On their way to sustainable careers? Exploring the role of career competencies in graduates of an entrepreneurship education program

Entrepreneurship education (EE) has gained in popularity over the past decades within higher education institutions, as it is regarded as a promising way to prepare future professionals to evolve in increasingly uncertain and complex business environments. Despite the rise in research examining EE, one aspect that remains under-researched pertains to the outcomes of EE, with studies predominantly emphasizing narrow entrepreneurship outcomes such as venture creation or entrepreneurial intentions. This strongly contrasts with the fact that the majority of EE graduates do not start new ventures and rather enter established organizations. Studies focusing on EE graduates in the workplace are strongly missing, as well as research investigating how EE programs contribute to their graduates' careers. Precisely, this study adopts a “career perspective” on EE, mobilizing the theoretical frameworks of sustainable careers and career competencies. It adopts a qualitative case study design, taking graduates from a Swiss EE program who entered in the labor market, as the case context. The objective of this study is to investigate how these EE graduates perceive their career competencies developed through EE as contributing to their sustainable career development. Findings highlight the perceived contribution of graduates' career competencies to the three indicators of sustainable careers. Results also unveil a form of duality in the role of the program when it comes to the development of career competencies for graduates’ sustainable career development in Switzerland. This study contributes to research on EE and on careers by providing empirical evidence on career development of EE graduates through contemporary career concepts.