ISSN 0798 1015
ISSN 0798 1015
Vol. 40 (Number 31) Year 2019. Page 12
ZHOLDASBEKOV, A.A. 1; AYMENOV, M.Zh. 2; SHAGATAEVA, Z.E. 3; ESIMKHANOVA, N.A. 4; DZHARTYBAEVA, J.D. 5 & KOLYEVA, N. 6
Received: 21/05/2019 • Approved: 03/09/2019 • Published 16/09/2019
ABSTRACT: The paper considers the experience of forming and developing entrepreneurial competences in students majoring in pedagogy. By forming and developing entrepreneurial competences, the education system facilitates a shift in the value profile, empowering the population with entrepreneurial knowledge and skills and motivating individuals to engage in this type of activity. To achieve this, new approaches to the composition and organisation of the educational process should be found and implemented. Studies dedicated to the role of education in entrepreneurial training emphasise the development of an entrepreneurial personality. In the authors’ view, one of the major objectives of the education system is the preparation for successful socialisation amid engagement in entrepreneurial relations. Students and early-career professionals make a particularly advantaged group in entrepreneurship: they have opportunities to acquire specialised knowledge and skills and can rely on the experience of successful entrepreneurs to start a business. Consequently, the role of higher education becomes more prominent, as it helps to address socially important objectives. It sets new goals for higher education institutions, e.g., the transfer of knowledge and skills required for entrepreneurship to the students and the development of entrepreneurial abilities in them. |
RESUMEN: El documento considera la experiencia de formar y desarrollar competencias empresariales en estudiantes que se especializan en pedagogía. Al formar y desarrollar competencias empresariales, el sistema educativo facilita un cambio en el perfil de valor, capacitando a la población con conocimientos y habilidades empresariales y motivando a las personas a participar en este tipo de actividad. Para lograr esto, se deben encontrar e implementar nuevos enfoques para la composición y organización del proceso educativo. Los estudios dedicados al papel de la educación en la formación empresarial enfatizan el desarrollo de una personalidad emprendedora. En opinión de los autores, uno de los principales objetivos del sistema educativo es la preparación para una socialización exitosa en medio de la participación en las relaciones empresariales. Los estudiantes y los profesionales de la primera carrera forman un grupo particularmente ventajoso en emprendimiento: tienen oportunidades de adquirir conocimientos y habilidades especializadas y pueden confiar en la experiencia de emprendedores exitosos para iniciar un negocio. En consecuencia, el papel de la educación superior se vuelve más prominente, ya que ayuda a abordar objetivos socialmente importantes. Establece nuevas metas para las instituciones de educación superior, por ejemplo, la transferencia de conocimientos y habilidades requeridas para el emprendimiento a los estudiantes y el desarrollo de habilidades empresariales en ellos. |
By forming and developing entrepreneurial qualities, the education system facilitates a shift in the value profile, empowering the population with entrepreneurial knowledge and skills and motivating individuals to engage in this type of activity. To achieve this, new approaches to the composition and organisation of the educational process should be found and implemented.
Theoretical problems of developing entrepreneurship are considered in the works of well-known foreign researchers Iu.B. Rubin, F.A. Kazin, S. Hagen, A.G. Prichislenko, A.N. Zlenko and others (Rubin Iu. B. (2016a); Kazin F. A., Hagen S., Prichislenko A. G., Zlenko A. N. (2017).
Entrepreneurship among the students of higher education institutions is covered in works by A.A. Zholdasbekov, B.A. Zholdasbekova, A.Iu. Chepurenko and others (Zholdasbekov A. A., Zholdasbekova B. A. (2018); Chepurenko A. Iu. (2017).
The problem of forming competence in entrepreneurship at multiple levels is discussed in the studies of the following authors: A.O. Grudzinskii and A.B. Bednyi (2013), A.A. Chernyavskii (2013), I.A. Zimniaia (2004).
The results obtained by the aforementioned researchers are very important for our work. However, the works concentrate on the issues of developing an entrepreneurial personality, rather than the development of competence of an individual in entrepreneurial relations.
