The Effectiveness of Mentoring and Coaching in Teaching Business Planning

Abstract

Business plan course has become an essential part of entrepreneurship education in entrepreneurial universities. Universities nowadays are required to showcase their entrepreneurial spirit as a way to adapt to current trends and public demands. Therefore, it is important for universities to work together with private sectors and the business world. Business plan course has long been recognized as a source of essential skills in entrepreneurship. By combining mentoring from business world and entrepreneurship knowledge and strategies from coaches (lecturers), it is expected that students can gain encouraging experiential learning that help them benefit from this course. The objective of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of mentoring and coaching from existing entrepreneurs in a business plan course in Universitas Andalas. From the students' perception survey of twenty-seven students, it can be seen that mentoring is an effective way that enriches their understanding regarding business plan and its implementations.