Entrepreneurship is vital for economic development of countries, driving innovation and for alleviating unemployment. Education is a critical enabler if successful entrepreneurship. This paper explores critical barriers to successful entrepreneurship and identifies opportunities and interventions adopted to overcome barriers and take advantage of opportunities. A systematic review methodology is used to consolidate a single comprehensive source of learning. Research questions are formulated through the Problem, Intervention, Comparisons, Outcomes (PICO) framework and the review is conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Our findings reveal multiple barriers to entrepreneurship including gender dimension and ableism, risk aversion and fear of failure, education, government policy, entrepreneurial ecosystems and access to funding and capital. Several interventions in the form of education, structured support including funding, conducive policies and mentorship were proposed. A clear preference for experiential education and creativity and innovation tuition was found in literature. Recommendations of vertical integration of entrepreneurship into curricula were also made with clear learning outcomes. The reported works, however, were largely cross-sectional and evaluated the success of interventions based on self-reported objective entrepreneurial intent and self-efficacy. This points to a need for further longitudinal studies to establish correlation and causality of interventions and outcomes in the real world.

The literature further showed an evolution of discourse from the 1990s focusing on educational design and delivery to the gender dimension in the 2000s and a focus on factors affecting success and the use of ICT technology leading to the modern Generative Artificial Intelligence.

Keywords

Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, creativity, innovation, venture launch.