(2268) ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMPETENCE IN THE PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS AS A BASIS FOR STUDY PROGRAMMES

摘要

Entrepreneurship is one of the main competencies for guaranteeing success in the future and in the labour market; therefore, it has to be developed knowledgeably. A major niche for doing so is through the professional standards as these are also the basis for vocational education, applied sciences and higher education curricula. Entrepreneurship competency is the integrated sum of knowledge, skills, motivation, and values needed for being successful in society and is important for all citizens, not only entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship competency is applicable to all fields and is focused on individuals' personal development, active participation in society, and entering the labour market as a worker or an employee. The main objective of the article is to analyse how much professional standards reflect the importance of entrepreneurship competence among the professions at levels 2-5 of the EQF, make recommendations for the improvement of professional standards, and by that means, promote the importance of the teaching of entrepreneurship competence in the educational system. The content analysis method was used to assess the standards according to the chosen keyword categories. The results show very modest incidence of select keywords in the second and third level standards with a positive trend in the higher-level standards. There are noteworthy differences between the incidence of word categories as well as between types of selected standards. Standards are very heterogeneous with marked discrepancies between competencies described and used. Discrepancies are already found in the beginnings of standards (work description, work environment and so on) and continue through the whole text, occasionally limiting or obscuring the purpose and objective of the standards. The research findings were used to compile several recommendations for improving the quality of standards used for the development of curricula as well as to maximize the incidence and use of entrepreneurship competencies in professional standards.