How Polish Universities Develop Students’ Entrepreneurial Competencies?

Abstract

The basic role in the development of the national economy of each country plays their citizens – their entrepreneurs. Preparation of the society for entrepreneurial activities takes place during the education process. In the Polish National Development Program for years 2007–2013 the development of entrepreneurial competencies was prioritised to increase the competitiveness of the economy.

In this chapter a set of features referred to as entrepreneurial competencies was developed. They were divided into four groups, that is, technical, social, economic and managerial. In addition, the literature on entrepreneurship education was reviewed. The empirical part presents the results of own analysis on the methods for developing entrepreneurial competencies which are preferred by students and widely used at Polish universities in four fields of study: humanities, technical, natural and economic studies.

The research results show that the humanities rather do not attach significance to the analysed competencies. Studies in economics include them, but their educational programmes focus primarily on shaping a group of technical competencies. The method most often indicated by all groups of respondents as effective in developing individual entrepreneurial competencies was discussion. The project method came in second, and coaching in third place. Meanwhile, the lecture method still dominates in the educational practice in all fields of study.

This chapter presents the results of the original research project, which are guidelines for all responsible for shaping study programmes and deciding about the educational methods.

Citation

Piwowar-Sulej, K., Kwil, I. and Podsiadły, K. (2021), "How Polish Universities Develop Students’ Entrepreneurial Competencies?", Jones, P., Apostolopoulos, N., Kakouris, A., Moon, C., Ratten, V. and Walmsley, A. (Ed.) Universities and Entrepreneurship: Meeting the Educational and Social Challenges (Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship Research, Vol. 11), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 253-268. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2040-724620210000011016