THE POTENTIAL OF ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCES: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS FROM ACADEMIC STAKEHOLDERS

One of the main aspects of privileged action higher education level is geared towards the promotion of a ”culture” of entrepreneurship among the students and the graduates, which contemplates the ability to identify opportunities in the marketplace, and to create new businesses, but also the attitudes and behaviours associated with creativity, innovation and risk. Although there are countless initiatives and entrepreneurship programmes, in Portugal there are no (or at least no known) studies that analyse the non-formal and informal apprenticeships conceived and implemented by the stakeholders in order to clarify the potential of the development of entrepreneurial competences. The non-formal and informal apprenticeships embrace a wide array of initiatives that enable the personal and professional development of students/graduates (e.g., participation in internships or professional experiences, extracurricular activities, youth associations, mobility programmes, organisation of events, volunteering). Actions and initiatives towards the creation of students/graduates’ own businesses/self-employment (e.g., specific training and modules or courses), as well as mentoring and follow-up activities in order to implement projects (e.g., incubation, tutorials, specialized technical consulting) are also considered in this topic. This paper proposes to highlight the contributions of the stakeholders or interface institutions between the university and the surrounding community in the process of technological and knowledge transfer. Our results gathered from the research project: “Entrepreneurial learnings, cooperation and labour market: good practices in higher education (POAT-FSE)” show which are the main stakeholders or interface institutions between the university and the surrounding community in the process of technological and knowledge transfer. Also, it aims to report their profiles, fields of work, perceived advantages and obstacles in the implementation of set of initiatives developed during 2007-2013.