Research focusing on the role of education in training individuals in entrepreneurship emphasises the development of entrepreneurial personality (Voloshina, 2010). In our view, one of the major objectives of the education system should be the preparation for successful socialisation amid engagement in entrepreneurial relations.
Competence in entrepreneurship is not an objective in itself for all students. This is particularly true given many of them do not contemplate engaging in entrepreneurship in the future (Chernyavskii, 2013). However, in our view, in the market economy, every individual and particularly graduates must have solid entrepreneurial competences. Even without specific engagement in entrepreneurship, people are constantly engaged in entrepreneurial relations as they choose goods and services from a range of available options. The lack of entrepreneurial skills has already caused considerable losses for many Russians and led to other negative consequences. However, serious contradictions exist hindering efficient socialisation of students. These are the contradictions between the need to train specialists for engagement in entrepreneurship through competence development and misalignment of objectives in addressing such task, as well as the inconsistency of the theoretical and practical training for engagement in entrepreneurial relations with the demands of the time.
The above-mentioned contradictions bring about the need to address an important social and pedagogical problem, namely, the identification of the principles, mechanisms and organisational and pedagogical conditions of this activity through analysing the practice of forming personal entrepreneurial competence through the lens of existing demands and the future outlook.
The purpose of this paper is to develop and test the pedagogical foundations of forming entrepreneurial competences in students of higher education institutions.
The methodological basis comprises the principal provisions of the dialectical theory of personal development; the concept of interrelation and interdependence of phenomena, particularly, the interrelation of socioeconomic change and education system evolution; the theory of systems and the activity-based approach, the theory of entrepreneurship, which have been addressed in the papers of prominent Russian and foreign researchers of pedagogy, psychology, entrepreneurship, sociology and economics.
The English researcher J. Raven proposed an idea that the competency-based must should be addressed as bordering on the educational and psychological science (Raven, 2002). It was J. Raven who proposed the first systematisation of the competency-based approach according to the following principles: forming competencies at different age stages of human development; conditions required for forming and developing competencies. The researcher then proceeds to identify different types of competences, namely: cognitive (identification of obstacles in the path to a goal), affective (pleasure from work) and conative (perseverance, determination, will). The competency-based approach is now the leading method in developed countries.
In our study, key competences imply the development of specialists through the implementation of the State Standard of Higher Professional Education; development of interdisciplinary knowledge and skills, including in other specialisations, as well as information, economic, communication and legal training.
Aggregate disciplinary competences govern the ability to employ the substance of various disciplines in solving specific tasks. In a sense, this dimension is associated with the trend toward educational universalisation (Kazin et al., 2017). This helps to broaden students' general awareness: skills are built in searching and finding unconventional solutions to problems arising in professional and personal life.
Applied disciplinary competences relate to the activity-based pattern of professional education. In contrast to general disciplinary competences, this relates to the development of an ability to apply specific knowledge and skills of the studied disciplines in professional activities. This dimension is derived from the traditional system of professional training (Zimniaia, 2004).
Just as anyone in general, a professional needs life skills, primarily for successful socialisation (Rubin, 2005). Developing this dimension primarily requires an appropriate change in the content of professional training. It must be stressed that the preparation for social adaptation is a no less important task of higher education than professional development. Unfortunately, with the adoption of reforms in the education system, the problem of student preparation for socialisation largely lost its importance along with the declining role of tutorial work in higher education.
Overall, the implementation of the competency-based approach is aimed at the development of a set of competences in accordance with the objectives of professional training (Bahor et al., 2015).
In our view, major research into the development of professional competences of students must be concerned with the search for more efficient psychological approaches and the implementation of new pedagogical technologies.
Opinions on entrepreneurship vary. On the one hand, entrepreneurship is viewed as a path to quick progress into the affluent ranks. On the other hand, it appears as a risky or even dangerous form of realising labour potential. This adversely affects the development of entrepreneurship (Revin and Tsybulevskaia, 2015).
