Center of Evidence-based Entrepreneurship Development (CEED)

Happy New Year and welcome to the CEED newsletter, covering the latest news on the Student Training for Entrepreneurial Promotion (STEP) and Personal Initiative (PI) training!

If you want to contribute, please contact us via our CEED e-mail. 

This newsletter informs you on a quarterly basis about current events, projects, and the implementation of both our training programs STEP and PI. On top of sharing news from our side, we would like to encourage you to contribute to this newsletter so that we can establish it as a medium for mutual updates. Because just like us, you’re gaining valuable experiences with the training programs. In fact, you run great projects that always amaze us and that the whole community should know about!

Topics of this Newsletter

• Kenya and Nigeria: Second Round of STEP S Training Implementations
• Research: Recent Publication in Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship
• Laos and Kenya: Entrepreneurship Training for DDD’s Career Connect Program

Kenya and Nigeria: Second Round of STEP S Training Implementations

In December 2025, we successfully concluded two STEP Sustainability training implementations in Kenya and Nigeria as part of the DAAD-funded project “Sustainable entrepreneurship courses for under- and postgraduate students”.

At Mount Kenya University in Kenya, 139 student teachers attended the training between September and December, 2025. The STEP S training for student teachers follows a multiplier approach where student teachers are not only trained in the STEP S content but also in the STEP S methodology. At the end of the training, they are equipped with an entrepreneurial and sustainable mindset and also the ability to train secondary school students themselves in the STEP S training. We thank everyone at MKU for supporting the successful training implementation and special thanks go out to our student research assistants who supported the data collection. 

At Godfrey Okoye University in Nigeria, 499 undergraduate students attended the training between October to December, 2025. In this training run, we integrated a growth mindset intervention (GMI) in the STEP S training content. The students were divided into four groups, out of which two received the regular STEP S training and two received the STEP S x GMI training. We will examine possible add-on effects of the GMI based on the data collected before and after the training. We thank everyone at GOU for supporting the successful training intervention. 

In 2026, the second round of STEP S training implementations will be completed at the University of Venda, South Africa, where students will participate in the STEP S training for undergraduates. 

Research: Recent Publication in Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship

How can we understand the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education and training? In their recent article to appear in Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship, Michael M. Gielnik and Alex E. Glosenberg review the entrepreneurship education and training literature of the past 10 years. Based on the review, they present an extended active learning framework that describes the training design core elements, within-training processes, short-term learning outcomes, and long-term impact of effective entrepreneurship education and training. The framework suggests that active learning during training trigger within-training processes that foster learning and ultimately entrepreneurial success. Active learning includes the elements of learner control, exploration and experimentation, feedback, error and mastery orientation, teamwork, as well as coaching and mentoring. The framework provides an integrative and comprehensive overview of the factors that are important to consider in entrepreneurship education and training and it can be used in research and practice to design and evaluate effective programs.

Reference: Gielnik, Michael M. Gielnik, & Glosenberg, A. E. Glosenberg. (2025). An extended active learning framework of entrepreneurship education and training. Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship, 21(8), 828–918. https://doi.org/10.1561/0300000120

Laos and Kenya: Entrepreneurship Training for DDD’s Career Connect Program

We at Doorways are very happy to expand our work to more Southeast Asian countries. In Laos, we conducted a Train-the-Trainer (TTT) workshop with staff from our partners Digital Divide Data (DDD), who will incorporate a combination of the PI Training and STEP Training into their Career Connect program in Laos and Kenya. The program offers young people in both countries a wide range of support with training on several topics and networking opportunities. We are now eagerly awaiting the start of the training in both countries and are excited to see the impact they will have.

We’d love to hear from you! Send your feedback and thoughts to ceed@leuphana.de.

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