The article seeks to describe the background of entrepreneurship education
in Estonia and evaluate the enterprising spirit of university graduates
(Tallinn University of Technology). The article discusses briefly the
relationships between the entrepreneurs’ educational level and success
of enterprises, analyzes the educational and advanced training systems
in Estonia, and describes the results of an empirical study on university
graduates’ entrepreneurship initiative in their own opinion.
The results of the research confirm the great potential of university
graduates for increasing entrepreneurship initiative. However, it must be
admitted that the curricula of the baccalaureate program are designed so
that they merely provide knowledge, but do not motivate people to start
a business. The main impediments are connected with the lack of practical
experience for starting business, but also lack of business ideas,
shortage of capital and risk aversion; the graduates are neither sufficiently
aware of nor ready to use entrepreneurship support programs.