Using enterprise education to prepare healthcare professional graduates for the real world

This paper reports an investigation of the extent to which enterprise education (EE) is used in professional health schools at HEIs to develop graduates' ‘soft’ and ‘functional’ enterprise skills, and assesses the effectiveness of the process of delivering this education. A qualitative research study was carried out, using personal interviews with employers and academics, and thematic analysis was used to identify themes and codes. It was found that although experiential and interactive learning approaches are often used in pharmacy schools, the emphasis is typically on discipline-related material and therefore only ‘soft’ enterprise skills are developed. There appears to be resistance to developing ‘functional’ enterprise skills in pharmacy disciplines. Suggestions are offered for facilitating the development of healthcare graduates who are more enterprising, while highlighting the importance of raising the awareness of academics in this regard and embedding EE as part of a school's philosophy.