Abstract:

Actually, several Andalusian Universities are developing Programs of Promotion of the Entrepreneurial Culture with the aim of implementing activities to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit between university students. These Programs have been consolidated as an essential tool to promote skills as innovation and creativity that contribute to self-employment among the young people. The University of Jaén is one of these pioneering institutions which have joined this objective with proposals listed in the Plan of Practical Training for Employability of the University of Jaén [1].

Success of these programs is more likely if the students are well suited to become entrepreneurs [2, 3]. For this reason the engineering students were selected and several activities related to the promotion of the entrepreneurial spirit were developed during the academic year 2015/2016. A total of 120 students of different Courses and Degrees were involved (Degree in Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering and Electronics Engineering) and 4 lecturers from two Engineering Departments of the University of Jaén (Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering and Automatic and Electronics Engineering).

The proposed activities are encompassed in three of the aims of the Promotion of the Entrepreneurial Culture Programs:
- To announce the services and entrepreneurs' programs.
- To promote the knowledge and the collaboration with the entrepreneurs or business sectors in related careers.
- To disseminate information among the students about the Technology Parks and Technological Centers.

In order to implement the activities, the staff of the Center of Support to the Managerial Development were also involved (CADE). They organized several talks to inform the students about support entrepreneurs programs. Also talks and meetings with entrepreneurs were organized. In addition Scientific and Technological Parks were visited.
After these activities, it is relevant for the development of the Program to assess whether they are effective and their impact on the entrepreneurial intentions of the students.

For this purpose the methodology proposed was the completion of a questionnaire before and after the activities. The questionnaires were designed based on evaluating if the students considered that they had the necessary aptitudes to be entrepreneurs (enterprising autoefficiency) and about the personal attitudes which they considered necessary requirements to be entrepreneur. In addition, the enterprising intention and the interest on these themes were also analyzed.

In this work also is shown how the lectures integrate the entrepreneurship culture with the topics of each course with great success.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurship, competences, innovation activities.