User Handbook for the EICAA Digital Platform

Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Competences Assessment Alliance

User Handbook for the EICAA Digital Platform Deliverable (WP6) Version 2.4 Last update: 09/01/2024

This handbook is a publication belonging to Work Package 6 ”Pilot Round & Data Analysis” of the project Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Competences Assessment Alliance (EICAA).

Document dissemination level: public.

Manuscript completed in November 2023. Revised in December 2023.

Authors: Szabolcs Prónay (University of Szeged); Ábel Garamhegyi (University of Szeged); Louisa Mach (University of Hohenheim), Bernd Ebersberger (University of Hohenheim), Florian Bratzke (Univations).

Contributors: Marta Carceller (TecnoCampus), Ester Bernardó-Mansilla (TecnoCampus), Wouter Van Bockhaven (AMS), Tanvi Anand (AMS), Anita Zehrer (MCI), Gundula Glowka (MCI), Desiree Wieser (MCI), Taimur Khan (Adsata), Jonas Kühl (Adsata), András Toth (eVista), Julia Zoller (ProMedia).

Contact information: pronay.szabolcs@eco.u-szeged.hu

The EICAA consortiums consists of the following core partners:

ANTWERP MANAGEMENTSCHOOL ADSATA

EVISTA

MANAGEMENT CENTER INNSBRUCK

TECNOCAMPUS PROMEDIA KOMMUNIKATION

UNIVATIONS

UNIVERSITY OF SZEGED

UNIVERSITY OF HOHENHEIM

Licence Terms

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 4.0 international License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) Under the licence, you are free to: SHARE – copy and redistribute the materials in any medium or format ADAPT – remix, transform, and build upon the materials The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms: Attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

NonCommercial – You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

ShareAlike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contribution under the same license as original.

No additional restrictions – You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Table of Content

Introduction ................................................................................................................. 6 PART A: GETTING TO KNOW THE EICAA DIGITAL PLATFORM ............................. 8 1.

Background information before using the EICAA Digital Platform .................. 9 1.1

2.

Entrepreneurship as a Key Competence .................................................... 9

EICAA Digital Platform elements – a short introduction ................................. 12 2.1

2.1 The EICAA Competence Framework (EICAA-CF) ............................... 12

2.1.1

Structure of EICAA-CF ........................................................................ 12

2.1.2

A Briefing on EntreComp .................................................................... 15

2.1.3 Development of EICAA Competence Framework & Differences to EntreComp ......................................................................................................... 16

3.

2.2

2.2 EICAA Competence Monitor (EICAA-CM) ........................................... 19

2.3

2.3 EICAA Competence Development Kit (CDK) ...................................... 27

Different options for using the EICAA Digital Platform ................................... 31 3.1

General remarks ......................................................................................... 31

3.2

Getting Started on the EICAA Digital Platform ......................................... 32

3.3

Using the Competence Monitor only ......................................................... 34

3.4

3.4 Using the Competence Development Kit only .................................... 41

3.5 3.5 Combined use of Competence Monitor & Competence Development Kit (Recommended) .............................................................................................. 48 4.

Application Scenarios for the Digital Platform ................................................ 50 4.1 Benchmarking Entrepreneurship Competences with EICAA Competence Monitor ................................................................................................................... 50 4.2 Longitudinal Study Track the Competence Change in Your Group in the Long Run ............................................................................................................... 51 4.3

Evaluation: Before and After an Entrepreneurial Training....................... 51

4.4 Target performance analysis review the institutional strategy of promoting entrepreneurial thinking ..................................................................... 52 4.5 Educators guide: Tailoring educational content to the entrepreneurial competence level of the participants ................................................................... 52

PART B: THE EICAA DIGITAL PLATFORM IN PRACTICE ...................................... 54 1.

Use Cases from Across Europe........................................................................ 55 1.1 From Assessment to Action: Leveraging EICAA for Entrepreneurial Competence Development at University of Hohenheim ..................................... 57 1.2 Entrepreneurship Education Best Practice: Speed Dating to improve Enterprising Literacy ............................................................................................ 68 1.3

Pilot Testing at Antwerp Management School.......................................... 77

1.4 How to motivate 600+ students to participate in a survey? The University of Szeged EICAA cases ........................................................................................ 84 1.5 Paving the Way for a Large Scale Pilot Test Overcoming Barriers, Fostering Engagement, and Garnering Institutional commitment..................... 94 1.6 Univations Institute: Bridging Entrepreneurship and Knowledge Transfer in Saxony-Anhalt ................................................................................................. 106 1.7 Navigating Competence Dynamics in Public Relations: A Case Study of ProMedia Kommunikation GmbH ....................................................................... 113 1.8

Using the Student Self-Assessment in an Executive Programme in Austria 120

1.9 Using the Szeged International Week for Fostering Entrepreneurship Competences? The University of Szeged EICAA Employee Case................... 128 2. Main Findings of EICAA Pilot Round – Highlighting the Opportunities to Implement the EICAA Digital Platform .................................................................. 135

Introduction

Welcome to the EICAA Digital Platform Handbook, a comprehensive guide designed for trainers and educators dedicated to fostering entrepreneurial thinking and skills.

What is EICAA? EICAA stands for Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Competences Assessment Alliance. It is a European university-business collaboration that has developed a digital platform to facilitate the assessment and development of entrepreneurial competences among university students and corporate employees. Hence, the EICAA Digital Platform is the core product of EICAA. It enables a more data-driven orientation of entrepreneurship education.

Who is this Handbook for?

This handbook delves into the intricacies of the EICAA Digital Platform, offering insights into its conceptual background, instruments, and practical application in various educational settings across the EU. It is addressing corporate trainers and university educators who are seeking effective strategies to cultivate entrepreneurial skills among their learners more data-driven. Whether you are new to the field of entrepreneurial teaching/training or looking to enhance your existing methods and activities, this handbook may serve as a valuable resource.

What is included in this Handbook?

The EICAA Digital Platform Handbook is organized into two main parts. Part one introduces entrepreneurship as a key transversal competence before explaining what the EICAA Digital Platform is about and how it can support educators and trainers in fostering entrepreneurial thinking and acting among learners. This entails a detailed explanation of the main platform elements, namely: a) the EICAA Competence Framework, b) the EICAA Competence Monitor, and c) the EICAA Competence Development Kit. In addition, the handbook also introduces different application scenarios to employ these instruments meaningfully.

Part two of the handbook features practical applications of the EICAA Digital Platform that took place across Europe in 2023. These examples offer valuable insights into how the instruments of the EICAA Digital Platform have been meaningfully exploited to foster entrepreneurship education in various educational contexts.

Jointly, part 1 and 2 of the handbook offer a structured approach that ensures a comprehensive understanding of the EICAA Digital Platform, both from a theoretical and a practical perspective.

How to use this Handbook?

To maximize the benefits of this handbook, it has been designed to be both - a comprehensive guide and a practical reference manual. All sections of the handbook have been written to facilitate the adoption of the EICAA Digital Platform in teaching and 6

training practice. Educators and trainers can focus on specific chapters that align with their immediate educational needs or explore the handbook in its entirety for a more holistic understanding.

7

PART A: GETTING TO KNOW THE EICAA DIGITAL PLATFORM

8

1. Background information before using the EICAA Digital Platform

1.1 Entrepreneurship as a Key Competence Lifelong Learning in the European Union: The ET 2020 Strategy In the European Union, the concept of Lifelong Learning (LLL)1 has evolved to become a cornerstone of educational policy, transcending the traditional confines of early life schooling. The Education and Training 2020 strategy (ET 2020), a pivotal component of this approach, represents the EU's commitment to fostering continuous learning opportunities for its citizens throughout their lives. This strategy not only reflects a shift in educational philosophy but also addresses the dynamic needs of modern societies and labor markets.

ET 2020 is a framework that guides the EU's policies in education and training. It underscores the recognition that learning is not a phase restricted to the early years but a continuous process that spans an individual's entire lifetime. This framework focuses on facilitating cooperation among Member States in the domains of formal, non-formal, and informal education, thus ensuring a cohesive and comprehensive approach to learning across the EU. ET2020 has the following key objectives: •

•

•

•

Promoting Lifelong Learning and Mobility: ET 2020 places a strong emphasis on enhancing learning mobility and the quality of learning experiences. It encourages cross-border educational opportunities, enabling learners to gain international exposure and experiences.

Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Education and Training: The strategy aims to elevate the standards of education and training systems across the EU. This objective is geared towards producing high-calibre, relevant skills and competencies that align with the evolving demands of the job market and society.

Promoting Equity, Social Cohesion, and Active Citizenship: ET 2020 addresses the need to make education and training more inclusive. It strives to ensure that individuals from diverse backgrounds have equal access to learning opportunities, fostering social integration and active participation in civic life.

Enhancing Creativity and Innovation, Including Entrepreneurship, at All Levels of Education and Training: The strategy recognizes the importance of fostering creative and innovative thinking within educational systems. This focus is crucial for nurturing future generations who can contribute innovatively to the economy and society. From the EICAA project perspective this is the most important objective of ET2020 as this forms the basis for our project.

The EICAA project can be interpreted as an implementation of ET 2020 key objective.

However, the impact of ET 2020 is far-reaching and EICAA is just a minor element in this wide set of goal. It has led to the development of policies that support LLL and has 1

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/infographics/lifelonglearning/

9

influenced educational reforms at national levels. By fostering a culture of continuous learning, ET 2020 contributes significantly to the personal and professional growth of individuals, thereby enhancing the competitiveness and social cohesion within the EU, while the instruments established by the EICAA consortium provide support for achieving these aims.

Eight key competences As detailed above, lifelong learning is emphasized through the key competences necessary for individuals in the 21st century2. In 2018, the Council of the European Union adopted a recommendation on these competences, reflecting a comprehensive view of what skills and abilities are essential for personal fulfilment, employability, active citizenship, and social inclusion.

Figure 1: Key Competences for Lifelong Learning according to the EU.

The EU identified key competences as a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes appropriate to the context. These competences are crucial for personal development, social inclusion, active citizenship, and employment. They are multidimensional, integrating set of skills, as detailed below.

2

https://op.europa.eu/s/y56B

10

The eight key competences are: • • •

• • • • •

Literacy Competence: Proficiency in reading and writing, and understanding and expressing thoughts, feelings, and facts in both oral and written form.

Multilingual Competence: Ability to use different languages appropriately and effectively for communication.

Mathematical Competence and Basic Competences in Science and Technology: Ability to develop and apply mathematical thinking to solve a range of problems in everyday life, along with a basic understanding of the scientific method and principles.

Digital Competence: Confident and critical usage of Information Society Technology (IST) for work, leisure, and communication.

Personal, Social, and Learning to Learn Competence: Ability to reflect on oneself, effectively manage time and information, constructively engage with others, and manage one's learning and career path.

Citizenship Competence: Ability to act as a responsible citizen and to participate fully in civic and social life, based on an understanding of social, economic, and political concepts and structures.

Cultural Awareness and Expression Competence: Appreciation of the importance of creative expression of ideas, experiences, and emotions in a range of media, including music, performing arts, literature, and visual arts.

Entrepreneurship Competence: Ability to turn ideas into action through creativity, innovation, and risk-taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects – for further details please see the next chapter.

The emphasis on these competences has led to the development of more dynamic and inclusive learning environments and projects – like EICAA. This approach encourages the use of varied teaching methodologies that cater to different learning styles and needs, ensuring that education is more accessible and effective.

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2. EICAA Digital Platform elements – a short introduction The EICAA Digital Platform consists of three interlinked main elements that were established having the following mission in mind: (a) Create a theoretical framework for entrepreneurial competences that leans on the European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework (EntreComp) but also challenges and progresses it. This resulted in the EICAA Competence Framework (1st main element) (b) Develop an instrument rooted in the EICAA Competence Framework that enables the self-assessment and analysis of entrepreneurial competences of university students and employees on group level. This resulted in the EICAA Competence Monitor (2nd main element) (c) Provide a large repository of teaching and training materials to facilitate entrepreneurship education. This resulted in the EICAA Competence Development Kit (3rd main element) (d) logically combine (b) and (c) within a digital platform to enable a more data driven approach of entrepreneurship education.

While the EICAA Competence Monitor and the EICAA Competence Development Kit are integrated as functional and constituent instruments directly into the EICAA Digital Platform, this is not the case for the EICAA Competence Framework. The framework is, however, indirectly present on the platform as the underlying theoretical basis of the other two main elements. It can be consulted in detail on the EICAA project website3.

The following subchapters provide a conceptual summary for each of the main elements of the EICAA Digital Platform. This serves to understand their overall purpose better, before explaining how each element can be applied in the chapters following afterwards.

2.1 The EICAA Competence Framework (EICAA-CF) This chapter summarises the EICAA Competence Framework (EICAA-CF) which defines a complete set of competences that entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs should possess to turn opportunities into ideas and into the deployment and growth of value creating activities. Having a basic understanding of the EICAA-CF is key when using the EICAA Digital Platform as it built upon the theoretical basis of the EICAA framework.

2.1.1 Structure of EICAA-CF The following table presents the structure of EICAA-CF with its competences and threads. The table below shows the graphical representation of the framework.

3

See details under: https://www.eicaa.eu/results/competence-framework/

12

Table 1: The EICAA Framework.

Competen ce 1.1 Spotting opportunitie s

2. Resources

1. Ideas & Opportunities

Area

Threads

• • • • 1.2 Design • orientation • • • 1.3 Creativity • • • 1.4. Vision

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

1.5 Valuing ideas 1.6 Ethical and sustainable thinking 2.1 Selfawareness and selfefficacy 2.2 Motivation and perseveran ce 2.3 • Mobilising resources • • • • 2.4 • Enterprisin • g literacy • • 2.5.

• Mobilizing • others • • 2.6. Digital • competenc • e • •

Analyse the context/Scan the environment Identify, recognise challenges Identify, create and seize opportunities Design focus Immerse with your users Identify needs Act creatively/Be curious and open Solve problems creatively/Creative problem solving Generate ideas Be innovative Imagine/Build a vision for the new venture and oneself Think strategically Guide action Recognise the value of ideas Share and protect ideas Behave ethically Think sustainably Assess impact Be accountable Follow your aspirations Identify your strengths and weaknesses Believe in your ability Shape your future Maintain focus (consistency of interest) Stay motivated and passionate Persevere/Tenacity/Don’t give up Be resilient Acquire resources (material and nonmaterial) Make the most of limited resources Budget Find funding Understand taxation Understand economic and financial concepts Understand marketing and sales concepts Enterprising literacy Technical-legal aspects Inspire and get inspired Persuade and negotiate Communicate effectively Use media effectively General digital competences at work Digital competences for the new venture Information and data literacy Safety and cybersecurity 13

3. Into Action

3.1 Taking • the initiative • • 3.2 • Planning • and • manageme • nt • 3.3 Process • manageme • nt • • • 3.4 Coping • with • uncertainty, • ambiguity, and risk 3.5 Design • validation • • 3.6 Working • with others • • • • • • • 3.7 • Learning • through • experience

Take responsibility Work independently Take action Define goals Plan and organise conscientiously Define priorities Make the most of your time (time management) Define and develop sustainable business plans Monitor progress Be flexible and adaptive to changes Redirect your strategy Manage transitions Work agile Cope with uncertainty and ambiguity Calculate risk Manage risk

Prototype Experiment and test Co-create Accept diversity (people’s differences) Develop emotional intelligence Listen actively Team up Work together Manage instrumental relationships Get support and build a network Expand your network Reflect Learn to learn Learn from experience

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Figure 2: Visual representation of the EICAA Competence Framework.

2.1.2 A Briefing on EntreComp The EICAA-CF suggests a progression to the European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework (EntreComp)4. Consequently, it also follows the wide conceptual understanding of entrepreneurship that is integral to EntreComp. This understanding is rooted in the definition provided by the Danish Foundation of Entrepreneurship which defines entrepreneurship as „when you act upon opportunities and ideas and transform them into value for others. The value that is created can be financial, cultural, or social”5.

4

All information on EntreComp as well as valuable support material can be found on the website of the EU Science Hub: https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/entrecomp-entrepreneurship-competenceframework_en.

5

FFE-YE. (2012). Impact of Entrepreneurship Education in Denmark - 2011. In L.Vestergaard, K. Moberg & C. Jørgensen (Eds.). Odense: The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship - Young Enterprise.

15

In contrast to EICAA-CF, EntreComp delineates only fifteen entrepreneurship competences that are structured, however, also under the same three interconnected competence areas (“Ideas and Opportunities”, “Resources” and “Into Action”). Every competence in EntreComp unfolds into several threads, which in turn, unfold into learning outcomes, structured in eight proficiency levels. The framework was published by the European Commission in 2016 and provided a European perspective to answer to the following questions: • • •

What are the elements define entrepreneurship as a transversal competence?

How can entrepreneurship be described in terms of learning outcomes in a lifelong learning perspective?

How can entrepreneurial learning outcomes be grouped into proficiency levels?

