Entrepreneurship Competencies for Vocational Curriculum Development. Instructor's Handbook. Final Report.

Overview & Synopsis

This handbook is intended to assist vocational teachers and administrators in preparing vocational curricula that include materials for developing teacher- and business-identified entrepreneurship competencies. The handbook begins with a discussion of the need to infuse entrepreneurship education into all areas of vocational education. The next section examines related literature and entrepreneurship education materials, including the National Center for Research in Vocational Education's model for lifelong entrepreneurship education and the Program for Acquiring Competencies in Entrepreneurship (PACE). Described next are the procedures used in the survey of 590 Pennsylvania area vocational-technical school instructors and 60 small business owners and managers from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, that was conducted to identify the entrepreneurship competencies needed by students in the individual vocational education curriculum areas. The next two sections analyze the survey results and suggest various curriculum materials and procedures that can be used to infuse instruction in the competencies identified into existing vocational courses. Appendixes include the U.S. Department of Education policy statement on entrepreneurship education; an entrepreneurship education model; and a breakdown of survey responses according to the following vocational education subject areas: agriculture/horticulture, air conditioning/environment, appliance repair, automotive/heavy equipment, building/construction trades, business/computers, creative and graphic arts/design, cosmetology, electronics, food preparation, health occupations, machine shop/tool and die making, marketing and distribution, and welding. (MN)