Entrepreneurship competence among students and employees: a comparative study in five European countries

To successfully transition from university to the labour market, students in higher education are expected to improve knowledge, skills and other competencies that contribute to the development of human capital. However, higher education institutions educate students by focusing on disciplinary, academic and technical skills (e.g., engineering, IT, business) while other important employability skills like work readiness skills (Heijke et al., 2003) or soft skills (World Economic Forum, 2018) can be less developed. At the same time, owners of micro and small businesses typically focus their education on needed business and management skills with less time on formal entrepreneurship training. This constitutes a skills gap that has important implications for curriculum design aiming to bridge the distance between the learning (university) and application (workplace) settings (Jackson, 2013). It is asserted here that entrepreneurship competence1 is essential, relevant across disciplines and in all modern careers and professional paths. Entrepreneurship competence includes a comprehensive set of knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for implementing ideas, developing an entrepreneurial mindset, and sustainable coping with work and everyday life (Venesaar et al., 2018). Recent research shows that entrepreneurship education should focus on the discipline (entrepreneurship) and on developing students’ ability to adapt to changing and uncertain environments considering macro-level changes (e.g., globalisation, technological change, demographic shift). Relying on the human capital theory, the concept of competence is in line with human capital, i.e., both of them aim to build human capacity that is beneficial at different levels: individual, organisation and society. Entrepreneurship competence is the key to life-long learning. Educational institutions need to ensure that graduates can develop their human capital, which includes professional skills (task-related or specific human capital), competencies of personal development needed for active citizenship and employability in a knowledge society (non-task-related or general human capital) (Nägele & Stalder, 2017; UK Commission for Employment and Skills, 2009). Overall, human capital contributes to success in business and, consequently, to economic development (e.g., Zainol et al., 2018). In entrepreneurship research, human capital has been established as an important factor in the success of individuals in exploiting opportunities (Corbett, 2007; Marvel et al., 2016). Despite numerous studies that have established human capital as a relevant factor in entrepreneurship (e.g., Corbett, 2007; Marvel et al., 2016), less attention has been given to human capital and the development of competencies needed for a successful transition from university to working life. This constitutes a gap between competencies acquired at university and real life needs. To understand this gap, the present research raises two questions: (1) What is the gap between competencies (specific and general human capital) gained from university and real-life needs based on perceptions of students and employees? (2) What are the country-specific differences in competencies (specific and general human capital) between students and employees? To answer these questions, this study measures the competencies owned by employees and students of five countries (Estonia, Finland, Italy, Poland and Portugal) in 2020 through a blind online assessment and compares the results between countries. The total sample includes 1107 university students and 748 employees. This research builds on the Estonian entrepreneurship competence model (Venesaar et al., 2018, 2022), and the sub-competencies were measured by the self-assessment instrument elaborated under the Estonian Entrepreneurship Programme (Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, 2016), which is adopted under the research under the Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance Programme (BeComE project). This measurement tool is among the few used in entrepreneurship education research (Kyndt & Baert, 2015; Man et al., 2002; Morris et al., 2013; Santos et al., 2013) to assess a complex set of competencies.