Tehnička škola i prirodoslovna gimnazija Ruđera Boškovića Osijek

As part  of the  Erasmus + project   „Let's Make Our Own Business“, which officially started on October 1, 2020 and which includes five partner countries: Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and Croatia, we conducted a survey in order to obtain information on students´ on entrepreneurship in general and their opportunities for  to acquiring  etrepreneurial  skills during schooling.(Tekst na hrvatskom jeziku je u priloženoj datoteci).

Due the fact that we were not able to realise project activities forseen by going on mobility during this school yea,  we established  a cooperation in a virtual environment in order to motivate the students by  preparatory project activities.

Therefore, for the purpose of the reasearch, we conducted an anonymus online survey in which we tried to motivate mostly students who participate in the project  or are partner countries: Italy, Turkey,the Netherlands, Greece and Croatia. A survey notice with attached link to the Forms app was sent to all partner countries along with a link to the Forms app was sent to all countries' teachers via a WhatsApp group. Afterwards, the teachers forwarded the survey notice to their students. wich they then passed to their students. (Picture 1 - Overview of the number of surveyed)

The students from the first to the fourth grade were included to this research, 110 students filled in online survey, from which the majority of students at the age of 15, respectivevly 45 students at the age of 15, 27 students at the age of 16, 24 students at the age of 17 and the least number of final grade students, i.e. 14 students at the age of 18. (Picture 2 - Dispaly of the number of students by age)

According to the survey results, to the question about students' opinion on the relevance of entrepreneurial education in the school programme scaled from 1 (irrelevant) to 5 (highly relevant), most students responsed as „highly relevant“ or „relevant“ i.e. the average grade was 3,97 form which can be concluded that students recognise the requirement for entrepreneurship during their schooling.

Reegrading the question about their opinion on the most required skills for the engaging in entrepreneurship, the majority of students emphasised creativity (39), self-discipline (23), innovation 819) and risk-taking (17) while the least number of students gave an opinion that the most required skill is persistence (9).
(Picture 3 - Ovreview of students' answers to the question about their opinion on the most required skills for engaging in etrepreneurship)

Regarding the question whether they have been successful in developing entrepreneurial skills until now, the majority of students answered that they were partially successful (63), 34 students replied that they were partially successful, and 13 that they were not successful. (Picture 4 - Overview of students' answers to the question of whether they have been successful in developing entrepreneurial skills until now)

Furthermore, a very large number of students agree that information technology has a very important role for the development of entrepreneurship, i.e. on a scale from 1 (not relevant) to 5 (highly relevant), even the overall score was 4.29, which shows how much students recognise the strong impact of information technology to the modern world.

The answers to the following open-ended question, which referred to the possibility of developing entrepreneurial competencies in their schools and the way that allows developing aforementioned skills, are very different and are divided from, unfortunately, very negative to those which are much more positive:

Negative answers:

"No, we don't have opportunities", "difficult", "yes, but not enough", "I have no idea about it because I haven't been to school yet", "We still don't have anything because of Covid", "Because of Covid we still haven't been to school and it's hard for me to say anything ","No, I don't even know what entrepreneurship means "

Positive answers:

"Yes, we can work on projects", "we can work on some smaller activities", "yes, in collaboration with our teachers", "we have the opportunity to think creatively", "we are already engaged in some activities within the project", "some of us teachers teach about web design that I plan to do in the future "," we have the opportunity to meet people involved in entrepreneurship "," yes, I try to get involved in various projects or activities at school "," yes, by getting involved in school and international projects ", "We are enabled by this project, otherwise not"

From the submitted answers we can conclude that in some schools students have the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial competencies, regardless of some of their strongly negative answers, because it is evident from their answers that in some schools students are already familiar or familiar with project work, that is, within their schools there is a connection between teachers and students through projects or some other school activities.

Then, to a closed-ended question that points to the student's conclusion about the school's contribution to the development of entrepreneurial competencies on a scale from 1 (slightly) to 5 (very), the average number is 3.06, which is mediocre, and individual answers varied from 1 to 5, although most respondents rated it 3 (as many as 55%), which shows that students conclude that secondary education still does not contribute well enough to the development of entrepreneurial competences in students, at least in most of the surveyed partner countries.

Since we designed a project that seemed attractive to our high school students in order to better prepare them for the acquisition and development of entrepreneurial competencies and to make it easier for them to cope with future jobs and everyday life situations after school, we were especially interested in answers to the last question of the survey related to examining the motivation of students to get involved in projects dealing with entrepreneurship.

Most respondents answered the following:

"That I can use my knowledge that I will use in the future", "The desire to make this world better", „Everything that stimulates creativity „, „To shape my future with my own efforts“, „ To be able to create something of my own“,“ I want to find my place in the world of the future“, „ Opportunity to be creative“, „ Meet new friends and their culture from other countries“, „ Improve language skills“,  „Working with students from other countries and gaining new experiences“, „ If it is an Erasmus project, going abroad is my motivation“, „ A project that would include meeting as many people as possible and sharing ideas would be my motivation“, „ Doing something useful for people I would be motivated by a project related to my hobby“, „ Interesting project tasks with rewarding and good organization“, „ Something new, useful and interesting“, „ Traveling and meeting new people, good organization, „I want to learn something new that will help me in the future“, „ Creating something innovative“, „ Learning something new“,“ Easy way in earnings in the future money“, „ Create a future company „,  "Maybe one day I will become rich".

Conclusion

From the above questions covered by this survey, which is aimed at researching entrepreneurial attitudes in students, we can conclude that high school students have a great interest in acquiring or improving entrepreneurial skills, and we, precisely the project "Let's Make Our Own Business" can offer them the challenge to include as many as possible and try to achieve their unfulfilled ambitions that will help them for lifelong learning.

We also believe that the future cooperation of students within our project "Let's Make Our Own Business" will greatly encourage students to acquire and develop entrepreneurial competencies such as creativity, innovation, self-discipline, teamwork, which are just some of the most common students. Highlighted as most important for entrepreneurial skills while working on the project.

Prepared by: J. Sudarić, project coordinator and A. Krmek, project associate

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