Abstract:

The subject of entrepreneurship of sole proprietors has been the subject of research, however, it has never included art professionals who are sole proprietors in this industry. The inspiration and reference for the discussed study is the description of the 19. National Smart Specialization, "Smart creative technologies”. The aim of the article is to present and discuss the results of conducted research into opinions of students of art colleges on self-employment, with particular emphasis on the opinions of graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (AFA). For the purpose of this study, the following hypothesis was presented: graduates of artistic majors (theater, music and art), especially graduates of the AFA, are prepared for self-employment within their study major. In order to verify the hypothesis, quantitative and qualitative research was conducted, based on a proprietary research method. Research aiming to assess the entrepreneurial condition of graduates as a prerequisite for successful self-employment seems to be important not only for cognitive purposes, but also due to feedback it provides to the authors of curricula.

The research hypothesis is that students graduating from Industrial Design at the Faculty of Industrial Forms of the AFA are prepared to undertake self-employment as the form of professional activity. Self-employment is not tantamount to professional success in the long run, however lack of valid reasons to take up self-employment is a factor preventing these successes altogether. For the purpose of verification of the hypothesis two types of research were carried out: quantitative and qualitative. The source of the data for the quantitative study was that collected during the project "Study of the Professional History of Graduates of Art Colleges - general report on quantitative research".

To carry out a full spectrum of research, a group of the Academy’s students was contacted. In 2015/16, they participated in a series of training courses carried out as part of the "WEB Design - new competences in the labor market" project. The project was co-financed by the ESF under the OP HC, Priority IV - Education higher education and learning, 4.1.1 Strengthening the didactic potential of universities. 49 persons agreed to participate in qualitative research.

The concept of qualitative research was formulated in the course of interdisciplinary expert discussions, as part of the development of curricula and content of individual course sessions.

In the interpretation of data, the potential and unorthodox ideas of authors, as confronted with operating as a sole proprietorship seems to be an attempt to fit the creative intellect into a too narrow framework. For creative professions, so-called independent, to fully serve their potential, should rely on the support of bodies involved in business administration. The interview data prove irrefutably that genuine talents are among the graduates, and in order for them to develop further, they should obtain support of business environment services on a larger scale than graduates of other faculties.

Keywords:

self-employment, entrepreneurial skills, smart specialization, graduates of artistic faculties