Entrepreneurship in higher education students of the social area

• Autor(a) principal: Fernandes, Rosina
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Sargento, José, Martins, Emília, Mendes, Francisco, Felizardo, Sara
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.19/7121
• topic: Entrepreneurship; Higher education students; Social area

In higher education (IE), entrepreneurship education traditionally occurs in areas of the business world (economics, management). The uncertainty of the labor market requires an entrepreneurial profile, also in the social area. Innovation is increasingly necessary in a social context and the promotion of creativity and design-thinking in the creation of business ideas in these students is crucial. 41 students, 97.5% female, finalists of the Social Education degree, explored their own job creation. An ad hoc questionnaire was used, and responses were submitted to content analysis. The majority (92.6%) showed interest in starting a new company and the others were motivated to innovate existing companies. The investment intention focused on supporting elderly in the community (32.6%) or in institutions (10.8) and people with disabilities (21.7%). Support for the community in general and for minority groups emerged with 10.8% each. The development of community intervention projects and home support services registered, respectively, 46.3% and 36.5%. The majority of students intend to support the business through foreign capital, namely bank loans (41.4%). With less representativeness, own capital (eg anticipation of unemployment benefits - 12.1%) emerged and 36.5% of students did not anticipate the financial support of creating their own jobs. The results are encouraging in relation to students with signs of entrepreneurship in less common areas (social area). Doubts about financial support may result from less investment in these students, highlighting an important path to be taken by higher education institutions.