The role of entrepreneurship education and training on creation of the knowledge economy: Qatar leap to the future

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experience of Qatar with entrepreneurship education and training, and its contribution in creating a knowledge-based economy. By doing so, the paper will contribute towards raising awareness about the state of entrepreneurship education, training and the knowledge economy in Qatar.

The research design for this paper is a descriptive and interpretive case study that is analysed through qualitative methods. Secondary information is analysed through descriptive statistics.

The main finding of this paper is that although Qatar has launched many initiatives of entrepreneurship education and training to help diversify its economy by creating knowledge-based economy, the data show that there is some improvement in Qatar’s ranking in the Knowledge Economy Index.

The main limitation of this study is the unavailability of secondary data for a long period of time.

The main policy implication that can be derived from the findings of this paper is that entrepreneurship education and training alone cannot create a diversified and knowledge-based economy in a short period of time. In fact building a knowledge economy requires more than introduction of entrepreneurship education and training. In addition to entrepreneurship education it requires improvement in the national innovation system, large investment in information and communication technology and a good macroeconomic performance. Moreover, the success of entrepreneurship education and training in fulfilling its objective requires a comprehensive strategy to be implemented over a long period of time.

The paper represents an original work that links entrepreneurship education and training with the knowledge economy. This is the first paper that handles this issue in the context of Gulf countries.