Problem-Based and Project-Based Learning Strategies for Technology-Enhanced Entrepreneurship Education: Recommendations from a Vocational College Study

Vocational colleges are under growing pressure to produce graduates who can convert entrepreneurial knowledge into practical, technology-supported action. Although prior research confirms that curriculum design, experiential practice, and industry-aligned integration improve entrepreneurship education performance, far less guidance exists on how vocational institutions should operationalise these findings pedagogically. This paper addresses that gap by translating evidence from a survey of 503 students enrolled in entrepreneurship courses at vocational colleges in Zhejiang Province, China, into actionable problem-based learning (PBL) and project-based learning (PjBL) strategies for technology-enhanced entrepreneurship education. The underlying study, grounded in technology adoption and experiential learning theories, employed structural equation modelling and found that entrepreneurship curriculum, entrepreneurship practice, and the integration of specialization and entrepreneurship significantly predicted students’ digital technology engagement, which in turn significantly predicted entrepreneurship education performance and partially mediated the effects of the three educational inputs. Building on these results, the paper proposes a five-stage technology-enhanced PBL–PjBL implementation cycle comprising problem and project framing, digital resource orchestration, guided inquiry and prototyping, authentic assessment, and reflection and transfer. Recommendations are offered for instructors, curriculum designers, and institutional leaders, including the co-design of authentic problems with industry partners, the embedding of simulation and business-modelling platforms within project tasks, competency-based digital assessment, and structured reflection that links entrepreneurial learning to career pathways. The paper contributes a practice-oriented framework that connects empirical evidence on technology-mediated entrepreneurship education with concrete pedagogical design decisions in vocational settings, supporting the development of digitally supported, practice-oriented, and career-aligned entrepreneurship programmes. Because the underlying evidence was generated in a single provincial context and the proposed cycle has not yet been experimentally trialled, the paper additionally specifies the contextual boundary conditions that govern its transfer to other vocational systems and sets out a staged agenda of design-based, quasi-experimental, multi-site, and longitudinal studies through which the framework can be tested.

problem-based learning, project-based learning, entrepreneurship education, digital technology, vocational colleges

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