Higher Education and Assessment of Entrepreneurial Skills by Academic Stakeholders

Abstract

This paper is based on a national study of entrepreneurship programmes and experiences related to non-formal and informal learning processes which have taken placed in higher education in order to promote entrepreneurial skills among (post) graduates. The notions of "Learning Society" and "Lifelong Education" are closely linked with the development of a new educational paradigm which aims to enhance learning opportunities and new applications of knowledge in "organizations of all types and in all spheres of life" (Gibb, 2005). Empirical findings are gathered from the research project called Link.EES (Learning, Innovation, Networks and Knowledge), focused on Entrepreneurship in Higher Education, and funded by the Operational Programme of technical Assistance (OPTA), by the European Social Fund (OPTA – ESF). The methodological design was divided into the following steps: application of an online survey on 57 academic stakeholders of the Portuguese public Higher Education Institutions (HEI); selection of 12 case studies of good practices in the institutions of higher education and subsequent analysis by conducting in?depth interviews; and, finally, development of a repertoire of best practices in entrepreneurial skills and their validation by key actors and academic stakeholders. Three goals are pursued: i) a comprehensive meaning of “entrepreneurial learning”, taking into account the European concept of “entrepreneurial spirit”; ii) an increasing importance of programmes/experiences as well as infrastructures and services, related to entrepreneurial learning provided by the main academic stakeholders; iii) and finally, a crucial involvement of academic stakeholders in a collaborative effort to promote the entrepreneurship mindset in the academia. Our aim is to assess the collaborative work achieved through the direct participation of key stakeholders in entrepreneurial learning, by building a crucial repertoire of entrepreneurial skills linked to the formation, self-employment and labour market transition.