However, any competence framework needs to stay up to date to continuously matter for educators and learners over time. Only then it continues to provide good guidance for educators and learners with respect to the competence demand of today and tomorrow’s world of work and of the society at large. To do so, new competence trends or requirements need to be carefully and regularly considered. As a matter of fact, providing such update for EntreComp was also the intention behind the establishment of the EICAA Competence Framework.

2.1.3 Development of EICAA Differences to EntreComp

Competence

Framework

&

The EICAA Competence Framework took EntreComp as its starting but examined the validity of the EntreComp competence portfolio on the basis of a systematic literature review performed on 139 articles, both academic papers and grey literature, on entrepreneurship. This literature review was complemented by a comparison of EntreComp with six relevant frameworks on entrepreneurial competences.6 The results of the analysis were taken to suggest a progression to EntreComp which adds more emphasis on the following aspects: •

•

•

Design: i.e., the competence of designing products, services and solutions under constant interaction with the target group (mainly users). Solutions arise from design focus, needs identification and immersion with the users or target group of the value creating activity (“design orientation”). They are co-created, prototyped and iterated with the target group (“design validation”). Thus, this process goes beyond the traditional approach of identifying needs.

Digital: today’s entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs need to efficiently use the general digital tools and infrastructures needed to manage any kind of business (e.g., spreadsheets, email, website…) as well as those tools that are specific to the success of that specific value creating activity (e.g., analytics, CRM).

Awareness and knowledge on cybersecurity and data protection are also necessary.

Process-view: “entrepreneurship as a process” refers to the dynamic nature of the entrepreneurial activity, which consists of different phases from the early start-up until maturity and requires different entrepreneurial competences in each

6

The full analysis leading to the development of the EICAA Competence Development is available on the EICAA project website under: https://www.eicaa.eu/results/competence-framework/.

16

of them. This perspective counterbalances the traditional approach of planning and managing, often under the requirement of writing a solid business plan. The uncertainty present in entrepreneurial contexts makes planning either a very difficult task or a task that needs to be revised constantly. Thus, EICAA-CF emphasizes the need to adapt to changes, work in small increments, measure progress, and redirect the strategy of the new venture when necessary.

Entrepreneurs need to take ownership of the process as well, which means that they should manage the whole process, rather than being passive (or reactive) actors along the process.

Despite these changes, the EICAA Competence Framework maintains the same three competence areas of EntreComp (“Ideas and Opportunities”, “Resources” and “Into Action”) as well as all underlying competences therein. However, it also adds four new competences, restructures existing competences, and suggests changes on the level of threads.

Changes at the competence level Based on the results of a comprehensive systematic literature review, the following competences were added: 1.

2.

3.

4.

“Design orientation” in competence area “Ideas and opportunities”.

“Digital competence” in competence area “Resources”.

“Process management” in competence area “Into action”.

“Design validation” in competence area “Into action”.

The rationale for these changes is: •

•

Emphasizing the spirit of agile and customer orientation from current entrepreneurial methods, with competences related to design, co-creation, experimentation, iteration, and process management. Thus, rather than having a view of entrepreneurship that is strongly connected to traditional business planning methods, we aim to include the practitioner’s approach to entrepreneurship. o We believe that adding competences related to current entrepreneurship methods such as design thinking, lean start-up, and effectuation can provide a more fine-tuned approximation to the entrepreneurial competences and their development. However, we believe that we do not need to tailor to any entrepreneurship method. Rather than this, we emphasize competences that are present in these methods like designing, prototyping, experimenting, customer discovery, etc. o Another reason is that many entrepreneurial schools and incubation training programmes use these methodologies to teach entrepreneurs and students. Thus, the EICAA-CF could be better aligned with these educational practices.

Adding digital competences into the EICAA-CF aims to recognize the importance of digital competences in today’s world and any new venture. These competences have been recently listed in specific frameworks such as DigComp 2.2 (“The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens”). We aim to include basic and general digital skills that any entrepreneur should possess; from having basic digital skills to being aware of the safety and privacy issues related to digitalization. Digital competences, and even artificial intelligence and big data technologies, are receiving greater interest in entrepreneurship and

17

•

entrepreneurship education. Adding this competence to EICAA-CF aligns with today’s rapid technological developments and the increasing need for entrepreneurs to know, manage, and maximize the benefits of technologies for the new venture.

Bringing up the distinction between planning and managing the process of the new venture. The existing competence “Planning” refers to defining goals, organizing, prioritizing, and developing plans. The new competence “Process management” emphasizes the view of entrepreneurship as a process, i.e., a series of steps that the entrepreneur goes through, mostly nonlinearly, but iteratively. Second, with the new competence, we emphasize that the entrepreneur should manage and guide the process while they are discovering/getting information on the customers, market, competitors, financial sustainability, stakeholder interaction, etc.

Changes at the thread level The other changes to EntreComp are aimed at simplifying the number of threads and minimising the conceptual overlapping among some threads and learning outcomes. The latter issue is addressed by adding definitions to threads that provide an enhanced understanding of what the thread means, according to the reviewed literature.

Competence area “Resources”: • • •

Competence “Financial and economic literacy”: we added the thread “Enterprising literacy”, to emphasize the need for enterprising knowledge beyond “Economic and financial literacy”.

The thread “Mobilising resources” stays in the framework with all threads related to the acquisition of financial resources.

Competence “Motivation and perseverance”: we revised the wording of the threads belonging to this competence to improve its understanding.

Competence area “Into action”: •

•

Competence “Planning and management” incorporates the thread “Make the most of your time”, which was initially allocated to the thread “Mobilising resources”. This was made as a result of the factor analysis conducted with the first test.

Competence “Working with others”: we added a new thread “Manage instrumental relationships” as a way of emphasizing how relationships are built, managed, and transitioned along the new venture. According to the survey validation, we also moved the thread “Get support” from the competence “Mobilising resources” to the thread “Get support and build a network”, in the competence “Working with others”. The new thread is renamed “Get support and build a network”.

Changes in progression stages In addition, the complexity of EntreComp, in terms of the number of competences and eight progressions within each competence, makes it rather challenging to develop userfriendly self-assessment instruments. This is why we strategically decided to reduce the number of progression stages from eight to four in the EICAA-CF. However, we nevertheless preserved the overall distinction into four proficiency levels: Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert. Thus, the EntreComp rubric was simplified or condensed rather than radically changed.

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For more information on the EICAA Competence Framework, please consult https://www.eicaa.eu/results/competence-framework/.

2.2 EICAA Competence Monitor (EICAA-CM) The aim of the EICAA Competence Monitor (EICAA-CM) is to: a) offer an online instrument that allows to determine the entrepreneurship competence proficiency of HEI students and employees on a group level based on individual self-assessments. b) provide a basic visual analysis of the self-assessment data (group level) within a user-friendly data dashboard.

To enable a), the rubric system of EICAA-CF had to be operationalized into survey instruments (one instrument for use among university students and one for use among business employees/practitioners)7. Thus, the rubric system served as a foundation for the design of a self-assessment survey of entrepreneurship competences that constitutes the data-gathering part of the EICAA Competence Monitor. The survey was refined in several iterations following a Delphi process and several pre-tests (see below).

To enable b), a digital dashboard had to be designed and programmed that provides educators and trainers with a visual analysis of the self-assessment data.

Development of a self-assessment survey for the EICAA Competence Monitor In total 5 versions of the survey were developed: with the first one using shortened versions of the rubric as answer options and employing five EntreComp-inspired proficiency levels (None, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert). Each version was developed through a combination of at least one expert focus group, and a Delphi process with asynchronous review rounds. In the second last version, item statements from the third version were reduced in length and lexically simplified and where necessary, a responsive hint was added to clarify the meanings of the terms used.

The next two survey versions of the survey were then subjected to two pre-test rounds (February 2022 and August 2022) with different sample sizes from students across Europe (N=72 and N=202), particularly from Belgium, Spain, Hungary, Germany, and Austria. This online survey adopted a 5-point Likert scale with 79 items covering all entrepreneurship competences. Reliability, Normality, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Average Variances Extracted were conducted using the platforms SPSS, AMOS, and R. The evolution through these five iterations can be seen in Figure 3. A confirmatory analysis informed us about the validity of the framework structure. Based on this analysis, we also revised the structure and designed the final version of the EICAA Competence Framework.

7

All details on the operationalization of the rubric and the validation of the survey(s) can be retraced by consulting the documentation on the establishment of the EICAA Competence Monitor: https://www.eicaa.eu/results/competence-monitor/.

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Figure 3: Evolution of the Self-Assessment Survey for the EICAA Competence Monitor.

The resulting survey is easy to access for respondents, implementors, and any interested third-party institutions through the EICAA Digital Platform (www.platform.eicaa.eu) and direct links generated from the platform. It is also fully GDPR compliant.

Figure 4: Snapshot of Self-Assessment Survey on EICAA Digital Platform.

The survey rates each competence at ordinal level, further elaborating EICAA-CF for today’s entrepreneurial context. This is exploited to allow participating students and practitioners to get qualitative feedback on their entrepreneurial competence profile (see below) after finishing the self-assessment.8

8

This function is only enabled if the user creating the self-assessment survey selects it in the settings.

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Dashboard of the Competence Monitor The second part of the EICAA Competence Monitor is the data dashboard. It allows users to get a visual analysis of the self-assessment data and also to download the selfassessment dataset. Of course, this is only possible once a self-assessment has been successfully implemented. If this is the case, the dashboard provides the user with a basic summary of the self-assessment data, including a list that highlights the strongest and weakest competences (see below, Figure 5).

Figure 5: Data Summary of Self-Assessment in Dashboard of EICAA Competence Monitor.

The calculation of the average score is based on standardized means (z-scores)9: 𝑥−𝜇 𝑍=𝑋− 𝜎 where X represents the score for a given competence of the selected assessment group, where 𝜇 represents the mean score for this competence of all other (students or employees) on the EICAA Digital Platform, and where 𝜎 represents the standard deviation score for this competence (all other students or employees) on the EICAA Digital Platform.

Finally, z-scores are turned into a 1-5 scale again to (re-)align with the proficiency levels of the EICAA self-assessment scale (see below, Table 2).

9

The general logic for using this standardisation is to compare how an assessed group (students or employees) has scored in relation to all other groups (students or employees) on the platform. Thus, the population we compare an assessment to is always either all other student data or all other employee data on the platform. With other words, one can claim a group performs good or bad only by considering how everyone else has performed – “everyone else” is either all student data or all employee data on platform.

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Table 2: Proficiency Level Scale of the EICAA Competence Monitor.

Level / Name

–1–

–2–

–3–

–4–

–5–

of Proficiency

NONE

BASIC

INTERMEDIATE

ADVANCED

EXPERT

Interpretation of Progression

I have

I have

I have

no under-

a basic under-

I have experience in applying

standing

standing

I am considered as a reference & inspiration

obtained desired outputs despite challenges

Based on these calculations, the visual analysis of the data dashboard further offers the following charts10: -

-

10

Spider web chart (Figure 6), which provides a standardized group average score per competence (breakdown of colour per competence area) Competence heatmap (Figure 7), which shows the distribution of scores for participants of the selected self-assessment(s). Darker colours indicate higher frequency for the given competence, whereas light colours indicate lower frequency for the given competence (e.g. if participants of the selected dataset more often scored as “intermediate” for competence “design orientation”, then the blue colour will be darker) Proficiency level distribution (Figure 8), which provides a histogram showing the distribution of participants according to different proficiency levels from the EICAA Competence Frameworks rubric system based on standardized scores (i.e. what proportion of the dataset falls in which proficiency level)

These charts can also be directly downloaded from the platform (PNG-format).

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Figure 6: Visualisation of Standardized Group Score Average – Spider Web Chart of EICAA Competence Monitor.

Figure 7: Competence Heatmap of EICAA Competence Monitor.

Figure 8: Visualisation of Proficiency Level Distribution of EICAA Competence Monitor.

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Participant feedback report and certificate of participation In surveys, it is crucial to motivate participants appropriately to take part. To contribute to this, the EICAA platform offers the option to allow the self-assessment participants the download of a feedback report after they have completed the survey. However, this option must be selected in the basic settings when creating the self-assessment (= default setting).

The feedback report provides a brief introduction to the three areas of the EICAA Competence Framework. This allows the participants to gain some conceptual background information on the self-assessment. In addition, the report summarises answer results numerically and compares them with the answers of all other selfassessment participants on the EICAA Digital Platform (a distinction is only made here between students and employees). This provides the participants with a basic benchmark to better judge their own self-assessment results. In addition, participants receive a certificate confirming that they have taken part in the EICAA self-assessment.

The screenshots below illustrate the basic areas of the participants feedback report.

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Figure 9: Participant Feedback Report.

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2.3 EICAA Competence Development Kit (CDK) The purpose of the EICAA Competence Development Kit (CDK) is to help educators and trainers foster entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial skill development among students and employees. To do so, the CDK provides a comprehensive catalogue of entrepreneurial learning intervention resources for both settings - higher education teaching and corporate training (offered by an in-house or external unit). Thus, its main target groups are university educators and individuals who seek to offer corporate training in the field of entrepreneurship education.

Methodological and structural approach The content of the CDK can be applied to enrich existing entrepreneurship education formats or for the establishment of new student interventions and practitioner training.

This flexibility is guaranteed by the syllabus style of the CDK which allows educators and trainers to adapt each module to their specific educational context. Moreover, all modules have been established following a coherent structure that aligns with the recommendations shared by the European Commission11 for creating micro-credentialready learning content. Each module contains the following constituent structural elements as described in the table below: Table 3:Structural Elements of the EICAA Competence Development Kit Modules.

Structural Element Description of Structural Elements & Subordinate Components 1. Module Overview

Provides info on: the competence, additional competences covered by the module, learning outcomes, the target group, the proficiency levels, the estimated workload, a proposed assessment, and format.

a) Main competence:

States the main entrepreneurship competence the module fosters (aligning to the understanding of the competence as described in the EICAA Competence Framework).

b) Additional States supplementary entrepreneurship competence() the competence(s): module fosters (aligning to the understanding of the competences as described in the EICAA Competence Framework). c) Learning Outcomes:

States the expected learning outcomes of the module (relying on the “I can…” statements of the rubric within the EICAA Competence Framework).

d) Target Group:

Makes explicit for whom the module has been created for (designated group to put the module to practice - university educators or entrepreneurship education trainers (or both)?

e) Proficiency level:

The proficiency level of the module (basic, intermediate, or advanced).

11

European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, Shapiro Futures, H., Andersen, T., Nedergaard Larsen, K., A European approach to micro-credentials – Output of the microcredentials higher education consultation group – Final report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2020, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/30863.

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f) Workload:

The workload is indicated by “virtual” ECTS or workload hours.

g) Assessment:

Describes examination requirements, the designated format of examination and provides suggestions for evaluation of learners.

h) Format:

Indicates if the module is: to be taught offline and/or online, the participation number of students (incl. maximal and/or minimal number of participants necessary), participation number of instructors, module length (number of sessions, whole course, weekly, blocked format).

2. Instructor Manual (Learning Path):

Describes the learning path in a structured way, incl.: contents, learning activity, assignments, and instructions for university educators/business trainers.

3. Resources (materials) for educators & business trainers:

Can include: checklists, literature, links, number of educators/trainers necessary, preparation for educators, necessary organizational requirements (e.g., room set-up and other requirements as flip charts, etc.).

4. Resources for participants:

Resources that are needed by participants to work on the module are stated (only if relevant).

5. External/Additional Links to external supporting material are stated (only if material: relevant).

6. Appendix

Refers to additional learning material

The methodological approach of the CDK has been chosen intentionally as to lowers the barriers for the application of the CDK modules. Additionally, the internal structural coherence of the CDK and complementarity of its modules also facilitate the combination or stacking of modules as well as their validation across competences and competence areas.

Moreover, the CDK integrates the EICAA Competence Framework. Consequently, it features teaching and training modules for all 19 competences of the framework along the three competence areas12: I. II. III.

Ideas & Opportunities Resources Into Action

Thus, each CDK module is associated with a dedicated main entrepreneurship competence that it fosters. However, it is understood that a module usually also addresses other entrepreneurship competences than the main one it is filed under. This is why all information on the primary competence as well relevant supplementary competences has been integrated in the description of each module (see details in Table 3).

12

For the details on these competence areas, please consult Chapter 1.2 or the full EICAA Competence Framework available under: https://www.eicaa.eu/results/competence-framework/.

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Further, the CDK has been designed to address three proficiency levels13: (1) Basic (participants have no or only basic understanding of the entrepreneurial competence) (2) Intermediate (participants have some experience in applying or have prior basic knowledge of the competence) (3) Advanced (participants have obtained desired outputs despite challenges and can actively apply the competence) The proficiency level of the participants can be determined by using the EICAA Competence Monitor (see chapter 2.2. above) of the EICAA Digital Platform. However, the CDK may also be exploited as a source of inspiration for fostering entrepreneurship education and training without using the EICAA Competence Monitor in advance. While allowing for this versatility has been integral when designing the instruments of the EICAA, we recommend a combined use of the EICAA Competence Monitor and the EICAA Competence Development Kit to unleash the full potential of the EICAA Digital Platform. The main application scenarios of the EICAA Digital Platform, as well as the most crucial steps to implement them, are described in the next chapter.

