Abstract:

For the Sustainable Development Objective of the 2030 Agenda and the Incheon Declaration, there is an urgent need to develop innovative skills in the field of Entrepreneurship Human Interaction Skills (HIS) and, more specifically, to gather the knowledge of higher education (HE) teachers and needs of business environment and create bridges of interconnection with students who wish to start their business activity.
Objectives and research question: The study is guided by the following "problem/question": what are the students' perceptions about the Entrepreneurship Curriculum (EC) and its role in learning and developing skills that lead to greater employability adjusted to the needs of the business environment and how to make it them more sustainable. The model, Observatory of Entrepreneurship in Higher Education (HEEO), will perform a systemic triangular analysis between: (a) identifying “labor market needs” through the top-down observation carried out with the business and HE; (b) the upward observation of “professional management and guidance” with students; where the primary data allow to define/adjust the (c) formative contents in order to reinforce the HIS in each time cycle (annual).
Methodology: it is in the academy, where the Entrepreneurship UC (curricular unit) is usually taught, students and teachers work together to build business models that allow them to solve problems or generate new business ideas. Beside the Entrepreneurship UCs, there are Observatories, whose main function will be to support the Entrepreneurship UCs in terms of Training-Teaching-Learning of the teachers involved, in order to be updated to meet the needs of the business environment. The qualitative methodology uses specialized software, webQDA, for data analysis, through open procedures, corresponding to a permanent process of progressive creation, in which the reflection and analysis of the data are rigorously triangulated for the identification of the HIS. The instrument is a questionnaire with open questions. The sample consists of 85 students, 7 teachers and 21 entrepreneurs from the community of Northern Portugal. The data triangulation is performed between the documentary analysis to the EC, the answers to the questionnaire and the 3 focus groups composed by: 10 students; 7 teachers; and 7 business environment. The categories are defined a priori or emergent and validated, according to the Delphi method. Data collection is performed at the Entrepreneurship UC, under previously agreed circumstances.
The main results are: i) on the side of the business community: soft and hard cognitive skills are identified as: analysis and problem solving, creativity and innovation, adaptability and flexibility, planning and organization and motivation for excellence; ii) in the teaching and learning aspect of HE: pedagogical practices are identified, such as: lectures, tutoring, workshops, seminars, pitch’s, inverted classroom, problem-based learning and emotional intelligence practices.
The main conclusions are: The HEEO model contributed to bring higher education closer to the business community and promote scientific knowledge in the area of entrepreneurship. It promoted the improvement between the educational offer of HE and the needs of the labor market, guaranteeing the level of employability, projecting the management of the professional career of students/graduates, providing economic growth, according to UNESCO: entrepreneurial vision and sustainability.

Keywords:

University, Industry Collaboration, Entrepreneurship Education, Human Interactions Skills, Business Community.