Am I entrepreneurial? Understanding undergraduate students’ entrepreneurial skills
Keywords:
university, entrepreneurial know-how, recognition of prior learning (RPL), metacognition, sensemakingAbstract
Undergraduate students often associate entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills with establishing a company and not as much with acting entrepreneurially. Students find verbalizing one’s own entrepreneurial skills challenging because the majority of undergraduates lack the necessary metacognitive skills to recognize their own know-how. The purpose of this paper is to study how undergraduate students understand entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial competencies. Focus group interviews were conducted with third year business students. The study found three approaches regarding entrepreneurial competencies, through which the undergraduates’ sensemaking processes and accumulation of know-how can be better understood. This categorization provides valuable insights for university personnel, both as regards to the development of students’ metacognitive skills and the recognition processes of prior learning of entrepreneurial competencies. This study suggests that undergraduate students need support in verbalizing their know-how, as well as more information about recognizing entrepreneurial skills as part of their personal curriculum, about entrepreneurship in general and as a potential career choice.
