Self-Assessment of the Entrepreneurial Competence of Teacher Education Students in the Remote Study Process

Abstract

Competence-based education has been in the spotlight for several years, and it is a topical issue in the European Union as well as marking the reform of the Latvian education system. The Council of the EU considers entrepreneurial competence to be one of the key competences for lifelong learning, and Latvia’s school reforms require teachers to create a study process where students develop entrepreneurial competence. This publication presents research on the self-assessed entrepreneurial competence of teacher education students to find out whether there is any correlation between their assessment of entrepreneurial competence and their readiness/ability to develop this competence in their students, as well as which methods/activities they see as suitable to do so in the classroom and the remote study process. An online survey using the QuestionPro platform was used to collect the data. The questionnaire was fully completed by 157 pedagogy students from various higher education institutions, and it consisted of four question blocks: demographic and socio-cultural questions, entrepreneurial competence, digital competence, and open-ended questions. The data provided by the questionnaire developed for this research showed that students’ self-assessed entrepreneurial competence in a remote study process rated their digital competences highest, followed by their entrepreneurial competences. The results indicate that students are sufficiently prepared to be able to further develop their entrepreneurial competence in the remote study process. From the data, it can be concluded that higher education needs to focus on the development of entrepreneurial competence and should also supplement the methodological knowledge of students to improve their readiness to teach entrepreneurial competences to others. It should also be noted that there is a strong correlation between students’ entrepreneurial competence and their readiness to teach entrepreneurial competences to others. An online survey using the QuestionPro platform was used to collect the data. The questionnaire was fully completed by 157 pedagogy students from various higher education institutions, and it consisted of four question blocks: demographic and socio-cultural questions, entrepreneurial competence, digital competence, and open-ended questions.