Start-up entrepreneurs and university students in a co-learning mode: Learning effects of a collaborative entrepreneurial coaching programme

Start-up companies have been recognized as key drivers of wealth and job creation. Many students now in universities will therefore find their future employment in start-up companies, or will found them. Success in the start-up environment requires a specific set of skills. There is a growing supply of university education for new venture creation and an increasing demand for interaction between universities and start-up ventures so that knowledge can be transferred between them. This article evaluates the potential of a programme designed to enable holistic collaborative entrepreneurial learning between start-up companies and students. The authors measure the impacts of the programme on participants’ self-assessment of their capabilities and of critical capabilities for start-up success, comparing assessments before the start of the programme, at its end and 1 year subsequently. The results show that an impact on such assessments can be achieved and that the two distinct groups can learn together, but questions remain with regard to the retention of learning.