Automatic recommendation of CDK Modules The Competence Monitor is connected to the EICAA Competence Development Kit (CDK), which contains state-of-the-art teaching and training material (modules) to develop entrepreneurial competences. This connection means that the Competence Monitor automatically provides recommendations for CDK modules based on the results of the self-assessment group under consideration. Usually, these are CDK modules fitting to those competences that have been identified to be the weakest (see below).

This recommendation system is meant to facilitate the selection of suitable educational activities.

Figure 10: Teaching/Training Module Recommendation of the EICAA Competence Monitor Dashboard.

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In fact, the EICAA Competence Framework suggests four proficiency levels (basic, intermediate, advanced, expert). The expert level is not addressed by the CDK as it is assumed that individuals on that level have already mastered the given entrepreneurial competence, making further training obsolete.

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Hence, the recommendation system assumes that the further development of a given competence is justified because the proficiency level is relatively low in each group.

However, the educator or trainer always needs to impose their judgment on whether this is the case or relevant. Moreover, competences may differ in educational priority.

Therefore, whether a given competence should enjoy priority in terms of an increased need to further develop it is a question that needs to be answered ultimately by the users of the platform.

Based on the suggestions in the dashboard, the educator or trainer can click on the module. This leads the user to the actual module content inside the Competence Development Kit (see next chapter for details).

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3. Different options for using the EICAA Digital Platform In this chapter, we describe different options for putting the main instruments of the EICAA Digital Platform into practice. Subsequently, these descriptions are complemented by an introduction to different application scenarios for the EICAA Digital Platform which have also been implemented during the pilot cycle of the EICAA Digital Platform. In detail, descriptions of these pilot cycle applications and experiences are contained in Chapter 4.

3.1 General remarks The EICAA project developed sophisticated instruments to measure, analyse, and develop entrepreneurial competences to enable a more data-driven orientation of entrepreneurship education. These instruments are integrated and logically connected within the EICAA Digital Platform – the core product of the EICAA project. Namely, the platform hosts: 1) The Competence Monitor (CM) 2) The Competence Development Kit (CDK) Both instruments can be exploited for fostering entrepreneurial competences among university students or employees (corporate or higher education). They can either be used separately or in a combined form. However, we recommend a combined use to fully unleash the potential of the platform. This means that you can: •

create a self-assessment (a student or an employee survey version),

•

run the assessment among your target group (students or employees)

•

get an analysis of the results together with module recommendations that are based on them (both presented inside the data dashboard of the CM)

•

get automatically directed to the modules of the CDK that have been identified to be most valuable for developing entrepreneurship competence(s) among the group that underwent the self-assessment.

The EICAA Digital Platform is free of charge and fully GDPR compliant. Educators or trainers only need to set up a user account to get access. Once this is done, users can create and run as many (self-) assessments as they want. Moreover, they will find a pool of carefully compiled teaching (for students) and training (for employees) materials that they can rely on to inspire and enrich the entrepreneurship education activities they engage in. However, we invite any educator and trainer of entrepreneurship education – with or without prior experience in the field - to become part of the EICAA community by making use of the platform: https://platform.eicaa.eu/.

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3.2 Getting Started on the EICAA Digital Platform Before we go into detail on how to use the EICAA Digital Platform, we want to take chance to bring attention to the online documentation of the platform available under: https://eicaa.github.io/docs/.

Users need accounts to use the EICAA Digital Platform. Thus, to get started, signing into an existing account or signing up for a new account is necessary. Account information will not be shared with any third-party apps.

Sign Up (1) Access the Sign-Up Page • If you do not have an account, click on the “Sign Up” button on the sign-in page.

(2) Provide Your Information • Fill in the required information, which may include: ▪ Full Name ▪ Email Address ▪ Username ▪ Password14 ▪ Organisation, Position, Country Role (educator or trainer/manager) (3) Agree to Terms • Review and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

(4) Complete the Registration • Click the “Sign Up” button to create your account.

• No further verification is required, you can use your credentials lo log in now (5) Welcome to EICAA-DP • Upon successful registration, you will be redirected to EICAA-DP start page.

That is it! You are now ready to enjoy all the features and benefits of EICAA-DP. If you encounter any issues, do not hesitate to reach out to our support team at info@univations.de.

Log-In (2) Access the Log-In Page • Navigate to the EICAA-DP homepage.

• Click on the “Log-In” button in the top right corner.

(3) Enter Your Credentials • In the “Username” or “Email” field, enter your registered username or email.

• In the “Password” field, type your secure password.

(4) Click “Log-In” • After entering your credentials, click the “Log-In” button.

(5) Successful Log-In

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• • •

A strong password is key to protect your account. We recommend following our account security tips: Choose a strong and unique password (a combination of letters, numbers, and characters).

Keep your login credentials safe and do not share them with anyone.

Regularly update your password for enhanced security.

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•

If you have entered your credentials correctly, you will be redirected to your Dashboard.

(6) Password Recovery • If you forget your password, click the “Forgot Password” link on the Log-in page to reset it.

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3.3 Using the Competence Monitor only The EICAA Competence Monitor is a digital tool for educators and trainers engaged in entrepreneurship education. It takes centre stage at the EICAA Digital Platform, offering educators and trainers a dynamic mean to conduct survey-based self-assessments of students or employees, which - when finished – also furnishes them with an analysis of the entrepreneurship competence profile for the entire self-assessment group. However, it simultaneously provides individuals with insights into their entrepreneurial competences after they complete the self-assessment.

In the realm of education, fostering entrepreneurial skills is paramount for preparing students to thrive in an ever-evolving global landscape. The Competence Monitor stands as a beacon, bridging the gap between theory and practice. With this tool, educators can seamlessly integrate self-assessment surveys into their teaching or training practice, design entrepreneurship education curricula more data-driven, and empower students to explore and evaluate their entrepreneurial aptitude.

This section is your visual step-by-step guide to unleashing the full potential of the Competence Monitor within your educational setting. From setting up surveys to receiving group profiles, we have crafted this resource to support educators in maximizing the impact of entrepreneurial education based on the data-driven approach the Competence Monitor offers.

Finding the Competence Monitor Once you have successfully logged into the EICAA Digital Platform, the Competence Monitor is the second menu on the left, characterised by the symbol: Figure 11: Competence Monitor Symbol.

Creating a student self-assessment Choose the “student” self-assessment option to create one. When creating a new selfassessment, you can choose the following settings: •

Assessment Name

•

Maximum participants: You can limit the number of participants. This is an optional field.

•

Assessment country: Which country are you running it in i.e. in which country does your institution lie?

•

Assessment languages: You can choose the language(s) the assessment that will be displayed to the participants. You can choose more than one language from the options: English, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Spanish, and Catalan.

•

Start Date: The system will automatically take the date for the day you are creating the assessment, but you can also choose to start it at a later date.

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•

End Date: You can choose the date post which the participants will not be able to take the assessment. This is an optional field.

•

Include questions about demographics: The assessment includes some questions regarding the demographics of the assessment taker, like their field of education, employment status, etc. You can choose to not make them answer these questions.

•

Allow participants to download a summary: At the end of taking the assessment, the participant receives a summary of their scores. You can also limit them from seeing it.

Figure 12: Creating a new Student Self-Assessment.

Creating an employee self-assessment Choose the “employee” self-assessment option to create one. When creating a new selfassessment, you can choose the following settings: •

Assessment Name

•

Maximum participants: You can limit the number of participants. This is an optional field.

•

Assessment country: Which country are you running it in i.e. in which country does your institution lie?

•

Assessment languages: You can choose the language(s) the assessment that will be displayed to the participants. You can choose more than one language from the options: English, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Spanish, and Catalan.

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•

Start Date: The system will automatically take the date for the day you are creating the assessment, but you can also choose to start it at a later date.

•

End Date: You can choose the date post which the participants will not be able to take the assessment. This is an optional field.

•

Include questions about demographics: The assessment includes some questions regarding the demographics of the assessment taker, like their field of education, employment status, etc. You can choose to not make them answer these questions.

•

Allow participants to download a summary: At the end of taking the assessment, the participant receives a summary of their scores. You can also limit them from seeing it.

Figure 13: Creating a new Employee Self-Assessment.

Sharing the self-assessment and gathering data Once “create assessment” has been pressed, a “summary page” (see below, Figure 14) showing all selected settings appears. This page also gives access to a QR Code and a link (assessment URL) leading to the created self-assessment. These may be used to share the self-assessment with the target group of the self-assessment. Further, the selfassessment will now appear under the “home” section of the EICAA Digital Platform as a “live” self-assessment. Thus, the self-assessment is now ready to be used for gathering participant data. However, the organization of the data-gathering process lies in the hands of the user. We recommend consulting the 2nd part of this handbook to find inspiration on how data gathering was done during the EICAA Digital Platform pilot round.

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Figure 14: Summary of the Created Assessment.

Selecting self-assessment for data analysis Once you have finished the data gathering, the Competence Monitor can provide an analysis of your data on a group level. However, to do so you have to navigate to the “Competence Monitor” menu.

Figure 15: Competence Monitor Symbol on the EICAA-DP.

When you have arrived there a “data query” window appears (see below, Figure 16) allowing you to select the self-assessment you seek an analysis for. You may also select several self-assessments in case you want a compiled analysis of multiple (connected) self-assessments. Once you have selected the self-assessment(s) by pressing “update dashboard”, you will get an analytical summary that provides some basic information (e.g. number of self-assessment participants) together with key performance indicators of the self-assessments() on the group level: average score per competence area for the group, along with the top competence strengths and weaknesses of the group.

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Figure 16: Data Query Window on the EICAA-DP.

Figure 17: Analytical Summary of the Selected Self-Assessment.

This first analysis is complemented by a visual analysis of the self-assessment data on group level (see below, Figure 18). Importantly, please keep in mind that the data calculations are done on the basis of standardisation. However, please consult chapter 2.2 for details on how calculations are done behind the analytical charts.

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Figure 18: Visual Representation of the Analysed Data.

Standardised Group Score Averages This section shows a spider chart of the averages (Figure 18) of all the competences (standardised). The outer part of the spider chart means a higher score and the closer to the centre means a lower score.

Figure 19: Competence Heatmap of the Analysed Data.

Competence Heatmap This section shows a heatmap of the distribution of scores of the participants (Figure 19).

Darker colours indicate higher frequency for that given competence, whereas lighter colours indicate lower frequency.

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Figure 20: Proficiency Level Distribution of the Analysed Data.

Proficiency Level Distribution This section shows a histogram of the distribution of participants across the 5 progression levels (None, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert) (Figure 20). It explains what proportion of the participants falls in each progression level i.e. how many of the participants are at the Basic level, Intermediate level, Advanced level, and on the Expert level.

Data Export The data query menu on the top left side also allows you to download the raw data of the self-assessment(s). To do so, click on “Export (raw csv)” to get the data and click on “Export (keys)” to get the variable names etc. allowing you to make sense of the raw data. Please note that the raw data is not standardised.

The data export option allows you to prepare a further analysis of the self-assessment data that goes beyond what is shown in the data dashboard.

Figure 21: Data Query Download.

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Using the Competence Monitor: A step-by-step guide The following overview summarizes the key steps users need to take to exploit the EICAA Competence Monitor.

Figure 22: Summary for Exploiting the EICAA-DP.

We invite you to explore the Competence Monitor yourself to find out what level of competence your learners have and to identify the most pressing competence development needs.

3.4 Using the Competence Development Kit only The EICAA Competence Development Kit is a digital repository for educators and trainers engaged in entrepreneurship education. It is the second main component of the EICAA Digital Platform, offering educators and trainers a vast collection of teaching and training modules for fostering entrepreneurial thinking and acting among students or employees. However, the Competence Development Kit is more than just a collection of 41

resources; it is a comprehensive toolkit meticulously curated to foster an entrepreneurial mindset along the structure of the EICAA Competence Framework. Whether you are an educator shaping the minds of tomorrow or a trainer seeking to enhance the entrepreneurial competences of employees, this section is your guide to navigating the diverse landscape of educational materials housed within the Kit. Finding the Competence Development Kit The Competence Development Kit is the fourth menu point on the left-side menu inside the EICAA Digital Platform. The Competence Development Kit is symbolized by a light bulb icon.

Figure 23: Competence Development Kit Symbol on the EICAA-DP.

Figure 24: Accessing the Competence Development Kit on the EICAA-DP.

Using the Competence Development Kit There are two basic pathways for making use of the Competence Development Kit (CDK): 1. Repository for fostering student competences 2. Repository for fostering employee competences

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Hence, the first step is to select the relevant target group you are planning interventions for (see below).

Figure 25: Selecting the Relevant Target Group.

By clicking on the blue button named “Choose” under “Students” you will be directed to “Select a CDK module from the table below to see content”. This pathway allows you to enter the CDK material designated for teaching students. Analogically, by clicking on the blue button named “Choose” under “Employees” you will be directed to “Select a CDK module from the table below to see content” (see below, Figure 26). This second pathway allows you to enter the CDK material designated for training employees of the corporate or higher education sector. Please note that the inner structure of both pathways is alike and will not be addressed separately in the text following up.

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Figure 26: Selecting Modules from the Competence Development Kit.

Finding modules inside the CDK Once you have entered the search menu of the CDK, you have several filter options to search for modules: Competence “Area”; “Competence”, and “Difficulty”. In addition, you may search for modules by clicking on the search field on the right side of the page (see above, Figure 27).

(1) When clicking on “Area”, you can choose between the following three areas “Ideas and Opportunities”, “Into Action”, and “Resources”. These main competence areas align with both the structure within the European Entrepreneurship Competence (EntreComp) as well as the EICAA Competence Framework.

(2) By Clicking on “Competence”, you can filter modules according to the 19 competences of the EICAA Competence Framework. By choosing a competence, you will get the name, the competence area, and the difficulty level of modules available under that competence. As before, clicking on the “Select” button on the very right side will allow you to access to the actual content of the selected module.

(3) If you click on “Difficulty” filter, you have the possibility to sort modules by three proficiency levels “intermediate”, “basic”, and “advanced”. By choosing a level you will get the name, the competence area, and the difficulty level of modules available under that proficiency. As before, clicking on the “Select” button on the very right side will allow you to access to the actual content of the selected module.

What is inside a CDK module Once you have entered a specific CDK module, you will find a descriptive structure that is alike across all modules. In the upper tab you will get information about “Overview”, “Manual”, “Resources”, “Scope”, “Assessment”, and “Author”. You may also provide feedback on a specific module under “Rate”. When clicking on the respective tab the 44

information behind will appear. For example, when clicking on “Overview” you will get a summarised description of the selected module, including a briefing on learning outcomes, workload, other related competences the module fosters, format (for putting it to practice), and options for (student or employee) assessment (see below, Figure 27).

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Figure 27: Structure of the Modules.

Figure 28: Selecting a Competence.

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Using the Competence Development Kit: A step-by-step guide The following overview (Figure 29) summarizes the key steps users need to take to exploit the EICAA Competence Development Kit. Figure 29: Exploiting the Competence Development Kit - A Step by Step Guide.

However, the CDK may also be used in combination with the Competence Monitor. This implies that a self-assessment has been conducted that allows the Competence Monitor to suggest certain modules of the CDK based on the self-assessment data. If this is the case, the steps to exploit the CDK would be as follows:

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Figure 30: Exploiting the Competence Development Kit with a Prior Self-Assessment.

3.5 Combined use of Competence Monitor Competence Development Kit (Recommended)

&

The combined use of Competence Monitor and Competence Development Kit is highly recommended to exploit the full potential of the EICAA Digital Platform. To do so, users have to follow the steps as illustrated below (Figure 31):

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Figure 31: Combined Use of the EICAA-CM and EICAA-CDK.

Valuable insights into actual combined applications are provided in EICAA Digital Platform Handbook. We recommend you to closely consult it for finding inspiration on how the platform can be exploited in different educational settings: for making use of the EICAA Digital Platform in different educational settings.

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4. Application Scenarios for the Digital Platform

In the previous sections, we have shown how to use the EICAA Digital Platform, and in this chapter, we will show how these tools can be applied. The purposes described here are, of course, only illustrative of the possible applications, but there are other ways in which the platform can be used, depending on the individual intentions of the trainers.

This chapter aims to provide potential trainers with general inspiration for the use of the EICAA digital platform. Chapter 5 is a continuation - and partly an extension - of this chapter, in which we illustrate the possible uses of the EICAA digital platform through real-life, practical examples, with detailed descriptions of specific case studies..

4.1 Benchmarking Entrepreneurship with EICAA Competence Monitor

Competences

As the EICAA digital platform stores data from previous completions, it is possible to compare the data of each new measurement with the previously collected data for each measured group. This has several potential applications, of which we highlight a few: •

•

•

•

Quantitative Comparison – Comparative Metrics: The EICAA Competence Monitor allows for a quantitative comparison of a group's entrepreneurship competences against aggregated data from previous groups. This comparison provides specific metrics, such as average scores in key competence areas, enabling a precise understanding of where a group stands concerning others.

