This case provides insight into how one university has embedded real business experience into the heart of both their degree programme and the local community, through the creation of a separate trading identity run by students. The Allier University-Institute of Technology (I.U.T. d'Allier), was established in 1968. It has three campuses in the region of Auvergne, in the towns of Montluçon, Moulins and Vichy, and is part of the University Blaise Pascal Clermont-Ferrand II. I.U.T. d'Allier hosts on average 1,000 students per annum from 20 different countries. They study towards a DUT (Higher National Diploma equivalent) in 2 years, a Licence Professionnelle (Bachelor's Degree equivalent) and a DU (University Diploma) in 3 years. There are vocational education and training courses at undergraduate level in 2-year programmes, in 7 different topics ranging from Mechanics and Thermodynamics to Marketing and Trade. The Department of Marketing and Trade was set up in 1983 with a focus on trade in the agricultural sector, the main economic sector in the area. Since then the course has been adapted to address the growing need for competent operational managers in all industry sectors. Today all courses are focused on knowledge and understanding of live businesses. In France, a ‘tutored projects framework’ has been developed and is mandatory for all University Institutes of Technology to incorporate into their syllabuses. I.U.T. d'Allier has created a separate entity, the Association, which pushes the boundaries of this framework to a new, deeper level of community engagement. 

Innovative Features

• Entrepreneurship Development in Teaching and Learning

The Association

This case study concerns the Department of Business and Marketing at the Monluçon campus, which has around 150 students per academic year. In particular, it looks at the creation of the 'Association’, which acts to give students real business and entrepreneurship experience by embedding it into their degree programme. Working in the Association is a mandatory part of the degree programme for all students. 

The Association is run entirely by students and functions as a business. It was created in order to develop entrepreneurial student behaviour in a live commercial setting. Students are responsible for the operation of the Association. They design and monitor the implementation of the business plan, organise resources and make sales. Prior to enrolment into the Association, students spend two months working on different charity projects to develop and enhance their sense of social responsibility and team spirit, and prepare them to take a responsible role in the Association. 

The Association comprises 12 units or microbusinesses. Each unit leader, assisted by their team, selects the candidates they consider to be the best to join their unit. Each unit has a set of products or services that they need to sell to local customers. Annual turnover targets are set to ensure the financial autonomy and sustainability of the Association. Additionally, all costs incurred by the students need to be reimbursed. 

Since its establishment in 1983, the Association has successfully implemented almost 50 projects. Some of the important achievements include: 

• Trade shows, export fair marketing initiatives and communication studies
• Further tax collection for the I.U.T. d'Allier
• Promoting the Department of Marketing and Trade to potential future students
• Communication and marketing activities on behalf of the Department of Marketing and Trade
• Production of corporate films for I.U.T. d'Allier and external organisations. The film equipment was mainly self-financed from other Association trading activities
• Local television production: The Department of Marketing and Trade was the first academic institution to obtain authorisation from the national audiovisual authority to air local broadcasts in the areas of Montluçon, Moulins, Vichy and Clermont-Ferrand. This included the setup of temporary local broadcast stations
• Organising both the annual “Best Apprentice in France” competition in partnership with the National Congress of Meilleur Ouvrier de France, since 2002, and the National Congress of Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best French Crafts) in 2012 and 2013
• Arranging sporting events with the aim of improving the visibility of the I.U.T. d'Allier amongst potential future students

Entrepreneurship development in teaching and learning

The HEI is structured in such a way that it stimulates and supports the development of entrepreneurial mindsets and skills

I.U.T. d'Allier has created formalised entrepreneurship champions. The Department of Business and Marketing employs eight contracted lecturers, mostly from the business sector, as part of the teaching faculty. These contracted lecturers cover theory and academic requirements and use their commercial experience and current business challenges to make the academic content relevant for the students. 

A new identity, ‘the Association’ has been created. This provides the main teaching and learning environment for business and entrepreneurship. The Association develops new products & services for the local business community. Students deliver the day-to-day operation of the organisation and address the challenges and decisions required for its survival in a competitive environment. 

The Association functions as a business, and develops entrepreneurial student behaviour in a live economic environment. The entrepreneurial and business behaviours are achieved through the delivery of a wide range of products and services for companies and public administration clients for the local economy e.g. market research for the truck division of Michelin, a satisfaction survey for the annual artesian knife crafting show for CCI de Thiers, (Chamber of Commerce and Industry). The Association is run entirely by students who are responsible for business planning, delivery of the business model, monitoring business performance and the organisation of resources and sales. 

