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What qualifications should a Young Entrepreneur demonstrate? A first approach

Anastasios Vasileiadis
by Anastasios Vasileiadis
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Many theories and models were supported for the explanation of the entrepreneurial phenomenon.

These theories and approaches are related to personal characteristics, attitudes, environmental and economic factors and also relates to the degree of entrepreneurial culture that a society promotes and to the personal cognitive state during the decision making procedure. Of course most of the supported theories converge to the opinion that an entrepreneur should demonstrate several qualifications, which according to European Qualification Framework should be described in terms of three types of learning outcomes such as a) knowledge, b) skills and c) wider competences.

Learning outcomes (personal and professional) refer to the “set of knowledge, skills and competences that an individual has acquired and/or is able to demonstrate after completion of a learning process and also are statements of what a learner is expected to know, understand and/or be able to do”.

Knowledge “is the facts, feelings or experiences known by a person and means the outcome of the assimilation of information through learning and is the body of facts, principles, theories and practices that is related to a field of study or work” such as entrepreneurship. Concerning skills in the European Qualification Framework working document these are defined as the knowledge and experience needed to perform a specific task or job and the personal ability to apply knowledge, to use know-how to complete tasks and solve problem.

Additionally, it is supported that the definition of skills is used for a specific level of performance, while Proctor and Dutta define skills as the targeted and well organized behavior and the required knowledge and experience for the execution of a specific task or project. Finally, skills usually refer to “a level of performance, in the sense of accuracy and speed in performing particular tasks (skilled performance)”.

Trying to define the term competences, the majority of researchers and practitioners support that these are the knowledge, skills and know-how in a specific task. Competences also are the ability to use knowledge, skills and personal, social and/or methodological abilities, in work or study situations and in professional and/or personal development including: i) cognitive competence; ii) functional competence; iii) personal competence; and iv) ethical competence. Fulfilling a competence level an individual is able to use his/her knowledge, skills and wider competences according to the requirements posed by a particular context, a situation or a problem and is able to deal with complexity his/her level of competence.

Highlighting the importance of the qualifications that a person should acquire, European Commission propose eight (8) key competences for personal fulfillment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment and among them are the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. The sense of initiative and entrepreneurship refers to an individual ability to turn ideas into entrepreneurial action. It includes creativity, innovation and risk-taking, as well as the personal ability to plan and manage tasks in order to achieve these objectives.

Moreover, it is necessary to identify and measure the entrepreneurial competences in a reliable and valid way and new analytical frameworks and empirical research is needed to correlate thinking on entrepreneurship and competences. The identification and assessment of the entrepreneur competences are important from a scientific as well as a practical point of view. It is important to deal with the young entrepreneur profile and the basic learning outcomes for business start up.

Moreover, the aim should be to identify the functions, activities and tasks for the youth entrepreneurial activity and the necessary learning outcomes, because until recently small amount of effort is posed for the youth entrepreneur profile and the necessary for the startup and entrepreneurial development and success qualifications. This research is an everyday fact in www.iGoStartup.com. Stay with us.

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