There's a quote by Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder Elon Musk that sums up a core challenge for Australian business schools as they prepare the next generation of postgraduate students.

Musk's companies, he says, "hire someone in spite of an MBA, not because of one."

It's a dissatisfaction with traditional business education that is driving the emergence of new master's programs and MBAs in Australian universities, which seek to capture interest among would-be students in developing entrepreneurial and innovation skills.

A number of universities – including Queensland University of Technology, the University of South Australia and University of Technology, Sydney – offer variations on an MBA in entrepreneurship, while other institutions – such as Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne Business School, University of Adelaide and RMIT University – have master's courses with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurialism.

Jochen Schweitzer, director of the MBA in entrepreneurship at the UTS Business School, cites Musk's quote as reflecting one of the key reasons his university launched its entrepreneurship-driven course in March.

"What he really means is that the kind of work you do in companies that are starting up means dealing with a different kind of maturity of products and markets and different levels of uncertainty," Schweitzer says.

"A traditional MBA shows you how to manage teams, manage divisions and work in large corporate contexts, but if you are working in a business without a product at all – perhaps just an idea that needs to be developed, or which has a high level of uncertainty – that needs a different kind of management and it needs a different kind of person."

The UTS course – called the MBAe – is delivered as three graduate certificates for maximum flexibility, so students can gain specific skills and qualifications exactly when needed.

Three kinds of people

"We are targeting three kinds of people," Schweitzer says.

"One is a person with an idea and a disciplinary background: an engineer, architect or fashion designer, the technical founder who would like to skill-up on the business side of things.

"The next target group would be the commercial founder who might already have a business background or some experience but who wants to step out and do something different.

"The third target group is the person in a large organisation who is a change manager, and we can see more and more interest in that segment."

Peta Portelli is one of the first kind. Originally trained as a fashion designer, she studied business as an undergraduate at UTS, completed a master's in fashion as art in Florence and counts her first employer, designer Carla Zampatti, as a mentor.

Undertaking the MBAe is the next step in that journey, Portelli says, giving her more options for the future.

"I see myself as a bit of translator. Creatives who understand the language of business are quite in demand and it is really important to learn that language," she says.

"With the MBAe, I have several options on the table, whether it be starting a business of my own, or starting a business within a business, or staying in consultancy."

Fast-paced and relevant

Portelli says the fact the MBAe is not a traditional MBA is part of its appeal.

"It is not academic as you might know it," she says.

"We are being mentored by the big end of town. The peer-to-peer learning is excellent. It's fast-paced, it's relevant, and it's not for the faint hearted."

Swinburne University is preparing to relaunch its Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, which it used to deliver the university's Master of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MEI) from 2004 to 2011.

Executive Dean Michael Gilding says the relaunched school will now offer the MEI as well as an MBA program and five other entrepreneurship-focused postgraduate courses, including several foundation units offered as free massive open online courses (MOOCs).

"We are reframing, rethinking and redesigning our entire post-graduate suite around these entrepreneurship and innovation principles," Gilding says.

"We were among the first in the world to formally teach in this area, but there's something different happening now. Industry is changing.

"The big law firms, accounting services firms and consultancy firms used to have huge graduate recruitment numbers. They don't any more and that means more graduates setting up their own business and setting up self employment."

Not just the unicorns

Gilding says Swinburne wants an audience far broader than the stereotype of a 20-something wanting to start up a tech business with an eye on Silicon Valley.

"A lot of the focus is on 20-year-olds and start-ups but we actually think the whole focus on entrepreneurship and innovation is about the entire life cycle of a business," he says.

"All advisory firms, for example, need to think about start-ups. All small and medium enterprises need to engage in innovative thinking. Large corporations, if they are not careful, will find their business model cut from under their feet.

"It is not just about the unicorns or the dozen stars who go to Silicon Valley and make a whole pile of money.

"I think what is going to have a much deeper and more profound impact on the Australian economy is SMEs and they need to rethink what they do and how they engage in innovative thinking."

Melbourne Business School professor of management Michael Vitale says universities have now recognised the applicability of entrepreneurship skills across disciplines. He teaches student courses including how to "think like an entrepreneur" both in the university's MBA program but also to to a cohort of engineering students.

"The skills you learn in terms of customer development, prototyping and testing are very broadly useful across a career," he says.

"I often talk about the kinds of things we try to get entrepreneurs to do and one of the things is being able to sense and act and mobilise in conditions of extreme uncertainty.

"Doing a start-up is extremely uncertain, they don't know the problem, they don't know the solution but they set off anyway. That's a very applicable skill in large companies or small."

No more lemonade stands

The goal of entrepreneurship teaching is in part to rethink how these skills can be applied, he says, and to challenge the traditional idea of what it means to be an entrepreneur.

"We will never move the dial on the economy with lemonade stands," Vitale says.

"What we are trying to do is promote the creation of businesses that will have a disproportionate impact on the Australian economy – we are that bold. Now some students will never start a company, they might work in one or have an ordinary corporate career but they will still be able to apply the skills they have picked up."

For students with a genuine interest in starting a business, though, studying entrepreneurship could offer a structured path into self employment.

"I would never say it is the only option or the best option for everyone," he says.

"But I think universities can give you a more structured approach. Students don't have to risk their own money initially anyway, and there's lots of mentoring and support. Entrepreneurship can be really lonely but they don't have to do it alone."