Many works state that entrepreneurs are the pillar of successful economic development (Effects and Impact of Entrepreneurship Programs in Higher Education, 2012). We believe the remark should rather relate to entrepreneurial employees irrespective of the occupation (Zholdasbekov, et al., 2019; Zholdasbekov and Zholdasbekova, 2018). However, tradition holds and while in the past, the foundation of national prosperity was built by workers and kolkhoz members, today, it lies with entrepreneurs (Rubin, 2016a; 2016b). Therefore, the objective of training future entrepreneurs irrespective of the acquired profession is not just widely cited in the body of research but has made the headlines. However, not all graduates (of the level addressed in this study) can become successful entrepreneurs merely because they may lack proper personal qualities. They need entrepreneurial training adequate the current level of national development (Chepurenko, 2017; Kazin et al., 2017). Such training will help graduates to build confidence and carry out well-informed decision-making as they engage in entrepreneurial relations and address entrepreneurial tasks.
The following research methods were used to review the proposed original points: theoretical analysis of literature and various types of official documents; analysis of reports and statements of reviews, final conclusions of meetings, conferences, publications in periodicals; methods of the systematic and structural analysis, along with synthesis, modeling, prognostics, observation, content analysis, practice review of results.
The experimental base of the research was the SYLKWY university (Shymkent, Kazakhstan).
In the experimental part of the study, the method of survey was used.
During the survey, a number of questions were raised before the respondents, addressing the following aspects of students' entrepreneurial competence:
- respondents' understanding of entrepreneurship and the status of entrepreneur;
- opportunities for entrepreneurship in the field of education;
- vision of one’s future as an entrepreneur;
- forms of entrepreneurship in the field of education;
- difficulties and problems associated with organizing business in the field of education;
- knowledge required for beginning entrepreneurs;
- most important personal qualities of an entrepreneur in the field of education;
- evaluation of oneself as a future entrepreneur.
Ninety-six students participated in the survey.
Based on the analysis of the results of the survey, we identified the following:
- tasks that must be addressed in the course of the educational process. These tasks include the formation and development of entrepreneurial competence, motives for entrepreneurship, enterprisingness, economic and legal literacy, communicative qualities, as well as independence and initiative;
- mechanisms of forming the competence in the field of entrepreneurship in university students;
- requirements for the content, forms and methods of entrepreneurial training.
Based on the results of the study, it appears that the youth define an entrepreneur in general as a "legal entity owning a business, which is profitable" or as "an individual running a private business and being self-employed".
When asked, "Is entrepreneurship possible in education?", 68% of the respondents agreed ("It is plausible", "Everything is possible", "Yes, I can contemplate it, but not in the near future"), 22% gave a negative answer (many of them referred to the difficulty of forming initial capital) and 10% were undecided (Figure 1).
Figure 1
Distribution of answers to the question
"Is entrepreneurship possible in education?"
Only 50% of the graduates of the pedagogical institute contemplate themselves as entrepreneurs at some stage in their lives, 28% see no such prospects and the rest remain undecided. Interestingly, 22% of the students believe that entrepreneurship and education are incompatible.
Among the forms of entrepreneurship, the following were cited by the respondents: tutoring (100%), private educational centres, psychological consultations, continued education, consultations, logopedics (30%), individual lessons (40%), private children's activity centres (10%), private daycare and schools (15%), private correctional institutions (5%) (Figure 2).
Figure 2
Forms of entrepreneurship in
education (several possible options)
When asked about the challenges and problems that might arise in setting up one’s own business, the students cited the following aspects: unprofitability (8%), business does not pay back (15%), difficulty in obtaining a license for private practice (16%), lack of demand (9%), minimum demand ("We have free public education in Russia") (15%), high lease rates (37 %).
When asked about the kinds of knowledge necessary for beginner entrepreneurs, 36% of the pedagogical students cited knowledge of economics and law, including the responsibilities of an entrepreneur; 27% pointed at the need to complete a short course in entrepreneurship, including legislation in the area; 26% showed interest in the fundamentals of business and marketing; 11% would study the financial basics of entrepreneurship.
