According to the entrepreneurship guidelines published by the Ministry of Education and Culture, entrepreneurship education focuses on both entrepreneurial behavior and the development of knowledge and skills needed for entrepreneurship (OKM 2017). According to the YES network, entrepreneurship education is "education for children and young people aimed at promoting positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship, increasing entrepreneurial skills and developing an entrepreneurial culture" (YES Network 2022).
Ulla Lehtinen from the Univsersity of Oulu Kerttu Saalasti Institute, MicroENTRE research group, and Leena Eskola from the Vocational Education Centre JEDU presented research results on teachers' views on students' entrepreneurial interest and entrepreneurship education in North Ostrobothnia. The review is based on a questionnaire collected at the Kerttu Saalasti Institute of the University of Oulu as part of the SOLOEntre and Entrepreneurial Culture project in December 2019 and January 2020. 253 teachers and 1497 young people aged 15-24 years responded to the questionnaire, which covered school levels from primary school to secondary and higher education. The data was collected from 10 municipalities in North Ostrobothnia and Kokkola in Central Ostrobothnia.
The survey data showed that teachers were even more positive than students about students' interest in becoming entrepreneurs: 79.8% of teachers thought that students were interested in entrepreneurship, compared to a very high 66.7% of students. Teachers' assessment was not influenced by gender or family entrepreneurial background. In contrast, girls and those from an entrepreneurial family perceived a higher level of interest among pupils than other respondents.
19% of male teachers and 5% of female teachers were also entrepreneurs. In the future, 24% of male teachers and 10% of female teachers intended to become entrepreneurs themselves. In the option "possibly, but the time is not right now", 42% of men and 33% of women answered yes. Similarly, when asked "do you plan to become an entrepreneur one day", 14% of male teachers and 9% of female teachers answered "yes". For the option "possibly", 57% of boys and 49% of girls answered "yes". These responses support the view that in Finland, women's interest in becoming entrepreneurs is clearly lower than men's.
In terms of teachers' assessments of young people's interest in becoming entrepreneurs, vocational secondary school teachers gave the lowest rating: 71% of vocational teachers thought that students were interested in becoming entrepreneurs. No similar difference between school levels was found among pupils. In particular, students who intend to become entrepreneurs rated their education as providing them with good entrepreneurial skills and felt that entrepreneurship was interesting.
More than 50% of the teachers who responded agreed that entrepreneurship is present in the school. Secondary vocational teachers were still the most critical and teachers at universities of applied sciences the most positive. Education was also generally seen as providing good preparation for entrepreneurship. However, vocational school teachers were still more critical than students on this point.
Leena Eskola took a closer look at how entrepreneurship should be taught in vocational upper secondary education and at universities of applied sciences. Students intending to become entrepreneurs stressed the importance of encouragement, concrete support and real entrepreneurial experiments at school, such as training enterprises and light entrepreneurship.
Students who did not intend to become entrepreneurs highlighted the importance of teaching entrepreneurial skills, the voluntary nature of entrepreneurship studies and information on how to reduce the risks of entrepreneurship. They also hoped to hear about the experiences of entrepreneurs themselves and to be able to visit companies.
Similarly, when asked about teachers who were keen to become entrepreneurs, they stressed the importance of practical teaching together with entrepreneurs, integrating entrepreneurship into subjects and inspiring and encouraging pupils. On the other hand, teachers who did not want to become entrepreneurs mentioned the need for a separate course and for further training for teachers and highlighted the role of entrepreneurs in participating in the activities of educational institutions. It can be concluded that teachers who did not feel that entrepreneurship education was their area of expertise would prefer to outsource teaching to experts and entrepreneurs.
One educator said that entrepreneurship education seems to belong to no one in schools. As defined by the Ministry of Education, entrepreneurship education involves creating an entrepreneurial attitude and teaching entrepreneurial skills. Although entrepreneurship education is perceived as very important, many teachers do not believe in their own ability to bring entrepreneurship to the classroom. There is therefore a desire to transfer entrepreneurship education to "experts with experience" such as former and current entrepreneurs. However, the attitude and example of the teacher are key factors in bringing entrepreneurship into everyday teaching. So how can we strengthen teachers' capacity to integrate entrepreneurship into their teaching? In particular, more continuing training and regional development projects related to entrepreneurship education would be needed in North Ostrobothnia.
Although pupils generally felt that entrepreneurship was of interest to young people, it often fails to concretize entrepreneurial interest into entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship was perceived as involving many risks and requiring many skills. A key challenge is also how to attract students who are reluctant to entrepreneurship, especially girls. Indeed, one trend in entrepreneurship education is that instead of growth-oriented "hero entrepreneurship", there is a growing emphasis on low-threshold "everyday entrepreneurship", which can also be part-time and temporary, depending on the stage of a person's life. Thus, everyone could be an entrepreneur some day!
Author: Ulla Lehtinen, D.Sc.(Tech.), Senior Researcher, University of Oulu Kerttu Saalasti Institute
Photo: Ulla Lehtinen
This blog is based on the Entrepreneurship Education Days 2024 presentations (in Finnish):
Lehtinen, U., Ala-Rämi, K., Eskola, L., Taipale-Erävala, K. Opetushenkilöstön mielikuvat nuorten yrittäjyysinnokkuudesta: miten opettajien asenteet eroavat oppilaista Pohjois-Pohjanmaalla?
Eskola, L., Ala-Rämi, K., Lehtinen, U., Taipale-Erävala. K. Opiskelijoiden ja opettajien näkemyksiä yrittäjyyskasvatuksesta ammatillisessa koulutuksessa.
References:
Hintikka, J., Taipale-Erävala, K., Lehtinen, U. and Eskola, L., 2022. Let’s be entrepreneurs–Finnish youth’s attitudes toward entrepreneurship. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 17(4), pp.856-874.
OKM. 2017. Yrittäjyyslinjaukset koulutukseen. Helsinki: Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriö.
YES-verkosto. 2022. Mitä yrittäjyyskasvatus on? WWW-dokumentti. Saatavissa: https://yesverkosto.fi/yes/mita-yrittajyyskasvatus-on
In Kerttu Saalasti Institute's blog we write about the topics of the Institute's research groups, micro entrepreneurship education and the Institute's general topics. The authors are researchers, experts and members of networks.
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