Gap Analysis – Identifying Competence Gaps: By benchmarking against the database, lecturers can identify specific areas where their group’s competences are below or above the average. This gap analysis is crucial for targeted skill development and strategic planning – which can be done by using the EICAA CDK. Benchmarking as a Diagnostic Tool – Initial Assessment and Continuous Monitoring: Initially, benchmarking can help in diagnosing the group's competence levels. Over time, it becomes a tool for continuous monitoring, assessing how the group's competences evolve in comparison to broader trends and standards.

Strategic Decision-Making – Informing Strategy and Policy: The insights gained from benchmarking can inform broader strategic decisions of the (education) institution and policy-making within the organization, guiding the allocation of resources and the design of training programmes. This can have crucial importance for an educational institution when deciding upon the required competence development areas.

By employing the EICAA Competence Monitor for benchmarking against a comprehensive database, group leaders and educators can gain a deep understanding of their group's entrepreneurship competences, enabling them to make informed decisions and tailor their approaches for maximum impact.

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4.2 Longitudinal Study Track the Competence Change in Your Group in the Long Run Employing the EICAA Competence Monitor across consecutive intervals enables the monitoring of a group's entrepreneurial competences as they evolve. This longitudinal data offers valuable insights into the dynamics of competence development, pinpointing trends in skill enhancement or areas requiring greater attention. The analysis of longitudinal data can be conducted on the group level, and it can be seamlessly integrated with the benchmarking method. This alternative approach allows for the identification of relative changes in the group's performance compared to the general mean. The longitudinal method can be applied in diverse ways: •

•

•

Assessing Educational Interventions: By analysing trends before and after specific educational or training interventions, the effectiveness of these initiatives can be evaluated. This helps in understanding what types of programmes or activities lead to significant improvements in entrepreneurial skills. This can also be a validating method for the EICAA CDK as it could be expected that a CDK module would need to foster one competence area – and this estimation can be later tested.

Forecasting Future Trends: If the lecturer has data of a longer period, then this can also be used for forecasting – by extrapolating the identified changes in entrepreneurship competences. The trend data can be used for predictive analysis, helping to anticipate future competence development needs based on past patterns.

This can inform strategic planning, ensuring that groups are prepared for emerging challenges and opportunities.

Comparing with Evolving Standards: As the whole EICAA database grows and evolves, trend analysis allows groups to benchmark their competences against not just a static average, but against evolving standards and best practices in entrepreneurship education.

By leveraging the EICAA Competence Monitor for trend analysis, executive staff, trainers, and educators can gain valuable insights into the dynamics of entrepreneurship competence development, enabling them to make more informed decisions and adapt to changing educational needs and industry trends.

4.3 Evaluation: Before and After an Entrepreneurial Training By conducting assessments using the EICAA Competence Monitor before and after specific teaching or training interventions (such as workshops, courses, or experiential learning activities), educators can quantify the impact of these interventions on the group's entrepreneurship competences. This method may also have several practical applications: •

Evaluating the module from EICAA CDK: This solution, as mentioned in the previous section, can be combined with the use of the EICAA CDK elements and the validation of their effectiveness. Since the EICAA CDK are designed to be used generally and widely, they may be less adapted to the specificities of certain groups or less effective in developing a particular group. If the educational intervention is followed up by an evaluation, the teacher can make sure that the educational module has achieved its effect. If it has not been sufficiently effective, they can still choose another module from the EICAA CDK.

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•

•

•

Method evaluation: This approach helps in pinpointing which educational strategies and interventions are most effective in enhancing specific competences.

Understanding what works best aids in refining and improving future training programmes.

Customized Learning Approaches: The insights gained can guide educators in tailoring interventions to address specific competence gaps identified in the group.

This targeted approach ensures that resources are efficiently used to yield maximum educational impact.

Feedback Loop for Enhancement: The results from these analyses can be used to establish a feedback loop for continuous improvement of educational content and methodologies, ensuring that the interventions remain relevant and effective in developing entrepreneurship competences.

Through the focused evaluation of interventions using the EICAA Competence Monitor, educators and group leaders can systematically enhance the quality and effectiveness of their entrepreneurship training programmes, leading to more robust competence development.

4.4 Target performance analysis review the institutional strategy of promoting entrepreneurial thinking The EICAA Competence Monitor can be instrumental in assessing how well an institution's strategy to promote entrepreneurial thinking aligns with actual performance.

As entrepreneurship competences became a focal point of many university’s institutional strategy, therefore this knowledge and understanding can have significant strategic value for them. By comparing the desired targets (set by the institutional strategy) with the actual competences measured, institutions can evaluate the validity, reasonability and later also the effectiveness of their strategic approach. This evaluation can have multiple benefits: Strategic Adjustments by refining Approaches: This analysis enables institutions to identify areas where their strategy may not be fully effective, allowing for strategic adjustments. It helps in aligning educational initiatives and resource allocation with the goal of enhancing entrepreneurial competences.

Institutional Benchmarking: Estimating a wider application of EICAA instruments and methods, institutions can also use this tool to benchmark their performance against peer institutions, understanding their position in a broader educational landscape and identifying best practices.

By employing the EICAA Competence Monitor for target-performance analysis, institutions can critically review and enhance their strategies for promoting entrepreneurial thinking, ensuring they are effectively meeting their educational and strategic objectives.

4.5 Educators guide: Tailoring educational content to the entrepreneurial competence level of the participants One of the major challenges of teaching is that the trainer is not sufficiently aware of the actual competences and level of understanding of the group, so he or she cannot accurately predict what knowledge the group needs and to what depth. This can lead to

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a situation where the trainer imparts knowledge which is already known and which the members feel is unnecessary, but it can also lead to a situation where the knowledge is too high-level for the group. As the EICAA CM distinguishes between basic-intermediateadvanced-expert levels for each competence area, it provides an inherent illustration of the level of competence of the group in that area. Therefore it provides a hands-on guide as follows: •

• •

•

Personalized Approach: The EICAA Competence Monitor's ability to categorize competences into basic, intermediate, advanced, and expert levels allows educators to tailor their teaching strategies. This personalization ensures that the educational content is neither too basic nor too advanced for the group.

Focused Skill Development: With a clear understanding of the group's competence levels, educators can concentrate on areas that require more in-depth exploration, while briefly covering areas where the group is already proficient.

Avoiding Redundancy and Over-complexity: This tailored approach prevents redundancy in teaching already known concepts and avoids overwhelming the group with overly complex topics. It strikes a balance, ensuring an efficient and effective learning process.

Improved Learner Engagement: By aligning the educational content with the group’s competence level, educators can enhance engagement and knowledge retention, as learners find the content more relevant and appropriately challenging.

The EICAA Competence Monitor serves as a crucial tool for educators, enabling them to create a more dynamic, responsive, and effective educational environment that caters to the specific needs and levels of their learners.

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PART B: THE EICAA PLATFORM IN PRACTICE

DIGITAL

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1. Use Cases from Across Europe

Based on the EICAA rubric system, a survey was developed which consisted in 72 items.

In the pages that follow, the EICAA handbook presents a collection of real-world instances that shine a light on the EICAA Digital Platform (DP). The members of the EICAA consortium have come together to showcase how student and employee surveys, along with well-thought-out interventions, come into play. This assortment of case studies features both individual and combined applications of the EICAA Competence Monitor (CM) and the EICAA Competence Development Kit (CDK).

These case studies are the result of collaborative efforts from the entire EICAA consortium. You will find contributions from various institutions, each providing a unique perspective. The University of Szeged and the University of Hohenheim, representing public universities, share their insights. Business schools like Antwerp Management School, Management Center Innsbruck, and TecnoCampus Mataró-Maresme shed light on CM's application. Univations and ProMedia offer a glimpse into how the digital platform is used by small- and medium-sized companies.

In this compilation, five case studies focus on the student aspect of the CM, while four delve into the employee side. To make things clear and consistent, they have followed a similar structure. Each case study kicks off with a brief introduction to the institution.

From there, we explore the reasoning behind each case's inclusion in the pilot phase.

We then walk you through how we connected with the target groups, followed by an indepth analysis of the assessed participants. We have also dug into the outcomes generated by the EICAA digital platform, which we have discussed in these pages. The case studies also explore how these findings were put to practical use. Lastly, we reflect on what we have learned and how these insights can shape future endeavours.

In the academic arena, we dive into how universities approached the platform. They opted for a course-wide approach, testing the waters within the confines of a single course. On the other side, we venture into the world of EICAA's corporate partners. They took a bold step by embracing the digital platform across their entire organizations.

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1.1 From Assessment to Action: Leveraging EICAA for Entrepreneurial Competence Development at University of Hohenheim Getting to know the organization As the University of Hohenheim was founded in 1818 after devastating famines, it considered itself to be a place of innovation and ideas for society’s needs from the very beginning. Even today, its structure and portfolio still reflect this founding mission. The University of Hohenheim engages in a unique combination of scientific disciplines in agricultural sciences, natural sciences, business, economics, and social sciences.

Today, the university’s mission statement focuses on the three main areas: research, teaching, and transfer: Our teaching lays the foundation for lifelong learning. Students are supported during their studies and research to promote the ethics of scientific work and the development of competences. Feedback is important to further improve our teaching and student support. To foster entrepreneurial thinking in a holistic way, the Innovation Greenhouse, the entrepreneurship hub at the university, was established.

The overall goal of the InnoGreenhouse is to strengthen the entrepreneurial mindset of students, scientists, and the entire University of Hohenheim in order to build an ecosystem that promotes entrepreneurial activity, sustainable innovation, personal growth, and impactful thinking.

With nearly 9,000 students and 48 study programmes, the University of Hohenheim is one of the largest universities in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The unique study combination of the university’s programmes attracts many foreign students and, over the years, has created a large network of partner universities. Moreover, with 2,000 average graduates per year distributed over three faculties, the university is a strong economic factor for the Stuttgart region.

Rationale of the Pilot The University of Hohenheim is at the forefront of this pilot round and is dedicated to delivering student-centric education. Our primary focus is on incorporating the EICAA Competence Monitor (CM) to gain a comprehensive understanding of the entrepreneurial competences within our institution. While our entrepreneurship and innovation courses heavily emphasize theoretical knowledge, we strive to establish a strong connection between our tutorials, practice units, and real-world applications.

To better prepare our students for practical experiences, we aim to enhance their learning by imparting entrepreneurial competence. The Competence Development Kit (CDK) will play a crucial role in this endeavour, allowing us to provide competenceenhancing lessons that address the strengths and weaknesses identified through the CM. By employing interventions from the CDK, we can further develop and refine the entrepreneurial skills of our students.

Additionally, we believe in promoting inclusivity and accessibility in entrepreneurial education. Therefore, we offer every instructor access to the EICAA Digital Platform (DP), which enables interested parties to assess and enhance the entrepreneurial competences of their students. This platform serves as a valuable resource for instructors to track progress, provide personalized guidance, and foster a dynamic learning environment.

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Overall, our commitment to student-centred education, combined with the utilization of the EICAA Competence Monitor, Competence Development Kit, and the EICAA Digital Platform, allows us to effectively nurture and develop the entrepreneurial competences of our students.

Context of the Pilot The tutorial of the undergraduate course "International Business and Innovation" (summer term 2023) incorporated the EICAA Competence Monitor15. The course is comprised of a weekly 90-minute lecture and a 90-minute tutorial every other week. As an integral part of the course, students engage in an innovation challenge where they are tasked with generating an idea for a sustainable innovation that addresses a selfselected societal problem. This component of the course is evaluated via a halfway problem statement pitch, a final pitch during the last week of classes, and an exam covering the lecture material.

The course fosters students' abilities to tackle societal problems and propose sustainable innovations, drawing on competences such as "Spotting Opportunities", "Creativity", and "Ethical and Sustainable Thinking" from the "Ideas and Opportunities" competence area.

Moreover, "Entrepreneurial Self-awareness and Self-efficacy" from the "Resources" area, as well as "Taking the Initiative" and "Planning and Management" from the "Into Action" area, are emphasized.

The course is an elective module in the bachelor's study programme "Business Administration and Economics" at the University of Hohenheim, where students can specialize and develop personal profiles after the first three semesters. The profile of International Business offers the "International Business and Innovation" course as an elective option that aligns with students' individual interests.

The pilot was embedded into a class of 17 students, between 18 and 23 years old, from different educational backgrounds. Moreover, 60 percent of the participants were international exchange students from France, Spain, and the US. As part of the tutorial, students worked in diverse groups to come up with their sustainable innovation (idea).

Groups consisted of three to four students and are selected in such a way that we always have diverse (gender and ethnic origin) groups. The majority of the course consisted of female students, and more than 2/3 had already gained working experience.

Process of the Pilot Approach As part of the kick-off of the tutorial, we facilitated a discussion with the students to identify the competences they deemed critical for innovation. Results showed that "Creativity," "Working with Others," and "Learning from Experience" were the most commonly identified competences. To provide context, we expounded on the definition of competence as a combination of individual motivation, personality traits, knowledge, skills, and attitudes (European Parliament & European Council, 2008; Mitchelmore & Rowley, 2010). Competences are described by specific and predictable outcomes that somebody should be able to achieve given the competence (Cheng et al., 2003).

Competence frameworks "shall not be seen as a destination to reach […], but as an

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The EICAA Competence Framework is based on EntreComp and enriched by entrepreneurial competences derived from a systematic literature review conducted in May of 2021. More Information can be found here.

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orienteering tool on the lifelong learning journey, where each learner will take an individual path" (Bacigalupo, 2022, p.31).

Subsequently, we introduced the EICAA project, and used the digital platform as a tool to (self-)assess, analyse, and improve the competences in the classroom setting.

Response Rate A QR-code was developed to enable students to conveniently access the selfassessment using their personal mobile devices. The self-assessment was administered to 16 out of 17 students present in the classroom, with one student experiencing technical difficulties that precluded their ability to effectively complete and submit the assessment.

Problems Some students encountered issues regarding the visual presentation of the selfassessment on their devices. Specifically, the survey was deemed difficult to complete when using a smartphone in portrait format. However, this issue can be readily resolved by rotating the device to landscape format. In light of this, we recommend the inclusion of a "recommendation" on the first page of the self-assessment, alerting users that utilizing a mobile device in an upright position may result in difficulties reading the questions and selecting the answers.

Entrepreneurial Competence Profile of the Assessed Group(s) Competence Spider-Web Chart Based on the results of the competence self-assessment, the course achieved an average score of 3.12 out of 5, indicating an intermediate level of entrepreneurship competence among the group. The highest average score was obtained in the competence area "Into Action," with a score of 3.27. The area of "Ideas and Opportunities" was the second-highest scoring competence area, with an average score of 3.08. Conversely, the competence area "Resources" received the lowest average score which shows higher peak scores in the competence area of "Into Action" and lower scores overall in the area of "Resources”, with a score of 2.99. These results are also reflected in the spider web chart.

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Figure 32: Competence Spider-Web Chart of the International Business and Innovation Course.

Strengths The self-assessment results of the group indicated the following competence strengths: “Taking the Initiative” (3.80 and percentage rank 66,70%), “Spotting Opportunities” (3.32 and percentage rank 62%), “Process Management” (3.32 and percentage rank 62,2%), and “Mobilizing (financial) Resources” (2.71 and percentage rank 52,30%).

The course structure and content were designed to facilitate the development of sustainable innovation ideas. Given the theoretical orientation of the study programme, it was unexpected that the students achieved a relatively high score in the "Taking the Initiative" competence area. In the past, students have exhibited hesitancy towards moving beyond theoretical frameworks and generating ideas, often seeking to avoid errors or unfavourable grades. Based on the present findings, we anticipate that the group will excel in the innovation challenge.

Although the competences of "Spotting Opportunities" and "Process Management" were not identified as primary strengths, the students also scored relatively high in them.

These competences are critical to identifying opportunities and challenges for sustainable innovation and managing group workflows. Moreover, defining next steps and reflecting on the process cultivates agile working mechanisms and encourages responsibility for work in progress.

From the perspective of an instructor, it was rather surprising that "Enterprising Literacy" has not been identified as a core strength among a group of students with a majority background in business studies. In fact, many constituent elements of this competence represent a fundamental educational focus of our curriculum. However, this result could

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be attributed to the diverse educational backgrounds of the students in our cohort.

Specifically, as two-thirds of the students have not taken courses at the University of Hohenheim before, it seems plausible that other universities prioritize different competences within their (bachelor-level) business administration programmes or do prioritize Enterprising Literacy at a later study stage.

Weaknesses According to the self-assessment results, the group exhibited weaknesses in several competences, including "Valuing Ideas", "Self-awareness and Self-efficacy", "Mobilizing others", "Vision", and "Design Orientation".

The "Valuing Ideas" competence pertains to the ability to recognize the potential of ideas and opportunities in social, cultural, and economic contexts, which is particularly crucial for the innovation challenge. Therefore, a competence development strategy that focuses on enhancing this competence is necessary.

“Self-awareness and Self-efficacy” involve believing in one's own abilities and persevering in the face of challenges. The students' low score in this competence is detrimental and requires further investigation. Upon discussing the matter with the students, it appeared that they feel lost within their study programme and are uncertain about their post-graduation prospects, likely due to recent economic and social challenges (covid, inflation, climate change, etc.).