Approaching the most important personal qualities of an entrepreneur in education, 46% of the future teachers pointed at interpersonal skills, competence, leadership; 28% referred to focus, confidence, responsibility; 26% stated that an entrepreneur needs mobility.
Assessing their own entrepreneurial profile, 30% stated they had the required set of entrepreneurial skills ("I could engage in entrepreneurship"); 32% pointed out that they had the industriousness necessary for such activity; 38% responded that they lacked leadership qualities.
The findings of the questionnaires suggest the following conclusions: 1) most respondents among the students assume their teaching career can be associated with entrepreneurship, 2) the respondents believe that to become a successful entrepreneur, one needs special knowledge.
As a result of the study, one should point at the need to obtain the knowledge required for entrepreneurship as part of general and special professionally important disciplines, which, accordingly, requires special training from teachers of core disciplines tutoring future teachers of Maths, Physics, Russian, Literature, etc.
Therefore, a compelling necessity of modern pedagogical education is forming entrepreneurial competence in future teachers, which should help them feel more confident in the modern labour market.
The analysis of literature showed that the following organizational and pedagogical conditions for the formation of competences in the field of entrepreneurial activity should be distinguished: clarity of the purpose of preparation and educational tasks (it is important to note that the purpose and tasks change depending on the initial level of the student's readiness and dynamics of their development); students' motivation for self-educational activities; increasing the share of independent work; students' awareness of possible mechanisms, methods, forms and results of entrepreneurial training; use of a variety of methods and forms of preparation; consistent intensification of the educational process; use of new information technologies and especially the Internet; readiness of the pedagogical staff for the effective formation of entrepreneurial competences of students; establishing partnership between students and educators; evaluation of student achievements on the basis of various methods; consideration of the psychological characteristics of the individual and the level of their orientation to entrepreneurship.
When developing indicators of the formation of entrepreneurial competences based on the analysis of scientific literature, it is necessary to use the data of psychological and pedagogical studies in this field, as well as consider the fact that the requirements for the level of preparation of graduates of a modern university in the field of entrepreneurship are actually a measure of this training . The following indicators of competence formation in the field of entrepreneurship are proposed: motivation for entrepreneurial activity; ability to solve entrepreneurial problems; ability to receive the necessary information independently; responsibility; involvement in business activities; mobility; risk aversion; ability to lead people; ability to bring a case to a successful conclusion; ability to clearly organize, plan and control work progress; ability to establish business contacts; level of economic and legal training in the field of entrepreneurship.
As part of the study, the following aspects have been developed: pedagogical foundations (combination of principles and mechanisms of realisation) and requirements to the content. Forms, methods, organisational and pedagogical conditions and indicators of students' entrepreneurial competences formation have been identified.
The advantages of the competency-based approach have been indicated, namely the orientation of the educational process at the development of personal aptitude to identify optimum solutions from a variety of available options and successfully perform tasks by applying innovative approaches.
The demands to graduates of modern-day higher education institutions in terms of entrepreneurship have been defined. They include competence, entrepreneurial attitude, focus, interpersonal skills, economic and legal literacy, ability to use new information technology, ability to plan and design one’s professional path, personal agency.
It has been shown that traditional pedagogical approaches do not fully suit the implementation of the stated requirements. Therefore, we have discussed the potential of the competency-based approach in forming entrepreneurial competences.
The above provisions contribute to the theory of professional education and can serve as the basis for further research into the improvement of the profile of higher education in the market economy.
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1. SYLKWAY International University, Shymkent, Kazakhstan
2. SYLKWAY International University, Shymkent, Kazakhstan
3. M. Auezov South Kazakhstan State University, Shymkent, Kazakhstan
4. M. Auezov South Kazakhstan State University, Shymkent, Kazakhstan
5. M. Auezov South Kazakhstan State University, Shymkent, Kazakhstan
6. M. Kozybayev North Kazakhstan State University, Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan
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