Enterprise education policy future directions: experiences and suggestions on family business education

The aim of this policy paper is to describe the current role of academic family enterprise education in Finland. Family business centers and family business programmes have been started around the world to offer education for family entrepreneurs and next generation members. MBAs, master’s degrees in science, and other degrees are offered for key members of the family businesses. At the same time, we are having a debate on are entrepreneurs born or made? The role of entrepreneurship and enterprise education at university level is unclear, and many might believe that entrepreneurship does not even belong to the academic world. This policy paper presents the academic family enterprise programme offered in Finland, at the University of Jyväskylä. Creating a full family business Master’s degree programme takes a long time to design and implement. Enterprise education policy needs resources to support planning and designing such programmes, because there exists a need to learn more about family entrepreneurship and family business management. Also, interdisciplinary collaboration helps family business education development. National and international visibility and collaboration between family entrepreneurs, family business associations, and universities is needed to achieve enterprise education policy goals. Family enterprise pedagogy does not exist, which creates a demand to activate the discussion on family enterprise education strategy for the future years.