Abstract:

The agenda of entrepreneurial education has grown much more comprehensive, with a wide array of elements added to its portfolio. Going beyond the profits, it also caters to pressing issues of the times; these may pertain to socioeconomic, ecological concerns, intra and inter-generational equities, responsible consumption, and production. The beauty, brilliance, and above all, the test of entrepreneurial education lies in its efficacy to solve these and create a better life. Entrepreneurial education has to step up the game and lead.
In the wake of new realities and demands on entrepreneurship education, the relevant competencies need to be revisited, redefined, and prioritized appropriately. Entrepreneurship education should not render the learners into robotic ruthless go-getters. Instead, should equally nurture their humane dimension. They should be affable, well-rounded personalities, pleasant to work for, work with and live with, not otherwise.
Sharpening business prowess and pecuniary skills are undeniably the very essence of entrepreneurial education, but it is just one subset of the bigger set. Intangibles of spirituality, ethics, social and ecological concerns should be equally center staged and be part of the curricula. Profits make for sustainability in business behaviours but is it sustainable to sacrifice planetary or social/humane concerns at the altar of profits? What guides the decisions in the face of a dilemma of choice between the two? Entrepreneurial education should infuse this prudence in the minds of its constituents. The paper puts forth a comprehensive conceptual model of business competencies wherein not only core business skills but also axiological intangibles find prominence.
Entrepreneurial education needs rigorous soul-searching on how it conditions minds towards less-materialistic/less-consumptive living patterns geared more towards societal, humane, and planetary concerns.
Research supports their learnability given the right training and awareness of the difference they can make to overall entrepreneurial success. More crucially, they give direction and discretion to entrepreneurial pursuits. A section of the paper elaborates on these experiential pedagogical methods to enhance entrepreneurial prospects among learners.
These submissions on agenda, elements of entrepreneurial competencies, and how these can be most effectively delivered are likely to contribute to the enhanced impact of entrepreneurial education.
Besides, the paper also advocates the need for attitudinal reconditioning via entrepreneurial education. Simple and modest can be elegant too. New rubrics of prosperity can be the number of lives one touches upon rather than any materialistic gains. It needs a shift from a materialistic mindset to a purpose-driven approach, where entrepreneurs measure their success by the positive impact they create in the world. Without the right attitude, no material progress can make lives happy, content, and sustainable; in the absence of this wisdom, it is like filling in a leaky bucket. And the onus of it – lies on entrepreneurial education.
And this can be captured in the given objectives.
Objectives:
i. To offer a conceptual framework of entrepreneurial competence
ii. Delineate the evolving agenda of entrepreneurial education
iii. To recommend ways to enhance relevant competence set among the constituents of entrepreneurial education.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurial education, sustainability, competencies, socioeconomic and ecological concerns.