The Association comprises a dozen operating units, classified by their product and service offer, e.g. events (seminars, exhibitions, meetings, etc.) sports, culture, marketing and communication consultancy, import/export, training, negotiations and sales, and the production of multimedia. 

From an educational perspective, the Association allows students to acquire professional experience in a safe and controlled framework. It runs as a real business, while providing a safe space in which students can learn, make mistakes, fail and recover, all while accruing credits for their degree. The students learn through taking initiative and responsibility. The space is made safe through tutors’ support and the president’s post, which is held by a staff member in order to ensure business stability over time and meet issues of legal liability. 

The management of the Association is delivered through two strategic units. 

1) Performance management, including quality assurance, of the 12 operational units. This eliminates internal conflicts of interest between units, i.e. units do not compete with each other for the same external customer. This supports the delivery of a seamless experience to the organisation’s customers and preserves the reputation of the Association in the local economy. 

2) Financing, book keeping and legal matters. This includes income statements, balance sheets and taxes, to ensure compliance with the requirements of the live business world. 

Through their work in the Association, and the linking of this work to their formal studies, students get the opportunity to reflect on the complex issues that a higher education institution faces and to contribute to the development of I.U.T. d'Allier programmes. An example of this is the collection of the French further education tax from companies who employ more than 10 employees (apprentice tax). 

The Association is ultimately the responsibility of the students. All members are students, except for the president, who is a staff member of I.U.T. d'Allier. The president’s post is held by a staff member in order to ensure business stability over time and meets issues of legal liability. 

Lesson learned

• The mandatory enrolment of students in the Association embeds practical training and gaining professional experience in the curriculum. 
• Participation of students in the operational aspects of the higher education institution develops student responsibility, and sets mutual objectives for students, teachers and management. 
• Involving students in the co-design of curriculum and giving them responsibility in graduate employability matters places them at the centre of the learning process. This stimulates a proactive/entrepreneurial mind set in the students, enhancing their sense of ownership, responsibility and orientation to search for new market opportunities.
• Among the key benefits for the students is that they learn to better assess, construct and assert their personality, and better integrate into society through taking initiative and responsibility, whether in their own organisation or someone else’s. 

Staff take an entrepreneurial approach to teaching in all departments, promoting diversity and innovation in teaching and learning

Courses at the Department of Marketing and Trade are taught by I.U.T. d'Allier staff and guest speakers. Teaching takes two forms 1) traditional lectures with the entire class and 2) small group tutorials with collective work and intensive student-teacher dialogues. 

Students are asked during a general recruitment process to choose candidates for their unit according to their preferences. 

Teachers act as mentors for the different business units, ensuring that the students make practical use of the knowledge they acquired in the class room. There is a weekly meeting between the student managers and teachers which provides students with the opportunity for feedback and discussion of their work. There is an open door policy in the Association. Students take the initiative to consult teachers, as and when needed. 

Mentoring takes place mostly outside of regular teaching and working hours, to accommodate students’ work needs in the Association. To sustain this, the Department for Marketing and Trade created a scheme whereby teachers are credited with extra tutorial hours for time spent on coaching students. 

Each unit of the Association is overseen by two different teachers. The total amount of extra tutorial hours attributed to individual teachers for their involvement in the Association cannot exceed 40 hours per year. Teachers, however, spend much more time with the Association. This is sustained by the strong team spirit which teachers and students develop in the Association. This team spirit provides the incentive that drives teachers’ commitment and performance. 

Learning in the Association complements the formal taught programme throughout the two years of studies. To deliver this each teacher has a double role. They deliver the theoretical content on the management of organisations (commercial negotiation, marketing, organisation and strategy, law, accounting, logistics, etc.) and they follow the activities of two different units within the Association. This structure brings theory and practice together. All units of the Association are followed by two different teachers. 

The Department manages to keep staff resources, and hence costs, at the same level in two ways. 

1) by reorganising classes into bigger groups 

2) by setting the students autonomous work, so transferring much of the responsibility for course and learning management to the students. 

Operating the business provides an opportunity for teachers to raise students’ awareness of human resource management issues inherent to any organization, and their possible solutions, for example through forms of co-operative conflict management. 

Students manage live projects that require rigorous financial and quality management with project budgets of up to EUR 100,000, or more. 

Lesson learned

• Teachers play an important role in the Association. Their task is to make sure that the knowledge gained in classes is applied in the practical work of the Association. 

