Abstract:

The Entrepreneurial Culture Promotion Programs aim to promote entrepreneurship among university students. Entrepreneurship is a transversal competence in Engineering Bachelor Degrees ("CT3 - Entrepreneurship capacity and entrepreneurial culture"), which contributes not only to the creation of new companies, but also to the employability of young people [1].

The factors that influence entrepreneurship are many and consist of a combination of personal factors, attributes, experience, disposition, perceptions, etc. Entrepreneurial intentions are generally considered to be determined by the individual's attitude toward entrepreneurship, by motivation, personal characteristics, as well as external factors (social norms, financial, economic or legal factors) [2].

After different entrepreneurial experiences within the Entrepreneurial Culture Promotion Programs developed with engineering students, it has been found that entrepreneurship programs have a positive impact on the perception of the environment and the external factors that influence entrepreneurship. However, they do not affect personal factors in the same way [3].

Among the personal factors, there are many qualities that favor when undertaking. However, self-efficacy is considered of great importance at the beginning of a business project. This concept presents different approaches, depending on whether it is considered exclusively as the belief in the ability to succeed or is considered to be affected by external factors. From any of these perspectives, the recognition of entrepreneurial qualities favors the identification of opportunities and can propel towards entrepreneurship. Furthermore, this perception can be improved through courses and programs to promote entrepreneurial culture that develop these skills [4, 5].

In this work an interactive instrument that allows students to complete a questionnaire and then offer the students a list of recommendations that will help them to be ready to start their project.

The core of the system is a questionnaire of 25 closed questions, distributed in seven characteristics of the entrepreneur (motivation, initiative and personal energy, psychological profile, relationship skills, analytical skills, innovation and creativity, and risk appetite).

References:
[1] A University Training Programme for Acquiring Entrepreneurial and Transversal Employability Skills, a Students’ Assessment. Pilar Laguna-Sánchez *, Pilar Abad, Concepción de la Fuente-Cabrero and Rocío Calero Sustainability 2020, 12, 796.
[2] DeMartino R.; Barbato, R. (2002), “An analysis of the motivational factors of intending entrepreneurs”, Journal of Small Business Strategy, Vol. 13, Num. 2, pp. 26-36.
[3] Rus-Casas, C.; Eliche-Quesada, D.; Aguilar-Peña, J.D.; Jiménez-Castillo, G.; La Rubia, M.D. The Impact of the Entrepreneurship Promotion Programs and the Social Networks on the Sustainability Entrepreneurial Motivation of Engineering Students. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4935.
[4] C.C. Chen, P.G. Green, A. Crick A, “Does entrepreneurial self-efficacy distinguish entrepreneurs from managers?,” Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 13, pp. 295-316, 1998.
[5] A. De Noble., D. Jung., S. Ehrlich, “Entrepreneurial self-efficacy: The development of a measure and its relationship to entrepreneurial actions,” Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Waltham, 1999.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurship, self-efficacy, self-diagnostic tools, engineering students.