“Mobilizing others” relates to social and communication skills required for obtaining support from stakeholders or peers. The need to persuade and negotiate within the group is essential for finding a sustainable innovation, yet it carries the risk of conflict. As such, group exercises will be carefully designed to foster social and communication skills.

Building a “Vision” seemed to be difficult for our group of students. It seems that the students lack experience in envisioning desirable outcomes, particularly in a collaborative setting. Therefore, they will need to create a strategic plan to better enable them to guide their actions and work towards a common goal. We hope to see structured and organized working strategies during the course of this semester in order to achieve the best possible tutorial outcome.

Finally, being able to interact and immerse yourself with customers and stakeholders to identify their needs and design with that in mind is captured by the competence “Design Orientation”. Without prior working experience, students have never really engaged with customers or stakeholders. Thus, the group will need to apply their theoretical and conceptual knowledge to make incremental and radical changes to develop a sustainable innovation that addresses customer needs.

Exploitation of the self-assessment results Utilizing the self-assessment results as informational basis to further enhance student competences was a crucial aspect of our tutorial design. In order to achieve this objective, we incorporated interventions from the EICAA Competence Development Kit (CDK), which facilitated an easy integration of practical exercises into the curriculum.

The spider-web diagram and score analysis were utilized to identify the weakest competences among the students, with particular emphasis on "Valuing Ideas" and "Selfawareness and Self-efficacy". A 90-minute competence development session was then dedicated to addressing these weaknesses.

The competence development session was structured in a manner that encompassed an introduction to the self-assessment results, analysis of weaknesses, and competence development strategies for both "Self-awareness and Self-efficacy" and "Valuing Ideas".

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The top three strengths (Spotting Opportunities, Taking the Initiative, Learning through Experience) and weaknesses were identified, and the students' experiences and reflections on their strengths were discussed in an open format. Thereafter, the session delved into a more in-depth discussion of the weaknesses.

We commenced by acquainting the students with the fundamental concepts of "Selfawareness and Self-efficacy". Personal development, when aimed at improving selfawareness and self-esteem, is known to enhance an individual's skills and fulfil their aspirations. Furthermore, high self-efficacy has been shown to be a predictor of academic success (Bandura et al., 1996). With this in mind, we commenced the intermediate module for the competence, which followed a three-step process: introduction to self-efficacy, a task for the participants, and evaluation and presentation.

The module was designed to leverage the new self-efficacy scale, and to this end, we utilized an interactive presentation platform (Mentimeter) that enabled students to engage with the statements in class. To prepare the students for this exercise, we first urged them to reflect on an achievement that they are proud of, whether from their personal life, academic, or professional pursuits. Subsequently, they shared why they were proud of the achievement and how they stayed motivated even during difficult times. The self-efficacy scale statements were divided into two slides, each containing four statements, and students were asked to vote on each statement. Based on the results, we initiated a discussion on the lower-ranking statements, which revealed that students often felt inferior to their peers in terms of their achievements.

Figure 33: Self-efficacy Scale.

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This discussion then led to a broader examination of the students' perceptions of performance pressure and the pressure of expectations. After summarizing the key learnings from the "Self-awareness and Self-efficacy" module, we proceeded to the second intervention.

Our rationale for selecting "Valuing Ideas" as a key competence to improve lies in its crucial role in developing students as autonomous and critical thinkers, as supported by scholarly works such as Brookfield (1987) and Perry (1999). The ability to critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view allows students to distinguish competing claims for truth and determine which arguments and viewpoints are trustworthy versus those that warrant scepticism. Additionally, the capacity to weigh and value alternatives, make informed decisions, and evaluate contradictory evidence has far-reaching implications for scholastic pursuits, personal fulfilment, professional success, and civic engagement.

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While incorporating a general module that covers the topic broadly was an option, we were committed to design a module that focused solely on "Valuing Ideas" and tailored to the tutorial. In light of this, we proceeded to create a new module from scratch, which was customized to address the specific needs and objectives of our course. Our approach began by delineating the thinking process that is essential for the critical evaluation of an idea, based on the Idea Paper by Lynch and Wolcott (2001).

Figure 34: Critical Thinking Process (own illustration) based on Lynch & Wolcott (2001).

As indicated in the paper, human development theory underscores the importance of collaboration between individuals and their environment in fostering the acquisition of skills (Fischer, 1980; Fischer & Bidell, 1998). This cognitive process, also referred to as "self-scaffolding" (Lynch & Wolcott, 2001, p. 4), emphasizes the foundational role of earlier thinking stages in supporting subsequent ones. Poor execution of initial steps can also have deleterious effects on later ones. Therefore, it is imperative not only to acquire the critical thinking process but also to comprehend it properly.

To foster the cultivation of critical thinking skills, we assigned the students open-ended problems related to sustainability. With the aim of promoting sustainable innovation, we presented the students with broad issues of food waste, energy usage, and water management. Their task was to employ the "steps for better thinking" to generate one actionable solution that the university could implement to help address the issue. At the culmination of the assignment, the students presented their ideas and elucidated their thinking processes.

Overall, the interventions proved highly efficacious for our student cohort. The students evinced a keen interest in their active role in the interventions. Furthermore, the lesson's customized nature, tailored to meet the students' specific needs, and seemed to heighten their motivation.

Lessons Learned In general, our interventions were well-received by the students, who expressed gratitude for the investment in their competences and recognition of their individual 64

learning needs. Nonetheless, we acknowledge that the contextual framework of the tutorial was critical in facilitating comprehension of the interventions. While it is challenging to precisely measure the impact of our interventions, we observed noticeable changes in behaviour among students when communicating with each other. Notably, the diverse student group this year seemed to have benefited significantly from the group work and the shared goals.

Nonetheless, we encountered some challenges during the interventions that are worth highlighting. Firstly, we found that the Competence Development Kit (CDK) was not suitable for impromptu use, and effective implementation required sufficient time between self-assessment and intervention. Some interventions necessitated special materials, such as the marshmallow challenge, or more preparation from the instructor, such as the self-efficacy scale. Introducing a parameter such as “time for preparation” may be useful in addressing these issues. However, the CDK was never intended to provide ready-to-teach material and rather a collection of syllabus style interventions.

Secondly, while the EICAA project did not initially envision providing interventions for every single competence, our group identified certain weaknesses in particular competences and required additional (individualized) modules. A "suggest" tab that allows users to propose modules or even submit prepared ideas could be a valuable resource.

Future Applications of the EICAA Digital Platform The EICAA DP offers a diverse range of resources that greatly contribute to our academic courses and pedagogical approaches. By strategically integrating the EICAACM into practice-oriented tutorials, our aim is to bring about a transformative shift not only in our teaching methodologies but also in our student engagement practices. While the self-assessment component effectively caters to the individual level of competence evaluation, the interventions embedded within the EICAA-CM demonstrate their efficacy specifically within group contexts. However, the potential of the insights derived from the CM remains underutilized.

Furthermore, as an integral component of the university's entrepreneurship and innovation hub, the InnoGreenhouse will leverage the EICAA-CM to design and deliver courses that are finely tailored to enhance the entrepreneurship competences of their target audience: PhD-students and employees. The dissemination of this tool to a wider cohort not only amplifies its impact but also confers added value upon our comprehensive repertoire of pedagogical offerings, thereby enriching our teaching and learning endeavours.

References Bacigalupo, M. (2022). Competence frameworks as orienteering tools. RiiTE Revista Interuniversitaria de Investigación en Tecnología Educativa, 20-33.

Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., & Pastorelli, C. (1996). Multifaceted impact of self-efficacy beliefs on academic functioning. Child Development, 67(3), 12061222.

Brookfield, S. D. (1987). Developing critical thinkers. Jossey- Bass.

Cheng, M. I., Dainty, A. R. J., & Moore, D. R. (2003). The differing faces of managerial competency in Britain and America. Journal of Management Development, 22(5–6), 527–537. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710310478495

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European Parliament, & European Council. (2008). Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 on the establishment of the European Qualification Framework for lifelong learning ((2008/C 111); Issue December 2008).

Fischer, K. W. (1980). A theory of cognitive development: The control and construction of hierarchies of skills. Psychological Review, 87, 477-531.

Fischer, K. W., & Bidell, T. R. (1998). Dynamic development of psychological structures in action and thought. In R.M. Lerner (Ed.) and W. Damon (Series Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (5th ed., pp. 467-561). Wiley.

Lynch, C. L., Wolcott, S. K., & Huber, G. E. (2001). Steps for Better Thinking Skill Patterns [Online]. Available: http://www.WolcottLynch.com. Based in part on information from Reflective Judgment Scoring Manual With Examples (1985/1996) by K. S. Kitchener & P. M. King. Grounded in dynamic skill theory (Fischer & Bidell, 1998).

Mitchelmore, S., & Rowley, J. (2010). Entrepreneurial competencies: A literature review and development agenda. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 16(2), 92–111. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552551011026995 Perry, W. G. (1999). Forms of ethical and intellectual development in the college years.

Jossey-Bass.

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1.2 Entrepreneurship Education Best Practice: Speed Dating to improve Enterprising Literacy Getting to know the organization MCI is a school for business and engineering located at the heart of the city of Innsbruck, in the region of Tyrol, Austria. It currently has more than 3000 students, 400 employees in research, teaching, and administration, 1000 external lecturers, and 300 partner universities. It follows the concept of Entrepreneurial School®, covering Higher Education, research, and transfer into practice. MCI is concerned with the strategic design and implementation of innovative approaches in teaching, learning, and personal development. The essential objectives underlying its teaching and learning concepts include the optimization of learning processes, the innovative design of learning settings, and the promotion of practical skills. As a fully accredited member of AACSB International, MCI is an internationally valued partner for research, teaching, and management training.

As the Entrepreneurial School®, MCI’s applied research and development play an important role in fostering the innovative power of local businesses and ensuring quality in teaching. As Entrepreneurial School®, MCI is committed to fostering entrepreneurial education and supports faculty, students, partner organizations, and graduates in the development of their entrepreneurial skills and activities. Accordingly, entrepreneurship education is part of every curriculum (e.g., practical projects, international study trips, company excursions, symposia, workshops, hackathons, etc.), which is complemented by a range of extra-curricular offers including summer/winter schools, boot camps, digital badge programmes (micro-credential offer and extracurricular programme including a digital certificate for acquiring specific skills to supplement the regular study programme), business plan competitions (e.g. the annual Creativity Award, which awards the best student business idea), individual consulting, and coaching for start-ups and spin-offs and networking opportunities with the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Rationale of the Pilot Entrepreneurial skills are seen as key enablers to drive economic and societal development. Still, scholars are struggling to determine the place, the person, the practical implementation, and the policies that can build a solid foundation for entrepreneurship education (EE) (Joensuu-Salo et al., 2023). Furthermore, traditional methods such as the classical classroom teaching style may not be appropriate to do so, as entrepreneurship requires active participation to develop and implement new ideas (Figueiredo Motta & Vasconcelos Ribeiro Galina, 2023). Based on Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 2001), which was initially labelled as Social Learning Theory, entrepreneurial learning is experiential in nature (Cope, 2005; Politis, 2008). There is evidence that experiential learning and learning by doing can be efficient teaching methods to foster EE (Zamani & Mohammadi, 2017; Nabi et al., 2017; Neck & Greene, 2011). According to experiential learning theory (Kolb, 2014), the learning process outweighs the learning outcomes. It describes the learning process as a continuous or/and transformational process of invention and reinvention where learning occurs through continuous experience, which shapes and reshapes the mind and knowledge of an individual. Students’ experiences, reflections, thoughts, and acts are vital to creating knowledge and learning.

Furthermore, the European Commission has developed a competence framework, the European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework (EntreComp), which serves as a

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reference to explain what an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset consist of in terms of generating financial, cultural, and social value for others (Bacigalupo et al., 2016). The framework is widely used in several ambits, as education, policy, business, and others, as well as acknowledged by scholars and practitioners. This is where the Erasmus+ project EICAA (Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Competences Assessment Alliance; https://www.eicaa.eu/) draws on. First, EICAA further elaborated and added competences to the reference framework (EICAA Competence Framework), and second, it developed a digital platform to assess (EICAA Competence Monitor) and foster the development of entrepreneurial competences (EICAA Competence Development Kit) with suitable teaching and learning interventions.

In this context, the EICAA competence framework has been created, which builds on EntreComp but further develops it by merging, adding, and substantiating the competences listed therein. One competence that has been added and will be addressed in the present debate is Enterprising Literacy. As kept in the EICAA competence framework report, Enterprising Literacy is defined as the knowledge about business functions and processes (like strategic planning, operations, product development, organizational structure, recruiting, and structuring business deals) to efficiently develop a value-creating activity. After graduating, students need to make business decisions based on understanding key business functions, applying enterprising knowledge, and adapting economic and financial concepts to enable them to adequately respond to ongoing impactful changes, such as the green transition, the aging workforce, and digitalization (Bernardó & Teodoro, 2022; Teodoro et al., 2022a, 2022b), and to manage them in a resilient way. Based on Annarelli and Nonino (2016), “organizational resilience is the organization’s capability to face disruptions and unexpected events in advance, thanks to strategic awareness and a linked operational management of internal and external shocks” (p. 7). For future entrepreneurs, resilience is extremely crucial as it involves a range of elements that are both internal and external. This paper describes a best practice example of how enterprising literacy, including the resilience of students, can be fostered with EE through two different approaches. First, by introducing an innovative experiential learning method where students reflect on their acquired skills during their studies and based on those experiences exchange with entrepreneurs in speed-dating settings. This will be done by using the outputs developed by EICAA, including, first, the EICAA Competence Development Kit and the Module “Speed-Dating to Foster Enterprising Literacy”. Second, we will present a novel approach in which the EICAA Competence Monitor will be used as a learning tool by students themselves to reflect on past competences acquired rather than as an instrument by educators to monitor the competence development of students. Thus, the EICAA Competence Monitor is not only used as a guide to inform educators about the competence weaknesses and strengths of their students before or after implementing a course, but even more so, it integrates the Monitor itself as a didactical tool and method to structure and develop course contents as well as to guide interaction during the course.

Context of the Pilot The case at hand describes a best practice for making use of the EICAA Digital Platform, drawing out how it can be used within higher education institutions by educators to design and structure an entrepreneurship course.

The case is based on a master’s course in Management in the 4th semester at an Austrian Business School, which takes place every year but was redesigned in early Spring 2023 to pilot the outputs of EICAA and integrate new learning approaches. It involved 25 graduate students, one educator, and five entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs with a family business background from different industries (tourism, hospitality, food) and 69

from the local area have been invited. The course had a duration of one day, and the speed dating exercise lasted three hours.

The course applies a novel teaching approach to foster enterprising literacy, including resilience, as one of the key competences for an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset through an experiential learning method involving speed-dating with entrepreneurs and reflection on entrepreneurial skills acquired by students throughout their studies.

Eventually, students had to go through a three-stage process, which is based on the following learning goals: 1) Students have to recognize, identify, and link competences to course contents (theories, models, approaches, etc.) and experiences made during their studies (e.g., linking their participation in a “business idea contest” to the competence of “creativity” or linking the course in “responsible leadership” to the competence of “ethical and sustainable thinking”).

2) Students have to recognize, identify, and link competences to entrepreneurs and their challenges, by interacting with family firm entrepreneurs (e.g., to overcome succession challenges the competence “mobilizing others” is needed).

3) Based on this, students discuss possible solutions with family firm entrepreneurs in a speed-dating format.

The course started with a general introduction about the procedure of the course by the educator, as well as the introduction of the entrepreneurs, who joined the second half of the class.

After this, the educator introduced students to the EICAA Competence Monitor and let them work with it independently to 1) recognize their weaknesses and strengths 2) review what they have learned during their previous studies. A discussion, first in smaller groups and then in plenary, followed.

Process of the Pilot Approach In preparation for the speed dating event, students self-assessed their competence levels via a validated survey instrument, which functions as a diagnostic instrument. After reflecting on the students’ overall competence assessment, priority was given to the competence “Enterprising Literacy”. Students were split into small groups. These groups received one academic paper each on selected topics on enterprise literacy in the context of family firms, such as internationalization, succession, innovation, knowledge management, firm performance, conflicts, growth, and nepotism. They had the task of reading and reflecting the article, discussing the research gap, research question(s), and research goal. Based on their findings, the student groups elaborated questions for the speed dating event with family business entrepreneurs. Apart from “Enterprising Literacy”, students also foster the following entrepreneurial competences: spotting opportunities, creativity, ethical and sustainable thinking, self-awareness and selfefficacy, motivation and perseverance, mobilizing resources, and process management.

The second part of the class was based on a personal and direct 1:1 exchange between entrepreneurs and students via a speed-dating format. While entrepreneurs portrayed their stumbling blocks and challenges, they deal with as entrepreneurs, students were challenged to put the outcomes of the EICAA Competence Monitor into practice, using it to reflect on competences they have acquired (or not) in the past and relating and linking them to the experiences and stories of the entrepreneurs. Thus, an in-depth discussion evolved based on which types of entrepreneurial competences may be needed and useful in different situations to cope with different entrepreneurial challenges.

