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Навыки как результат обучения предпринимательству в России: спрос и предложение
Skills are one of the main learning outcomes, including for the area of entrepreneurship education. The article looks at the two dimensions of skills: skills that entrepreneurs need and skills that can be obtained as a result of entrepreneurship education. The authors consider skills using two approaches: firstly, the idea of the Human Capital theory about general and specific capital, and secondly, the typology by M. Dobryakova, I.Froumin and other colleagues, reflecting international experience in conceptualizing learning outcomes, that distinguishes three groups: competence of thinking, competence of interaction with other people and competence of interaction with oneself. The empirical material is based on a unique sample of respondents who have both practical entrepreneurial experience and experience in entrepreneurship education in one of the reputable programs in Russia. The empirical base of the study consists of 82 semi-structured interviews with respondents from 9 educational initiatives aimed at entrepreneurship education. The data was collected using the method of semi-structured interviews.
The authors have identified a gap between the skills that entrepreneurs need and the skills acquired in entrepreneurship education programs. Respondents have a more pronounced demand for general human capital (widely used skills, which are often called ‘soft skills’), while their experience in education was focused primarily on the development of specific capital (narrow skills useful in solving specific tasks). Respondents have a request for general skills, for example, for competence in interacting with themselves (self-regulation skills, self-control, etc.), but they are taught more specific skills: accounting skills, programming skills, the skill of building/describing a business model, etc. The results indicate the need for significant improvement of entrepreneurship education programs in order to more fully take into account the practical demand for skills. The novelty of the study lies in a new theoretical approach (combining two conceptual lenses) and in a unique sample of respondents with experience in both entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial practice.