Technopreneurship in Engineering Education: Synthesizing Pedagogical Approaches for Sustainable Competency Development

Engineering education must prepare graduates to transform technological knowledge into sustainable innovation. Technopreneurship represents a combination of technology and entrepreneurship that focuses on creating and growing businesses based on technological innovation. It involves identifying opportunities from technological advances, developing innovative tech-based products or services, and establishing viable business models to commercialize them. However, technopreneurship education in engineering programs often remains fragmented and poorly connected to real innovation ecosystems. This review synthesizes recent research on four pedagogical approaches that can strengthen sustainable technopreneurial competencies: Project-Based Learning, Technology-Enhanced Learning, Jigsaw collaborative learning, and international or interdisciplinary teamwork. A structured narrative synthesis examined how each approach supports four core competency domains: innovation and creativity, sustainability and impact orientation, entrepreneurial and strategic skills, and collaboration and global awareness. Findings indicate that while each pedagogy develops valuable capabilities, none alone provides comprehensive preparation for sustainable venture creation. Persistent gaps include limited integration of sustainability, weak pedagogical synergy, and insufficient ecosystem alignment. The paper therefore establishes the conceptual foundation for a future integrated approach, the Innovation and Technopreneurship Education Model, which will be developed and evaluated in subsequent research stages.