G, Title, Keywords, Abstract, References, Contributors, Comments for the Editor
Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Intention, Entrepreneurship Education, Higher Secondary Students , Entrepreneurial Competencies , Theory of Planned Behavior , Self-Employment , BangladeshAbstract
Research on entrepreneurial intention among secondary school students has become more important for the past two decades. The government of Bangladesh considered entrepreneurship as an important career option and source of national prosperity. This paper reports a small research study on entrepreneurial intention and competencies of the students of grade XI and XII in two selected government colleges. The study intended to explore the background context of the colleges in relation to entrepreneurship and teachers’ views about what could be the required steps for promoting entrepreneurial intentions based on the Theory of Planned Behavior.
The findings indicated that although very few participants want to be an entrepreneur, they have 73.70% strong and 15.80% highly strong level of competencies. Interestingly, those who do not want to be an entrepreneur, if they get financial, legal, social and administrative support from the government, also have a strong intention to be an entrepreneur. The study explored that reasons behind some of the negative attitudes include a lack of social status, lack of adequate funding, uncertainty, lack of courage, lack of legal, social and administrative support, and inadequate government support. Ways to resolve these challenges over time are discussed and include (i) developing teachers’ agency, (ii) ensuring social status, (iii) motivational seminars, (iv) training initiatives, and (v) support from banks and NGOs. Also, it is observed that there is no significant difference in the level of entrepreneurial intentions between male and female students.
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