Identifying entrepreneurial interest and skills among university students

Abstract

This study presents the profile of the participants in an online course on entrepreneurship that followed a challenge-based learning methodology and was applied to undergraduate students at a university in Mexico. Students were given challenges related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) during the course and were allowed to recognize their interest in solving these problems. This paper seeks to identify the entrepreneurial profile of university students through their experiences, interests, attitudes, and entrepreneurial skills. Although entrepreneurship courses are offered more frequently in universities, it is necessary to know the characteristics of the students’ interest and their abilities to continue strengthening them. The data were collected through a questionnaire conducted with 20 multidisciplinary participants. The analysis compared the results of those who finished the course vs. those who did not to determine the significant differences in their answers. The results showed that the participants generated sustainable business ideas that favor local and global problems. Additionally, the students showed great interest in social entrepreneurship and developing companies based on the knowledge acquired during their university studies. It is recommended to continue with the training so that these ideas can become real ventures through linkages with other actors in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and favor the solution of sustainable problems. The questionnaire instrument enabled identifying the students’ characteristics, interests, and entrepreneurial skills, which could be strengthened with other programs that train them. It was also possible to recognize skills that they did not possess before starting the e-learning course which require further strengthening.