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The speed-dating consisted of five rounds lasting fifteen minutes each, to ensure multiple and different dialogue partners. The speed-dating format is a structured process in which each student group is paired up with a family business entrepreneur for a short period of time (approximately fifteen minutes) to exchange information and gain knowledge in the context of their given topic. After fifteen minutes, the entrepreneur changes tables, and the students speed date with the next entrepreneur. The goal of the event is to meet as many entrepreneurs as possible in a short period of time, exchange information, network, and gain knowledge. Once the time is up, entrepreneurs rotate to the next student group and repeat the process. After the speed dating event, a final joint reflection round is held, whereby all family firm entrepreneurs as well as all student groups reflect on their concrete experiences and reflective observations. Finally, each student group summarizes their findings in a short paper of 800 words, integrating a) their experience with the speed-dating format, b) their learnings in enterprise literacy, and c) their findings with regards to additional entrepreneurship competences.

The format of the speed dating event allows students and entrepreneurs to have multiple short conversations with a variety of individuals and topics within a specific time frame while simultaneously practicing and refining their networking and communication skills.

Based on their competence assessment in the beginning, students may develop the skills and mindset needed to start and run a successful business or enterprise and understand family firm entrepreneurial challenges. The activity is designed to be practical and relevant, allowing students to apply what they learn to their own business ideas and allowing entrepreneurs to reflect on students’ questions and clarify valuable topics to make informed decisions in their business contexts. Additionally, the format can be expanded in terms of the number of entrepreneurs, depending on the overall number of students and resulting student groups, which would increase the one-on-one interactions.

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Entrepreneurial Competence Profile of the Assessed Group(s) Overall, a number of 24 participants completed the survey. The figure below gives an overview of the Entrepreneurial Competence Profile of the assessed group.

Figure 35: Competence Spider-Web Chart.

Based on the results of the competence self-assessment, the course achieved an average score of 3.28 out of 5, indicating an intermediate level of entrepreneurship competence among the group. The highest average score was obtained in the competence area "Into Action," with a score of 3.34. The area of "Ideas and Opportunities" was the second-highest scoring competence area, with an average score of 3.27. Conversely, the competence area "Resources" received the lowest average score which shows higher peak scores in the competence area of "Into Action" and lower scores overall in the area of "Resources”, with a score of 3.24. These results are also reflected in the spider web chart.

Exploitation of the self-assessment results Firstly, the case shows the efficiency and practical usability of the instruments developed during the EICAA project. Secondly, it serves as an example and guide on how to use the EICAA Digital Platform, including its instruments. In this particular case, the EICAA Competence Monitor has been used as a didactical tool by explicitly integrating it into teaching and enabling students to work with it. This goes beyond the intended purpose of the EICAA Competence Monitor, which has been designed for educators in the first place, and shows the feasibility, applicability, and usability of this instrument across different contexts and for different purposes. In addition, the EICAA Competence Development Kit has been put to the test by using speed-dating as a teaching intervention to foster enterprising literacy. While strengths have been clearly identified,

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some risks and challenges have to be outlined, which may decrease the practical manageability of such a course format.

Lessons Learned The speed dating format is a hands-on approach to experiential learning that allows students to gain knowledge and skills by actively engaging in an experience, reflecting on it, and applying what they have learned to new situations. Moreover, the case shows an effective and social approach to learning because it encourages active participation, promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and provides opportunities for selfreflection and personal growth. Speed dating allows participants to meet one-on-one and chat with multiple potential partners in a short amount of time and is therefore suitable for an educational context relying on experiential learning. The structured format of speed dating can help to reduce the pressure and anxiety associated with meeting new people, and the short time limit also encourages participants to focus on the present moment and enjoy the conversation without worrying about the outcome. The format provides a low-stakes opportunity to practice communication skills such as active listening, asking questions, and expressing oneself clearly and confidently. Additionally, it brings together a diverse group of people with different backgrounds, interests, and life experiences and exposes both students and entrepreneurs to diverse perspectives.

Secondly, the present example shows that the EICAA Competence Monitor can be considered a useful tool not only for educators monitoring their students’ progress but even more so for students themselves to assess and reflect on their skills. It does not only help students to identify and address specific competences but also to link them to practice and real-life entrepreneurial situations and challenges.

We experienced that speed dating as a learning method was useful to gather information from different viewpoints in a short amount of time, which contributed to developing a more sophisticated understanding of the required competence among the students.

Along with gathering information, social and communication skills were improved. Speed dating in groups with manifested patterns also allows for disruption of these structures to some extent as students do not collaborate with their usually preferred partners.

Still, risks cannot be left unconsidered. In particular, the efforts to design, plan, and organize such a format are high. This may discourage educators, but especially business trainers, from arranging and running such courses/trainings. This is followed by the complexity of the execution, due to the large number of people involved, who adopt different roles and follow different aims. This comes along with the motivation and commitment of the participants and business entrepreneurs, which have to be fostered and are demanding at all levels to successfully implement such a course format. Without authentic dedication from both sides (the student side and the business side), an actual dialogue will hardly arise. After all, personal influence factors (sympathy, etc.) may hamper the fruitful interaction, communication, and exchange between students and business representatives. Thus, the requirements for the educator or business trainer to act as moderator, facilitator, mediator, and/or coach are above average, including a certain level of qualification, experience, and resilience. Therefore, this format is not advised for junior or freshman educators or business trainers.

Future Applications of the EICAA Digital Platform This case study outlines a best practice that illustrates how the EICAA Digital Platform can be used in higher education to design and run a university course for master’s students in Management with a focus on entrepreneurship education, specifically “Enterprising Literacy”. It provides evidence for the broader application potential of the 73

EICAA Competence Monitor. First, it shows that the application goes beyond tracking student competence development and how the Monitor can be coupled with and integrated into teaching interventions, e.g., the EICAA Competence Development Kit Module “Speed-Dating”, as a didactical tool and a method to structure and design entrepreneurship education. This also pleads for the flexible and creative adaptability of the outputs developed by EICAA, which extends the scope and multiplies the outreach of the developed materials. Thus, the case at hand serves as a best practice example for other higher education institutions, as well as further education and business training providers.

From a theoretical point of view, it shows that just as entrepreneurship as an integrated competence is multi-faceted and encompasses different skills at the same time (see EntreComp and EICAA), this might also hold true for the effective transfer of EE. In line with the theory of experiential learning, this example shows how co-creating (educators with students and entrepreneurs) the learning process unfolds learning potentials to collaboratively convey continuous EE, rather than relying on independent and separate knowledge transfer, by different roles (educator vs. student vs. entrepreneur/real life situations), through different steps (assessing gaps vs. improving competences vs. implementing competences), and at different points in time or places (in class vs. aside, university vs. job). This might be one path to go down to further enrich the EE literature and practice in the future.

References Annarelli, A. and Nonino, F. (2016), “Strategic and operational management of organizational resilience: current state of research and future directions”, Omega, 62, pp. 1-18.

Bandura, A. (2001). Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective. Annual Review Psychology, 52, 1-26.

Bernardó, E., & Teodoro, J. (2022). EICAA-Competence Framework: Executive Summary. Deliverable 2.3 EICAA Erasmus+ Project. https://www.eicaa.eu/ Bacigalupo, M., Kampylis, P., Punie, Y., & Van den Brande, G. (2016). EntreComp: The entrepreneurship competence framework. Luxembourg: Publication Office of the European Union, 10, 593884.

Bird, B. (2019). Toward a Theory of Entrepreneurial Competency. In: Katz, J.A. and Corbet, A.C. (Ed.) Seminal Ideas for the Next Twenty-Five Years of Advances (Advances in Entrepreneurship, Firm Emergence and Growth, Vol. 21), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 115-131. https://doi.org/10.1108/S10747540201900000210 Cope, J. (2005). Toward a Dynamic Learning Perspective of Entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 29(4), 373-397. https://doi:10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00090.x Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT press.

Nabi, G., Liñán, F., Fayolle, A., Krueger, N., & Walmsley, A. (2017). The impact of entrepreneurship education in higher education: A systematic review and research agenda. The Academy of Management Learning and Education, 16(2), 277e299.

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Neck, H. M., & Greene, P. G. (2011). Entrepreneurship Education: Known worlds and new frontiers. Journal of Small Business Management, 49(1), 55e70. https://doi.org/10.1109/emr.2012.6210514 Teodoro, J., Bernadó, E., Bratzke, F., Zehrer, A., & Van Bockhaven, W. (2022a). Online support for education in entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial competences: A proposal for an assessment tool and support for tailor-made training. Education Sciences, 12, 805. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12110805 Teodoro, J., Bernadó, E., Bratzke, F., & Zehrer, A. (2022b). Online support for education in entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial competences with an assessment tool and tailored-training support, OpenU International Conference “Experimenting with Online Pedagogical Resources for European Universities”, October 13-14, 2022, Paris, France.

Zamani, N., & Mohammadi, M. (2017). Entrepreneurial learning as experienced by agricultural graduate entrepreneurs. Higher Education, 76(2), 301–316.

Zehrer, A., & Mössenlechner, C. (2009). Key competences of tourism graduates – the employers’ point of view. Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism, 9(3-4), 266287. https://doi.org/10.1177/1467358416636929

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1.3 Pilot Testing at Antwerp Management School Getting to Know the Organization Antwerp Management School (AMS) is an internationally renowned business school in the city of Antwerp, Belgium, in the heart of Europe. For the past 60 years, AMS has been at the forefront of innovation, transformation, entrepreneurship, and ecosystems, always in the best interest of people and society. In all these years, the school’s ambition has remained unchanged. The baseline perfectly captures what the school stands for: “Opening minds to impact the world”.

AMS differentiates itself by its thorough entrepreneurial character and no-nonsense approach. It is a research-driven business school that looks beyond the mere transfer of technical knowledge. As the mission statement explicitly mentions, the school also wants to stimulate the students’ personal development.

Antwerp Management School wants to help its customers create sustainable value by cultivating talent to become Global Citizens and mastering the art of making decisions and leading people. The three mission pillars that are at the core of AMS’ programmes are: • • •

Self-awareness: Leads to stronger cooperation with others.

Global perspective: Leads to a developed global mindset, allowing one to find better solutions to problems and complex issues.

Societal Consciousness: Leads to sustainability in essential economic processes, a fundamental value in business.

AMS does not want to educate the best leaders OF the world, but FOR the world. AMS passionately promotes responsible management, entrepreneurship, sustainability, leadership, and professionalism.

Rationale of the Pilot Opening minds to impact the world is what AMS stands for. In all our activities, we challenge (future) managers to question the status quo, produce new ideas, and transform them into businesses and projects that can create impact. We have always welcomed the tools that measure our impact on the people that we educate, support, and advise.

While we impart this idea to the students, we also practice what we preach, by encouraging this environment within our workforce.

We aimed to incorporate the EICAA Competence Monitor (CM) as a tool to measure the entrepreneurial competences of all of our students in order to better design their curriculum, especially our Global Leadership Skills programme that we will talk about in the next section. This programme is oriented towards applying skills and problemoriented learning. More than in ex-cathedra courses, its effectiveness should be measured in terms of the practical level of competency attainment. As such, the EICAA Competence Monitor was deemed a useful complement to assessing the assurance of learning.

Context of the Pilot The Global Leadership Program (GLS) is a fundamental component of the academic journey at Antwerp Management School. Its purpose extends beyond providing students with all the necessary knowledge and new insights, but also to let them develop as 77

people, team members, and leaders, within a diverse and global group of students with whom they work very intensely during this year while remaining conscious of the world around them. Furthermore, the programme equips students with vital business and leadership skills essential to translating knowledge into tangible actions and effecting meaningful change, akin to the entrepreneurial spirit.

Throughout this course, the students will focus on higher levels of learning guided by the three pillars of AMS (self-awareness, global perspective, and societal consciousness) by working with a mixture of online sessions, inspiring lectures or testimonials, exercises, business games, self-analysis instruments, reflection moments, individual follow-up, collective sessions, and peer coaching.

Between 200 and 250 full-time master’s students from all disciplines at AMS, from Finance and Entrepreneurship to Human Resource Management and Fashion Management, participate in this course. The programme spans two semesters, commencing in September and concluding in June. As part of the pilot phase, the EICAA Competence Monitor was introduced during the kick-off of the programme's second semester in January.

The course cultivates students' leadership abilities, drawing upon competences such as "Vision", "Creativity", and "Ethical and Sustainable Thinking" within the "Ideas and Opportunities" domain. Additionally, emphasis is placed on competences including "Entrepreneurial Self-awareness and Self-efficacy", "Motivation and Perseverance" within the "Resources" domain, as well as "Taking the Initiative", "Working with Others", and "Planning and Management" within the "Into Action" domain.

The pilot implementation encompassed a diverse cohort of over 200 students, aged between 18 and 28 years, hailing from various educational backgrounds. Notably, the group consisted of students representing 44 nationalities, including India, the United States, Brazil, Hungary, Norway, Iran, China, and other countries.

Process of the Pilot Approach The purpose of the presentation was to acquaint the students with the EICAA initiative, its core competences, and the intrinsic relevance of entrepreneurial competences in many types of careers. The Competence Monitor was introduced as an instrumental reflection tool for their personal and professional growth. We introduced them to EICAA, its competences, and the relevance of the tool in order for them to become better leaders.

Response Rate In conjunction with the presentation, a QR Code was generated and displayed on the students' screens, accompanied by a corresponding survey link that was shared with them. Subsequently, the students were instructed to complete the survey during the classroom session. Regrettably, technical complications due to the solution used for streaming across different classrooms simultaneously hindered the process, resulting in a response rate of 47 out of the total cohort of 200 students.

Problems Out of the 4 groups, the 3 that attended the presentation through Microsoft Teams streamed to their respective classrooms. Despite the presence of an instructor in each classroom, these ‘remote’ groups faced severe technical issues, with a huge lag between the sound and the slides. Despite seeking technical assistance, the problem was not

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resolved in a timely manner, due to which the students could not hear the content, resulting in a lower response rate than expected.

Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the survey was incorporated as part of the comprehensive GLS kickoff day, which encompassed a dense schedule of activities and information dissemination. The students were already fatigued from the inundation of content during the kickoff event, which likely contributed to their decreased motivation and limited capacity to engage fully with the survey.

Entrepreneurial Competence Profile of the Assessed Group(s) Competence Spider-Web Chart Based on the results of the competence assessment, the course achieved an average score of 3.12 out of 5, indicating an intermediate level of entrepreneurship competence among the group. The highest average score was obtained in the competence area "Into Action", with a score of 3.28. The area of "Resources" was the second-highest scoring competence area, with an average score of 3.07. Conversely, the competence area "Ideas and Opportunities" received the lowest average score, with a score of 3.01. These results are also reflected in the spider web chart, which shows higher peak scores in the competence area of "Into Action" and lower scores overall in the area of "Ideas and Opportunities".

Figure 36: Competence Spider-Web Chart of the Full Time Master’s Students at AMS.

Strengths The group's self-assessment results revealed notable strengths in various competences.

Specifically, the following competences emerged as prominent: "Taking the Initiative" (3.77), "Motivation and Perseverance" (3.44), "Working with Others" (3.42), "Learning through Experience" (3.36), and "Process Management" (3.31). Not surprisingly, these competencies link to learning outcomes at higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.

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Given the GLS program's overarching objective of fostering holistic development among students, it was not surprising to witness commendable scores in competences that underscore personal growth and overall advancement. However, considering the central emphasis on self-awareness within GLS, it was unexpected not to observe this competence as a notable strength, especially given that the students had completed one semester of dedicated GLS training.

Furthermore, it was striking to note that the strengths predominantly resided within the domains of "Resources" and "Into Action", while no competences from the "Ideas and Opportunities" area surfaced as prominent. This finding contrasts with the heightened focus of AMS and the GLS program on conceptualizing innovative ideas, identifying market gaps, and embracing sustainability and ethical considerations. Upon reflection with involved staff from the programme and the Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a potential explanation surfaced in that the programme was led mostly

by HR-related faculty and less by faculty with an innovation or entrepreneurship profile.

Weaknesses The results of the self-assessment revealed weaknesses within several competences among the group, namely "Mobilizing (financial) Resources" (2.60), "Valuing Ideas" (2.72), "Design Validation and Co-Creation" (2.74), "Digital Competence" (2.86), and "Design Orientation" (2.94).

The lower score in mobilizing (financial) resources can be justified by considering the composition of the group, which comprises students from diverse master's programmes such as Human Resource Management, Fashion Management, Supply Chain, as well as those with varying levels of finance-focused education, including Finance, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Management. It is understandable that those without a finance background may exhibit lower proficiency in this competence. Moreover, it is worth noting that students have the opportunity to apply the theory learned in class during their in-company projects, where they collaborate with real-world companies in the latter part of the second semester. Hence, an improvement in the score for mobilizing (financial) resources could be expected post-engagement with such projects.

The "Valuing Ideas" competence pertains to the aptitude for recognizing the potential of ideas and opportunities within social, cultural, and economic contexts, which is particularly vital for the innovation challenge. Therefore, it is imperative to develop a competence enhancement strategy that focuses on bolstering this particular competence among the students as part of the GLS program.

