Explaining Educational Content Features With Emphasis on Entrepreneurship Skills of Students in Engineering Fields and Comparing them with the Situation at Hormozgan University

At the present, the development of entrepreneurship is one of the core programs of developing countries. Therefore, investing on human resources aspects of entrepreneurship has a special place in these programs. Universities are expected to play a pivotal role in developing entrepreneurial capabilities. Universities are expected to provide the entrepreneurial capabilities needed by the society with an innovative trend. Also, the university can create entrepreneurial capabilities including knowledge, skills and entrepreneurial attitudes among graduates and they can promote these abilities in the society as the agents of social change. The purpose of this study was to explain the educational content characteristics with emphasis on entrepreneurship skills in engineering fields and comparing it with the current situation at Hormozgan university.

The method was a mix method. The population in the qualitative sector includes all the top entrepreneurs and college students and in the quantitative part it included all students and professors of Hormozgan university. Participants in the qualitative section were selected by desirable methods, and in the quantitative section, a stratified sampling method was used. The sample size was determined in the qualitative information saturation section and in the quantitative part by the Cochran formula. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the qualitative data was verified by checking members. In the quantitative section, by content and structure validity, and reliability by the Cronbach alpha. Qualitative data were analyzed by thematic analysis and quantitative data by descriptive statistics, t-test, and confirmatory factor analysis.

The extracted categories included the promotion of individual skills, the application of content, the technical principles of entrepreneurship and flexible content. The quantitative results of the quantitative survey indicate the unfavorable condition of the enumerated attributes for educational content.

The results of the study showed that from the perspective of the interviewed entrepreneurs and professors, features such as improving personal skills, flexible content, practical content and paying attention to the technical principles of entrepreneurship are among the important features that can promote entrepreneurship skills among students. It is suggested that more attention be paid to increasing individual abilities, including creativity, communication skills, and emotional skills. As the educational content moves away from the theoretical dimension, by introducing students to practical issues in various forms, prepare the ground for further development of entrepreneurial skills. It is also recommended that professors of engineering majors pay more attention to the needs, interests and talents of their students in choosing educational content to reduce the problem of their lack of motivation to learn.