grenoble, but also by Arlotto and Bourcieu (2002), Arlotto and Jourdan (2003), Fayolle A., Gailly B., Lassas-Clerc N. (2006) and Léger-Jarniou (2008) in similar contexts. Based on the “Challenge” experience conducted in Villeneuve D’Ascq, the aim consists in reflecting on the learning ambitions and results obtained, but also on the way engineering students and the students involved live this openness to entrepreneurship. This article particularly focuses on experience and entrepreneurial knowledge capitalization that can be acquired at the end of a week based on a simulation with goals, suitable for entrepreneurship. With regards to this mixed public of students, it can offer a teaching model based on the major topics inherent in the development of entrepreneurial skills: understanding, building and learning.