The competence “Digital Competence” does not have a specific focus under GLS; however, it could vary from course to course based on the requirements of the discipline.

Based on this finding, it would be useful to dive deeper into the course curriculum regarding this competence.

Furthermore, the competences of "Design Validation and Co-Creation" and "Design Orientation" highlight the importance of engaging and interacting with customers and stakeholders to identify their needs and incorporate them into the design process. Given that the group consists of students who may not have prior working experience, their limited exposure to direct customer or stakeholder engagement might explain the lower scores in these competences. The mixed composition of the group further accentuates the lack of conceptual knowledge necessary to drive incremental and radical changes and develop sustainable innovations that effectively address customer needs.

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Overall, recognizing these weaknesses necessitates the implementation of targeted strategies to foster the development of these competences and bridge the gaps identified within the group.

Exploitation of the Self-Assessment Results The self-assessment results for the batch of 2023 conveyed multiple areas for improvement in the GLS curriculum. However, since this was a pilot round based on a sample of 47 students, we will be conducting more rounds to zoom into the exact changes required, as explained in Section 8.

The preliminary conclusion regarding the lower scores on competences in the “Ideas and Opportunities” area has sparked an internal search for faculty with a more innovationoriented profile. For the coming academic year, part of the supervision of the GLS program and the similarly application-oriented Action Learning Projects of the Master Innovation and Entrepreneurship is allocated to a newly opened vacancy for a junior faculty and research profile at the Innovation & Transformation competence center.

Lessons Learned The students' response to our competence monitor was largely positive, with a genuine interest expressed in exploring the various features of the EICAA Digital Platform. The opportunity to provide them with a deeper understanding of the theoretical framework underlying the Competence Monitor proved instrumental in fostering their appreciation for its relevance, thus preventing it from being perceived as a generic survey.

However, due to the integration of the Competence Monitor within the already comprehensive GLS Kickoff Day, it was not feasible to incorporate the Competence Development Kit. This realization underscored the significance of the timing and integration of the various features of EICAA within a programme, as it emerged that the students would have greatly benefited from engaging in the Competence Development Kit exercise. This exercise would have proven valuable not only for the EICAA project itself but also for the students, as it would have further enhanced their learning experience and competency development.

In light of this experience, it is evident that careful consideration of the timing and incorporation of the EICAA Competence Monitor into a programme is crucial to maximizing its effectiveness and value for the students.

Future Applications of the EICAA Digital Platform The EICAA Development Platform (EICAA-DP) encompasses a rich array of resources that significantly enrich our academic courses and pedagogical approaches. Within the context of AMS, there are multiple avenues through which it can be effectively integrated: a) Embedding the EICAA-DP within the GLS program would serve as a valuable tool for assessing and measuring the level of entrepreneurial competence among students at the beginning and end of their AMS journey. This approach enables us to quantitatively gauge the entrepreneurial impact of our programme. Based on the results obtained, students can be grouped into elective classes tailored to address the specific competences they need to enhance and develop. b) Moreover, the EICAA-DP can serve as a foundational framework for the Masters in Innovation and Entrepreneurship programme, enabling us to continually refine and improve our curriculum. By analysing the results over multiple cohorts, we can identify any persisting deficiencies in certain skills despite their inclusion in the curriculum. This empirical evidence can then inform evidence-based 81

curriculum adjustments, ensuring our programme remains effective and aligned with the evolving needs of our students. c) The implementation of the EICAA-DP can extend beyond the GLS program and Masters in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, encompassing other programmes such as the Executive MBA, company-specific programmes, and masterclasses, such as Design Thinking, Start to Lead, and various other topics. Integrating the EICAA-DP within these programmes enhances their effectiveness by providing a robust competence-based foundation, fostering the development of essential skills and competences among participants.

By incorporating the EICAA-DP into various facets of our academic offerings, we can harness its potential to further align our curriculum with our entrepreneurial spirit, ensure ongoing curriculum enhancements, and optimize the learning outcomes across our diverse range of programmes.

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1.4 How to motivate 600+ students to participate in a survey? The University of Szeged EICAA cases Getting to know the organization The University of Szeged is a prestigious higher education institution in Hungary with a rich tradition, committed to quality education on all levels, including Bachelor’s, Master’s, and doctoral programmes, higher-level vocational, and postgraduate specialist training, basic and applied research and development, the fine and performing arts, as well as quality health care, social responsibility, and the development of entrepreneurship.

In line with its tradition, education at the University of Szeged ensures the unity of highlevel theoretical foundation and practice, the latter also based on external partnerships.

The University is committed to the continuous improvement of the content of education, both in multilevel and multilingual education, in line with scientific progress, the development of information technologies, and the needs of society.

The purpose of the University of Szeged is to issue quality degrees that meet labour market demands and to make sure that its graduate students are sought-after by both national and international employers. The University provides educational conditions leading to highly prestigious degrees, which at the same time promote the academic development of its students. The Institution plays an important role in the organization of students’ lives by providing opportunities that promote their intellectual development and the maintenance of equal opportunities among them.

The University of Szeged’s mission and goal are to cultivate science, conduct internationally competitive research, and ensure its position as a research university. Its research and creative activities, as part of international and domestic programmes, include basic and applied research, artistic creation, and product and service development. The social and economic exploitation of the University’s research results, supported by innovative solutions, contributes to the Institution’s role as a knowledgeintensive engine in the innovation ecosystem and in regional economic development.

Entrepreneurial competences are essential in fostering this mission; the EICAA project was considered an essential international opportunity.

Rationale of the Pilot The target group of university students is known to be the most studied segment in science. In fact, in almost all disciplines, the vast majority of the respondents are university students; this is true for the University of Szeged as well. This is not because they are representative of society, but simply for convenience: they are the easiest for university researchers to reach. This is the reason why even the most rigorous scientific publications often target this group.

One might assume, therefore, that it is easy to reach this target group. What is more, actors outside the university often approach the university, saying: "Here is a questionnaire please distribute it to the students". But the situation is far from being that simple. Unfortunately, recruiting university students to fill out a questionnaire is often a challenge. As the first step of the EICAA pilot round, we identified the reasons for the generally low response rate among students, and based on this, we were able to directly tackle them: 1. Time constraints: University students often have packed schedules with classes, assignments, part-time jobs, extracurricular activities, and social commitments.

Finding the time to complete a survey can be difficult, especially if it is lengthy 84

2.

3.

4.

5.

(and, to be honest, the EICAA student survey is rather in this category) or requires concentrated effort (which is also true for our survey).

Survey fatigue: As mentioned above, university students are frequently approached to participate in various research studies, surveys, or data collection efforts. It is also quite common nowadays that they collect respondents for their own research (for their thesis) by asking their classmates. Over time, this can lead to survey fatigue, where students become less willing to participate due to feeling overwhelmed or having participated in similar surveys before.

Lack of incentive: If there is no clear incentive or benefit for students to complete the survey, they may be less motivated to participate. Students are more likely to engage in a survey if they perceive it as valuable, and relevant, or if there is a tangible reward involved.

Limited awareness or communication: If we only throw in a survey to the mailing list or upload it to the university’s online platform (Neptun in our case), students may not be aware of the survey or the importance of their participation. If the survey recruitment process fails to effectively reach students through appropriate communication channels or lacks clear messaging, it becomes challenging to engage them in the survey.

Trust and privacy concerns: Nowadays, university students have more concerns about the privacy and confidentiality of their responses. If they are unsure about how their data will be used, who will have access to it, or if they do not trust the survey provider, they may be hesitant to participate. Building trust and ensuring data security can help alleviate these concerns. We must mention that at many universities, strict ethical procedures are required to run even an anonymous survey.

Context of the Pilot At the EICAA project, we considered it crucial to address these above-mentioned challenges when recruiting university students for surveys to increase participation rates and ensure the data collected is representative and reliable. Hereby, we summarize the methods applied at the University of Szeged when reaching out to our students. We took a step-by-step approach to tackle all the above-mentioned critical aspects during our data collection.

1. Time constraints: The active period for students is typically the first third of term time when registration for classes has closed but mid-term exams have not yet started, therefore, they have the capacity for extracurricular activities. The EICAA data collection in Fall 2022 was timed to occur in the 4th-7th week of the school term, when undergraduates typically have the most time.

2. Survey fatigue: Survey fatigue is mainly a characteristic of upperclassmen who have participated in many surveys over the years. For juniors, and especially for first-year students, taking part in a survey is a novelty and an interesting adventure. This is why we chose first-year students as our main target group in EICAA. 3. Lack of incentive: At first glance, it seems like an easy task to give students an incentive since we should give them extra points or a better grade for completing the questionnaire. However, there are several problems with this: On the one hand, it raises quality assurance problems for education if the assessment of a course is based on the completion of a questionnaire (and not on learning). On the other hand, it is difficult to give extra credit for an anonymous questionnaire (since we do not know who is entitled to extra credit). In the case of the EICAA questionnaire, we bridged this by telling students in a large lecture that we expect

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a collaborative effort from them, i.e., that the collaborative result will count. We specified that if at least 400 completions were received, they would have to choose from only five rather than six answer choices for the end-of-year test (this statistically significantly increases the chances of getting a good grade). And if we reach 500, they will only have to choose from four answer choices for the endof-year test.

4. Limited awareness or communication: The instructor explained in detail how to fill out the EICAA questionnaire, presented the underlying project, and emphasized that this is an important project for the University of Szeged. At the same time, he took personal responsibility for the project, i.e., he put his face to the research.

5. Trust and privacy concerns: the questionnaire was not only filled out anonymously, but even the demographic questions were removed from the questionnaire, further enhancing anonymity and privacy as they had to answer even fewer personal questions.

Process of the Pilot Approach The completion of the EICAA pilot questionnaire was concentrated in a single course so that the task was grouped in one hand (one instructor). The lecturer was familiar with the EICAA project and was, therefore, committed to the success of the pilot round and a reliable source of information for students in case of problems. The following were important criteria in the selection of the specific course: • • •

A course that should be compulsory for economics students It should be a course in which students from other faculties also participate.

A course that is thematically aligned with the entrepreneurship competences, i.e., aligned with the EICAA and the course.

On this basis, we have chosen the Marketing BA course, which is compulsory for firstyear students in the Faculty of Economics (500 students), Faculty of Arts and Humanities (100 students), Faculty of Natural Science (100 students), and Faculty of Law (50 students). In 2022, the total number of students on the course was 768.

The entire Marketing course is based on the concept of mindset formation, looking at marketing not as a tool but as a way of thinking. In essence, the instructor aims at a kind of business adaptation of entrepreneurial competence. In this light, it was not difficult to adapt the spirit of the EICAA to the course. The instructor presented the EICAA project in detail in a course in October and shared a link to the questionnaire. In the following course, the competences were discussed again, with the students now familiar with the platform.

The motivational method used was to set threshold numbers for the students: if they had at least 300 completions, they would only have to choose from 5 answer choices instead of 6 for the end-of-year multiple choice exam. If the number of answers exceeds 400, they will only have to choose from four answer choices.

Students were also informed that AI checks the internal consistency of the answers, so if they try to cheat (i.e., just randomly mark answers), AI will find out and all answers will be invalidated. All in all, peer pressure was an important motivation for the pilot project.

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Response Rate The base population was narrowly defined as 768 students, but students were informed that they could be filled in by other students, so the base population was slightly larger.

All of these efforts were crowned with success, as the University of Szeged EICAA student survey received 684 valuable responses, far exceeding expectations.

Problems In addition to the questionnaire, a feedback survey was also sent to the students, where they could give feedback on how much they liked the questionnaire and indicate any problems they had.

Entrepreneurial Competence Profile of the Assessed Group(s) Competence Spider-Web Chart First, it is worth reviewing the main parameters of the survey, which are shown in the figure below. On average, 667 university students took part in the survey and were able to complete the questionnaire in 10 minutes, slightly faster than we had predicted.

However, one important limitation of this survey is worth highlighting: As the early version of the online interface was somewhat difficult to navigate between the demographic questions at the beginning of the questionnaire, we feared that this block might encourage respondents to stop completing the questionnaire. We, therefore, decided to remove the demographic block. Note that the demographic block can be turned off with a single click on the current platform as well. At the time, we did not expect such a high number of completions, so we did not see much significance in omitting the demographic variables. We have re-evaluated this somewhat in hindsight.

Figure 37: Summary of the Self-Assessment.

The spider (radar) chart below shows all the results in detail. The different colours represent the different competence areas (Ideas and Opportunities; Resources; Into Action), and each score represents the average of the competences tested for all respondents. The larger the area covered, the higher the level of competence. It can be clearly seen that the green area is significantly larger than either the red or the blue area, i.e., Into Action competences are more advanced among the completers.

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Figure 38: Competence Spider-Web Chart.

Figure 38: Competence Heatmap.

The above results are also illustrated by the Competence Heatmap, where the darker the field, the more characteristic it is. These show that the green (Into Action) competences are at intermediate and advanced levels, while the “Resources” and “Ideas and Opportunities” competence areas are at the basic or intermediate level.

The above figure also shows the strengths and weaknesses of the group. As the sample is sufficiently large, even though the survey was not representative, these should be taken into account as indicators of the entrepreneurial competences of the students at the University of Szeged. They show that students are particularly strong in Into Action competences (most notably “Taking the Initiative”, “Learning Through Experience”, and 88

“Working with Others”). This shows that the students are somewhat adventurous, less afraid of taking a chance, and ready to act collaboratively.

Weaknesses Respondents were weaker at evaluating ideas and mobilizing resources. These are a natural consequence of their inexperience and young age and are not surprising. On the other hand, it is somewhat puzzling that digital competences were ranked among the weakest, which contradicts the stereotype that young people are digital experts by default.

Exploitation of the self-assessment results The EICAA Digital Platform is not only capable of assessment but also provides specific training materials and modules, which are offered according to how the group performed in the competence assessment. In line with the student's results, the platform offers intermediate material aimed at further developing the already strong competence (Ethical and Sustainable Thinking), entitled "Analysis of the ethical and sustainability aspects of the new venture". It also offers a basic module to develop the weaker competences (Design Validation) called “Prototype!”.

Figure 39: Recommended Modules by the EICAA Platform.

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The architecture of the EICAA Competence Development Kit (CDK) is shown in the figure below. Here you can view the details of the training module, in this case, “Prototype!”. The module includes a detailed manual, an assessment, and even external resources (videos, literature, and assessment tools).

Figure 40: Competence Development Kit on the EICAA Platform.

As the survey in this case study was conducted during a mandatory course with many students, it was not possible to integrate the new teaching modules instantly into the semester flow due to the tight schedule. However, they will serve us well when developing the course in the following semester, as the large sample survey allows us to assume that these characteristics (strengths and weaknesses) may also be true for the next group. Accordingly, the course instructor reviewed the suggestions offered through the CDK and incorporated some of them into the lecture and related seminars.

Lessons Learned The EICAA Digital Platform testing aimed to assess university students' entrepreneurial competences and present the results on a new platform. Through this initiative, several valuable lessons were learned, shedding light on both the strengths and weaknesses of the 667 students' competences.

Firstly, the platform testing revealed significant potential and strengths among university students regarding their entrepreneurial competences. The results highlighted a diverse range of problem-solving skills and a strong sense of ambition among the participants, mostly among the “Into Action” type of competences. By identifying these strengths, the platform not only highlighted individual students' capabilities but also provided valuable insights into the collective potential of the student population. This information can be instrumental in encouraging and nurturing entrepreneurial talents within the university community.

Secondly, the platform testing unearthed certain areas of weakness within the group's competences. These insights proved equally vital as they directed attention towards specific areas that required further development and support. Whether it be in “Valuing Ideas”, “Mobilizing (financial) Resources”, or design thinking, these weaknesses allowed 90

educators and administrators to tailor their future efforts to bridge the gaps in the students' entrepreneurial skill sets. As a result, the platform testing contributed to the design of targeted training programmes and resources offered by the EICAA CDK platform aimed at bolstering the students' entrepreneurial abilities and enhancing their overall employability.

Lastly, the implementation of platform testing fostered a culture of feedback and continuous improvement. By making the individual results accessible to the students, the initiative encouraged self-assessment and introspection. Students were empowered to analyse their own performance and identify areas for personal growth. This feedback loop proved to be an invaluable aspect of the testing process, as it not only enabled students to improve their entrepreneurial competences but also instilled a sense of accountability and motivation for continuous self-improvement.

In conclusion, the platform testing provided a comprehensive assessment of university students' entrepreneurial competences, highlighting both strengths and weaknesses within the group. By identifying individual potential and areas requiring improvement, the initiative not only supported personal growth but also informed targeted interventions and training programmes. Moreover, fostering a culture of feedback and self-improvement among students ensured the continuous development of entrepreneurial talents within the university community. Overall, the EICAA Digital Platform testing served as a valuable tool in evaluating and enhancing the entrepreneurial capabilities of university students.

Future Applications of the EICAA Digital Platform First, it is important to note that this testing was done in the early stages of the EICAA project, so there have been many improvements to the platform since then, and more are expected. Therefore, we can assume that the EICAA Digital Platform for evaluating university students' entrepreneurial competences holds immense potential for entrepreneurial education. As it continues to evolve and expand, several promising opportunities emerge that can revolutionize the way entrepreneurship is nurtured and supported among students.

