Entrepreneurship Program at Secondary School: Study of Entrepreneurial Intentions

Introduction

Education is a key part in the development of any individual, therefore contributing towards the development of an entrepreneurial society. The aim of this study consists in the analysis of the effect that the entrepreneurship activities, in scholar environment, have in the development of an entrepreneurial profile of the students of secondary level, and their future entrepreneurial intentions. In that sense, the theoretical support was corroborated with a program “Entrepreneurship in School” in Estarreja Secondary School. To empirically test the formulated hypothesis it was developed a questionnaire which was answered by students in two different moments: in the beginning and in the end of the program activities. By the application of methods of factorial analysis and logistic regression model, it was concluded that variables like the incentive given by school agents, the participation of students in extracurricular activities and the desire to continue studying, influenced the entrepreneurial intentions of the students. Concerning the entrepreneurial profile it was concluded that the students who have higher capacity of creation and concretization of entrepreneurial projects and, a winning will, have a higher propensity to create their own business.

This research analysed the impact of entrepreneurship activities on the development of the secondary school students’ entrepreneurial profile, and understand whether these same activities influence their future intentions. Other variables that influence entrepreneurial intentions were also analysed. Thus, in order to present final remarks, the main objective of this research as well as all the proposed theoretical framework and suggested conceptual model were considered. Therefore, the formulation of the conceptual model was based on theoretical literature review, where it can be observed that variables could influence students' entrepreneurial profile and the contribution of each variable for the creation of that same profile.

The choice of this research was related to Entrepreneurship education and the fact that currently it is one of the most important themes, mainly because in crisis like the one we are going through now, entrepreneurship can play a very important role both in creating companies and in changing mentalities (with emphasis on young students) facing the entrepreneurial culture and which, with creativity and innovation, solutions can be faced, and not only the problems. As a result, this is one of the main conclusions, the fact that it is an important and relevant topic and the need to analyse its influence, namely in secondary school students.

In this research we used a questionnaire with several questions, which enabled it to analyse the students’ opinion on entrepreneurship and their entrepreneurial intentions. The sample consists of professional-technical secondary school students from different professional areas namely courses related to Administration and Mechanics. It is important to refer that most students have already been in contact with entrepreneurs and have personal relationships with them, and find the entrepreneurship theme school important. Therefore, it is possible to state that in addition to school personnel, students also have the notion of the importance of entrepreneurship and that it is important for teachers and parents to play an active role in raising awareness of entrepreneurship at school.

Considering the analysis of the proposed model, in this research, it is possible to state that several variables have a positive effect on students' entrepreneurial intentions: the first is encouragement provided by school personnel in order to participate in activities related to entrepreneurship, promoting students’ entrepreneurial behaviour. Student participation in extracurricular activities also influences in a positive way the entrepreneurial intention as well as the goal of attending University. In relation to the students' entrepreneurial profile it was concluded that two of the constructed factors were supported by the logistic regression model presented: students who have a greater capacity for creating and implementing entrepreneurial projects and have a will to win end up having a higher propensity to create their own business.