• Incentives are important to reward teachers for their work outside teaching hours. As the latter can easily grow beyond the available compensation, developing a robust team spirit is important to maintain teacher involvement. 

Entrepreneurial behaviour is supported throughout the HE experience; from creating awareness and stimulating ideas through to development and implementation of new ventures

In creating the Association, I.U.T. d'Allier has taken learning away from the classroom and found a way to meet academic standards while immersing students into the centre of their local economy. 

This has demanded flexibility in staff behaviour. Staff, working in the Association, hold three quite different and potentially conflicting roles: 1) conventional lectureship, requiring the delivery of traditional lectures, as a subject expert, responsible for compliance with academic standards 2) intense tutorials and mentoring in a live commercial environment and 3) a low- key facilitation role, to enable students to manage the uncertainty of everyday business operations and business development. 

The creation of the Association has enabled entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and small business management skills to be embedded throughout the students? two-year curriculum. This effectively brings extra-curricular training into the centre of the formal curriculum. As the Association is a mandatory part of the student experience, all students benefit from being immersed in learning from hand-on business experience. 

Every student has a specific role and responsibilities in the Association. This allows students to develop a sense of initiative, while increasing their capacity to adapt to unknown situations. It develops their analytical skills and their internal locus of control. It enables students to get involved in the day to day activities and organisational development of a firm. In this way they gain a longer-term vision than they would have obtained if involved in the implementation of a pre-defined project. 

Students deepen their understanding of theoretical aspects of business, management and entrepreneurship by applying them to live management challenges within the Association. Students take responsibility for the definition of objectives, tasks, managing budgets, organising logistics and handling human resources. All activities of the Association are conducted by students, using their own initiative and creativity to design projects, products and services. 

The Association has a clear hierarchy. Each unit is led by a second year student who oversees the organisation and the activities of the unit and is considered as the manager of the unit. Half way through the academic year, there is a second recruitment process for all management positions in the Association. The newly selected students assist the former manager over a transition period, replacing them at the start of the next academic year. 

The recruitment and shadowing system enables systematic and effective development of the students. It ensures that all students experience management and business operations from different responsibility levels and perspectives. 

Students design their own products and services, find solutions to managerial issues such as human resources management, recruitment and training, financial management and take responsibility for the results. Taking the lead in their area of responsibility and experiencing different aspects of running a small business inevitably enhances their competence and self- efficacy. 

The transition in management status provides all students with an objective reference point through which to recognise their personal development. They see new students take on roles that they had found challenging 6 months previously. 

The students gain first-hand experience of the challenges facing their Higher Education Institution. They are given responsibility for the evaluation of the students they manage. 

Second year students supervise first year students to carry out day-to-day work, in production, marketing and the design of new projects. At the end of the academic year student leaders actively participate in the decisions about grading the first-year students. These second-year students are free to organise their own grading process, with or without consultation of other second year students. They choose the criteria and decide whether to follow strict criteria or a more flexible evaluation. 

The student allocated grade, which is part of the mandatory tutored project framework, forms a part of final grade for the first-year students. This provides an in-built reflection mechanism, for learning from other students. The students have gone through this grading experience in their first year, and now they get the chance to either copy or change the system. They have the chance to right perceived wrongs, opt for consistency, and recognise the fairness and challenges behind the allocation of the grades they have received previously. In this way the grading system has been designed to ensure students have to look at the same problem from multiple perspectives in a live, and not abstract or theoretical context. 

The Association has a clearly defined hierarchical structure. This precipitates many human challenges and conflicts, especially amongst the first-year students. There are many opportunities to reflect on their own personality (strengths, weaknesses, motivation and areas of natural talent.) This provides students of I.U.T. d'Allier with a fundamental advantage in career selection and their transition to work beyond University. 

Pressure, stress and the commitment to succeed in the Association is not imposed by the teachers, but comes from the students themselves. Manager students experiment with their relationship with power and their management capacities. They make management errors which can result in pressure on their peers, or pressure on themselves. Students also experiment with how they respond to pressure and stress, and behave in authoritative relationships with peers. 

This adds an interesting new dimension, many students have previously only faced authority emanating from legitimate / endorsed authorities, i.e., parents, teachers, employers during summer internships, not from their student peers. Relationships amongst students can become tense, although usually there is a strong team spirit. The structure allows them to experience typical work relationships, preparing them for encounters in their professional lives. 

