Abstract:

Recent studies have underscored the urgent necessity for entrepreneurial education that is founded upon collaborative and multidimensional training methodologies, with emphasis on students and recent graduates. It is recommended that such strategies involve the entire academic community and a range of stakeholders in order to accomplish the "third" university mission, namely the increasing transfer of knowledge and technology to society. Nevertheless, despite the existence of numerous entrepreneurship initiatives and programmes, there is a dearth of studies in Portugal that systematically examine non-formal and informal learning in order to enhance the potential for developing entrepreneurial skills. This paper seeks to address this gap in the literature by offering insights from the assessment of key actors involved in the design and promotion of entrepreneurial skills in the context of the twofold process of labour market transition.
(i) as an employee; and
(ii) as a self-employed individual engaged in business creation.

The research project Link.EES (Learning, Innovation, Networks and Knowledge), which employed a mixed methodological design (an online survey of 57 academic stakeholders from Portuguese public higher education institutions and a validation phase using the Delphi technique), has enabled an assessment of the collaborative work achieved through the direct participation of the stakeholders in the promotion of entrepreneurial skills. Our empirical findings have identified the primary services provided by these key actors, which can be broadly classified into four categories: firstly, the provision of information on support, programmes and initiatives; secondly, the development of entrepreneurship training courses (courses, workshops, e-learning); thirdly, support for formalising project applications and drawing up business plans; and fourthly, awareness-raising and clarification sessions (seminars and conferences). Furthermore, through the positioning of these stakeholders regarding a list of forty-seven (47) transversal competences, a “Top 3” of entrepreneurial skills was constructed, differentiating between technical, attitudinal, and organisational/sociocultural competences. The implementation of programmes to develop non-formal and informal education, in addition to the involvement of key players in their design and implementation, has led to an increased focus on the transfer of entrepreneurial skills to the labour market and their potential integration into future training provision.

Keywords:

Portugal, Higher Education, Non-formal and informal programmes, Entrepreneurial skills, Stakeholders.