Development of Entrepreneurial Competencies of Students and Relevent Teaching Methods

Abstract

In the current dynamic development of the knowledge economy, it is necessary to focus student education on active learning, to create challenges for students that would lead them to use thinking in the fields studied, which are characteristic of business. The inclusion of this type of education requires action by education (reorientation between students and their teachers) and support from society. It is an interconnected area based on the education system, cooperation between schools and the private sector, business skills training and the emphasis is on the role of the teacher in this integrated process. This article provides insight into new supporting and influencing factors for learning entrepreneurial competencies. The aim of the article is to set key competencies that help develop students' entrepreneurship and evaluate the importance of selected competencies for entrepreneurship from the perspective of SME entrepreneurs and students of economics. Then evaluate the educational methods that will develop these competencies in a suitable way in the university environment within business related courses. For these purposes within partial goal quantitative research was conducted through two questionnaire surveys in the period 2018–2019. The results showed that entrepreneurs generally give higher value to all competencies than students, probably due to practical experience. A very significant difference was found in terms of evaluating the importance of one of the key competencies for entrepreneurship "Intent Creation" between entrepreneurs and students, where students significantly underestimated the importance of this competence compared to entrepreneurs. Another partial goal was focused on the evaluation of teaching methods by students of the Faculty of Economics of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice in terms of their contribution to the development of competencies for business. Students' attitudes were ascertained through a quantitative survey. The relevance of teaching methods was expressed bythe level of agreement (1 - disagree, 7 - agree). Obtained results "Lectures of experts", "Special projects", "Business simulators" and "Role-playing" were chosen from the students´s opinion as the most suitable methods for business development. The results of the evaluation of the methods do not depend on whether their close relatives do business or not.