The teachers' role is crucial to make the Association a safe learning environment. The real implications of failure are minor; the student assessment grade never exceeds 25% of the overall grade. The Association ́s legal structure largely protects students from the downside of poor commercial decisions. However, the experience for the student is a complete replication of life beyond university. 

Lessons learned

• The Association enables students to get involved in the activities and organisational set-up of a firm. In this way, they experience longer term vision than they would have if implementing a pre-defined project.
• A clear hierarchical structure facilitates the learning process and fosters adaptability to unknown environments. Teacher involvement is crucial to create a safe learning environment.   
• Giving first and second year students shared responsibility over the organisational set-up and the activity of the Association increases the continuity of institutional knowledge. 
• Giving students real responsibility shapes their work ethic, and helps them face economic reality and the environment in the workplace. 
• The Association raises their internal locus of control, self-efficacy and enhances their capacity for innovation and tolerance for uncertainty.

The Higher Education Institution validates entrepreneurship learning outcomes

The overall syllabus, competence framework and the grading requirements are set by the Department of Management and Trade, has to be validated by the Ministry, at country level. Within the authorised framework, lecturers have freedom to set grading criteria and design programme delivery. At I.U.T. d'Allier, some of the responsibility for grading is given to the students. The student’s experience in the Association is a mandatory part of the degree programme and is undertaken for credit. 

Students actively participate in the operational tasks of a higher education institution, I.U.T. d'Allier. For example, students are involved in the planning and allocation of financial resources through the further learning tax collection from companies (the apprentice tax, an obligatory contribution to the lifelong learning scheme in France). Students represent and promote the institution to companies throughout the region. Students participate in the recruitment of future students by organising Open Day events. 

Students assist their peers ́ transition into the labour market by negotiating internships and employment offers. 

Second year students recruit 1st year students into the Association. Within the Association, each unit is led by a second-year student who oversees the organisation and the activities of the unit and acts as the manager of the unit. Half way in the academic year, there is a second recruitment process for all management positions in the Association. The newly selected students assist the former manager over a transition period, and then replace them at the start of the next academic year. This system provides a foundation for part of the grading process. 

Second year students supervise first year students to carry out day-to-day work, in production, marketing and the design of new projects. At the end of the academic year, student leaders actively participate in decisions about the grading of the first-year students. 

These second-year students are free to organise their own grading process with or without consultation with other second year students. They choose the criteria and they have to decide whether to follow strict criteria or loose evaluation. They then decide how complicated, and how specific to make the terms of assessment. 

The student allocated grade is part of the mandatory tutored project framework. It forms part of the final grade for first-year students. This grading system ensures that students have to look at performance evaluation from multiple perspectives, in a live and not abstract or theoretical context. 

Lessons learned

• Involving students in the co-design of curriculum, and giving them responsibility for designing assessment criteria places them at the centre of the learning process. 
• Giving second-year students responsibility for grading their first year peers enhances the credibility of the value of the Association experience.  
• The teachers’ role is crucial to make the Association a safe learning environment. The real implications of failure are limited; the student assessment component never exceeds 25% of the overall grade. 

Engagement of external stakeholders is a key component of teaching and learning development in an entrepreneurial Higher Education Institution

The Department of Management and Trade employs eight contract lecturers as part of the teaching faculty. All these lecturers hold current external positions, mostly in business. Contract lecturers teach about their own areas of work, giving students up-to-date content and methods, and providing them with insights as to how their own business area operates. 

These lecturers are free to deliver their courses in the way they consider the most appropriate. They include negotiation simulations, case studies, product design activities, all delivered alongside traditional lectures. The contracted lecturers are not involved in the Association due to time constraints and the geographical isolation of the campus. 

Alumni are involved in students’ personal development activities. They share insights into their professional and personal development paths after graduation with the students. 

Entrepreneurial alumni are regularly invited to contribute to the programme. This gives the students opportunity to learn more about the tips and traps of starting up and running a business. 

Lesson learned

• Contracted lecturers provide real life insights that complement classroom teaching.
• Alumni play an important role in students' personal development activities.
• Involving externals (contracted lecturers and alumni) in the Association is made more difficult due to time constraints. These time challenges are caused by the structure of the academic year, and the fixed nature of teaching commitments and the demands of their business responsibilities which can change at short notice.

Contact

Joseph Tixier (OECD) prepared the case study an alumnus of the Department of Marketing and Trade in Monluçon, I.U.T. d'Allier, in collaboration with current teaching staff

OECD LEED Programme

leed.trento@oecd.org