As the platform accumulates more data and insights over time, it can be leveraged to identify broader trends and patterns within the entrepreneurial landscape. These datadriven analyses can provide valuable information to policymakers, educators, and business leaders, enabling them to better understand the evolving needs of the entrepreneurial workforce and align curricula, resources, and funding accordingly. For instance, an educator can intertemporally track the change in entrepreneurial competences of one exact group (so identify an improvement) but can also compare the competences of the same type of group (e.g., first-grade students) over time. In essence, the platform can become an essential tool for shaping education and policy decisions aimed at fostering a future-ready generation of entrepreneurs.

Moreover, the EICAA Digital Platform can become a hub for fostering collaboration and networking among aspiring educators and even their students. By connecting dedicated educators with similar interests and complementary skill sets, it can facilitate the formation of diverse and dynamic teams. This networking opportunity provides a supportive ecosystem where educators as well as students can learn from one another, share knowledge, and pool resources. Such collaborative ventures have the potential to lead to groundbreaking startups and create a culture of entrepreneurship that thrives on shared visions and mutual support.

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In conclusion, the future opportunities with the EICAA Digital Platform for evaluating university students' entrepreneurial competences are extensive and transformative. By fostering collaboration, providing data-driven insights, and bridging academia with the business world, the platform can create an ecosystem where entrepreneurship becomes an integral part of education.

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1.5 Paving the Way for a Large-Scale Pilot Test Overcoming Barriers, Fostering Engagement, and Garnering Institutional commitment Getting to know the organization The TecnoCampus Foundation is a non-profit organization initiated by Mataró City Council and the Maresme Regional Council to manage the Science and Innovation Park TecnoCampus and the three universities: the School of Business and Social Science, the School of Engineering and Technology, and the School of Health Sciences, all together with over 3.900 students and belonging to Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF).

UPF is a public university in Barcelona (Spain), among the top 5 universities in Europe according to the classification of U-Multirank 2022.

The mission of TecnoCampus is to become a key player in the generation and transference of knowledge, contributing to the economic and sustainable development of the region through the development of a unique and holistic strategy that includes the university campus, the business park with around 120 innovative consolidated companies, and the business incubator with capacity for 27 start-ups. TecnoCampus also hosts remarkable institutions that promote the competitiveness of the local industry: the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, two business associations (FAGEM and GENTIC), and PIMEC, the association of small and medium businesses.

The added value of TecnoCampus lies in the synergies established between the government, university, citizens, and industry spheres, running as a quadruple helix model. These four spheres leverage synergies, optimize resources, and promote innovation as an economic driving force, making TecnoCampus a singular initiative for its capacity to combine these elements. This model benefits all parts of the system: Students find a learning environment that is closely linked with industry and has a major entrepreneurial impetus; companies can access talent and knowledge transfer; and government agents can manage resources efficiently and apply effective policies for promoting industry.

At TecnoCampus, all programmes have curricular courses on entrepreneurship. A common methodology is learning by doing and project-based learning, in which the students are encouraged to identify needs and opportunities in their domain of knowledge (such as in engineering, health, tourism, marketing, and logistics) and develop their ideas into prototypes. The aim is to raise awareness of entrepreneurship among students while they acquire entrepreneurial skills and knowledge. Students can also enrol in an elective course called “Entrepreneurial Journey”, in which they can configure their own journey in entrepreneurship education by participating in several activities, such as idea contests, networking events, or hackathons. A tutor supervises their journey and helps them gain the skills required for these activities. TecnoCampus also offers a Master’s programme on entrepreneurship and innovation, which has an interdisciplinary teaching staff.

Some facts and figures (HEIs): • Number of study programmes (bachelor and master): 21 • Number of faculties: 3 • Number of students: 3.936 • Number of foreign students: 119 • Average number of graduates per year: 660 • Year of establishment: 2010 94

Rationale of the pilot Entrepreneurship serves as a fundamental cornerstone of TecnoCampus, forming one of its primary pillars. The university and the business park of TecnoCampus work towards the same values, mission, and vision, harmoniously strengthening entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. Our collaborative efforts extend beyond traditional academic offerings, encompassing a diverse range of services including incubation, mentoring, and engaging extracurricular activities. This holistic approach ensures that students, regardless of their chosen field of study, can cultivate entrepreneurial skills.

TecnoCampus is aware that testing entrepreneurial skills among their university students holds immense significance in nurturing their potential for success in the dynamic professional landscape. These assessments provide a valuable opportunity to gauge the abilities of TecnoCampus students to identify opportunities and capitalize on these opportunities to create value and bring innovations. By evaluating their entrepreneurial competences, TecnoCampus can identify strengths and areas for improvement, enabling tailored support and guidance. Moreover, testing entrepreneurial skills helps students understand the practical application of their knowledge, fostering a mindset of adaptability, resilience, and creativity.

Within this framework, TecnoCampus has committed to running a massive pilot test to test the entrepreneurial competences of all its students. This commitment stems from the proactive involvement of the management board, who were informed by the EICAA team at TecnoCampus regarding the objectives of the EICAA project and the inherent advantages of conducting such a survey. Recognizing the potential impact within the institution, the board acknowledged the value of obtaining a comprehensive overview of entrepreneurial competence development among its students. This insight would serve as a crucial foundation for reviewing, refining, and designing existing programmes.

Furthermore, the pilot test would facilitate a comparative analysis of entrepreneurial competences across various disciplines and courses, fostering a more detailed understanding of their progression.

Getting the commitment of the management board is certainly crucial to running the pilot test at the institutional level. However, we still needed to work on the operationalization of the massive test. The main concern we had was getting a higher response rate among the students. We were aware that sending the link through the institutional channels would have reached a large percentage of students, but the response rate would have been low. Considering an optimistic estimate of a 10% response rate, this would have meant around 300 answers, which is not enough to get a detailed picture across the different degrees and academic years. Thus, we decided to conduct the test by pitching its value to the different class groups. To conduct such an intervention, we needed to get the commitment of the programme directors and the lecturer whose class was going to be selected and somehow “interrupted” for about 30 minutes. We also found that the success of such an initiative would largely depend on the precise time of the academic year. If we got too close to the examination period, we would find resistance from both lecturers and the students themselves. We also took into consideration that the students are required to answer several surveys during the academic year. Thus, passing our survey when the students are also required to answer other surveys was deemed nondesirable.

All in all, we estimated that the best time to run the massive pilot test was at the beginning of the academic year, when academic staff and students are more eager to get engaged in different initiatives. We also found that we could use the presentations of EICAA in every class as a way of promoting entrepreneurial mindsets and inviting the students to be aware of the different initiatives held at TecnoCampus around entrepreneurship.

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Therefore, we decided to run a pre-pilot with the students of two groups (named Pilot 1 and Pilot 2 hereafter), which would serve as a basis for presenting some initial results to the management board. This would open the door to easier engagement from the middle management and other lecturers to conduct the massive test early in the winter semester. The following sections of this case study present the pre-pilot that was conducted and the insights and learnings that we obtained from this experience. In the last section of this case study, we set the path toward the massive pilot test by reaching out to and potentially getting answers from more than 3,000 students.

Context of the pilot The pre-pilot was conducted in two different settings. The first one was conducted in the context of an international programme on entrepreneurship that was organized at TecnoCampus. The second survey was administered to a group of students in computer games who took part in an international project on entrepreneurship in one of their courses. In both cases, we administered the survey by presenting the EICAA survey in the programme or course and inviting all students to fill it out during class time. This guaranteed that all students present in the class answered the survey, as was later proved by looking at the number of responses we obtained.

Pilot 1 In the first case, we reached 19 students who were taking part in an international entrepreneurship programme called “Blended Intensive Programme” (BIP). The programme was organized at TecnoCampus, and students from different universities participated in it: Windesheim University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands), Thomas More University of Applied Sciences (Belgium), Ost Bayerische Technische Hochschule Amberg-Weiden (Germany), Strascheg Center of Entrepreneurship (Germany), and TecnoCampus (Spain).

The programme focused on the topic “urban mobility” by looking at mobility problems and issues in the big city of Barcelona and a medium-sized city, Mataró. The students, allocated in multidisciplinary and international teams, worked on the identification of a particular challenge, the immersion into the challenge, and the ideation and pitching of a potential solution. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) collaborated with the introduction to the topic of superblocks in the city of Barcelona, and the vertical incubator on train mobility managed by TecnoCampus with the funding of the Spanish rail transport company RENFE, Antena TrenLab, also contributed by focusing the mobility topic on the city of Mataró.

The programme was conducted at Tecnocampus for two weeks, one online and one on campus. The methodologies used in the programme were challenge-based learning and Design Thinking. The learning outcomes included raising awareness on the need to address urban mobility to foster a sustainable and green future, getting knowledge on the complexity of urban mobility, learning how innovation and entrepreneurship skills can bring innovative solutions to existing problems, and investigating how new technologies can contribute to providing innovative solutions. Working in interdisciplinary and intercultural teams was also fostered, along with the skills of effective communication and pitching of entrepreneurial ideas. Upon completion of the programme, which was rewarded and recognized with 3 ECTS, the 19 students that attended the programme filled out the survey.

Facts and figures: •

Study programme: International students, bachelor’s and master’s students

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• • • •

Size of the course: 19 Teaching style: Workshop Teaching format: Hybrid (first week online) Background information: No requirements

Pilot 2 On the other hand, the survey was administered to a group of students with a bachelor’s degree in design and production of computer games. These students were enrolled in a course in Communication and as part of this course, they developed a project in the framework of the international initiative “Start For Future”. Start For Future is an entrepreneurship programme funded by the EIT HEI Initiative and EIT Urban Mobility.

Around 70 students from TecnoCampus participated in “Phase Learn” of this project, and all of them were invited to fill out the survey after the completion of this phase.

The Start For Future (SFF) programme of Entrepreneurial Universities links incubators, research and development organizations, regional hubs, industry partners, and EIT KICs in Europe in order to focus on the support of entrepreneurial higher education institutions, key internal staff, target groups such as talents and start-ups, and their regional ecosystems in driving systemic innovation in Europe. The objective of this programme is to foster an entrepreneurial mindset toward the development of sustainable and scalable business models and the generation of impact in Europe and beyond.

The SFF programme consists of three phases, after which continuous access to a “Growth and Co-Creation Network” is granted: -

The first phase, mentioned above, is the “Learn Phase”, in which universities perform a project- and team-based entrepreneurship seminar based on a joint topic.

The second phase is the “Match & Start Phase”, where international talents, projects, and start-ups, as well as experts, mentors, and incubators, get matched and prepared for the further development of their start-up ideas.

Finally, in the third phase, called “Develop & Co-create”, teams select and join an incubation programme from one of the partner universities and get access to regional ecosystems and co-creation partners.

The main topics of the programme are manufacturing, mobility, the circular economy, food, and health.

SFF offers five international exchange sessions for students with a duration of 7.5 hours plus preparation time. In these sessions, students receive general knowledge of the topics and present their projects. Students receive coaching as well as business model inputs, prepare their pitch, and finally present their projects with the possibility of accessing the following phase “Match & Start”.

In comparison to the first case, in which students belonged to different backgrounds and nationalities, this case had students with quite a homogeneous background and nationality (mostly Spanish students).

Facts and figures: • • •

Study programme: Bachelor’s students Size of the course: 72 Teaching style: Lecture-based

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• •

Teaching format: Hybrid (mostly face-to-face classes, “Start For Future” online) Educational attainment: Students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree programme in computer games, and some of them also studied computer science.

Process of the Pilot Approach In both cases, the class group was given access to the EICAA questionnaire through a QR code. To access the questionnaire, students used either mobile phones or computers through the QR-generated code. Each course had a different QR code in order to be able to compare them if necessary.

In the larger course (Pilot 2), the students had to fill out the questionnaire as a mandatory task. Answering the survey was part of a final reflection exercise that was conducted on the last day of the course. Using the results of the survey that each student obtained in PDF format, the students needed to complete a writing and visual task where they summarized their strengths and weaknesses as well as the learnings of the course.

Response Rate The number of students participating in the EICAA survey in the BIP programme was: • •

Number of students reached: 19 students Number of students that answered the questionnaire: 19 students

The number of students participating in the EICAA questionnaire in the second case was: • •

Number of students reached: 72 The number of students who answered was: 68

In the BIP programme, the response rate was 100%, indicating full participation.

Similarly, in the second pilot, the response rate was nearly complete at 94.44%, demonstrating high engagement and commitment from the participants.

Problems There were not any major problems while answering the surveys. The students went through the questions and answered them without any questions or concerns. The time needed to answer the survey was about 12 minutes. The only technical issue arose in one case with the use of the submission button. When the student finished the survey, he could not send it despite pressing the button to submit it. It seemed like the button to finalize the survey was not responding. The suggestion given by the lecturer was to start over the test by using the computer, which the student accepted without many complaints. Later, we were informed that this bug had already been reported and was in the process of being solved. No further problems were identified while the students answered the survey. The impression was that the platform was very professional and robust. Using the QR survey was of great help to the students since they could answer the survey with their own mobile phones, which is usually perceived as very handy.

Sketch of the Findings Competence Spider-Web Chart After the competence assessment, which took an average of around 12 minutes, the results were analysed. Fehler! Verweisquelle konnte nicht gefunden werden. and 98

REF _Ref141115134 \h \* MERGEFORMAT Fehler! Verweisquelle konnte nicht gefunden werden. show the results in the form of a spider-web chart, with the average results of every competence categorized in three competence areas. In blue, we depict the area “Ideas and Opportunities”. In red, area “Resources” and in green colour, area “Into Action”.

In both cases, the highest average score was obtained in the “Into Action” area, with scores higher than 3 in all the competences. Note that the scores of the students can range from 1 (no expertise) to 5 (maximum self-reported expertise).

Regarding the first pilot (the BIP programme), the analysis indicates that the participants possess several strengths that can contribute to their success in entrepreneurship, such as their initiative-taking, motivation, and teamwork abilities. However, there are areas for improvement, including valuing ideas, digital competence, and resource mobilization.

Addressing these weaknesses through targeted training and development could help the participants become more well-rounded and effective entrepreneurs. In comparison with the results from the second pilot (the Start For Future programme), the SFF programme appears to have slightly higher average scores across all three areas: “Ideas and Opportunities”, “Resources”, and “Into Action”.

Figure 41: Competence Spider-web with the average results of the students of Pilot 2 (communication course and “Start For Future”) in each of the competences, categorized in the three competence areas. The results include 68 completed answers from the group.

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Figure 42: Competence Spider-web chart with the average results of the students of Pilot 1 (BIP program) in each of the competences, categorized in the three competence areas. The results include 19 answers from the group.

Both programmes share common strengths, indicating that certain entrepreneurial traits are prevalent among participants regardless of the programme they are enrolled in. Both programmes also face similar weaknesses, with participants needing to focus on areas such as enterprising literacy, resource mobilization, and valuing ideas. The "Start For Future" programme identifies an additional weakness related to coping with uncertainty, ambiguity, and risk vision, highlighting an area that requires targeted attention and development.

In conclusion, while the "Start For Future" programme demonstrates a relatively stronger overall performance, both programmes have valuable strengths and face similar weaknesses. Addressing these weaknesses through targeted training and support can enhance the entrepreneurial capabilities of the participants in both programmes.

Strengths and Weaknesses There are a few differences among the different competences. This might be due to the average among different items in a given competence and the average among students.

It would be interesting to observe the standard deviation among students along a given competence to see the degree of variability among students.

Both programmes share a focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. They encourage students to work in interdisciplinary teams and emphasize real-world problem-solving.

The participants from both programmes exhibit strengths in taking initiative, working with others, learning through experience, motivation, and perseverance.

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As strengths, results show high motivation in both the BIP and the Start For Future programmes where identification of problems, ideation, business models, and pitch preparations are worked on. We could assume that learning through experience is, in both cases, very related to the students because they are constantly learning. One way to get it valued would be to compare these results from those with employees and therefore identify it as a strength or not.

The weaknesses that have been detected through these results are related to financial competence, as most of the students who participated in the assessment were not taking specialized business courses.

Figure 43: Summary and Strengths and Weaknesses of Pilot 1 (BIP program), with a Total of 19 Students

Valuing ideas is one of the most difficult tasks in the area of “Ideas and Opportunities” because statements are also related to licensing and patenting, which is not often a topic that is dealt with in these courses.

In conclusion, while the "Start For Future" programme demonstrates a relatively stronger overall performance, both programmes have valuable strengths and face similar weaknesses. Addressing these weaknesses through targeted training and support can enhance the entrepreneurial capabilities of the participants in both programmes.

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Figure 44: Summary and Strengths and Weaknesses of Pilot 2, with 68 Completed Answers.

Use of the Assessment Results The assessments were done at the end of the course, so they could not be used to improve the contents of the course where the survey was conducted. Despite this, results have allowed us to: • • •

Raise awareness among the students about entrepreneurial competences.

Raise awareness of the trainer or teacher’s on the perception of the acquired competences of their group of students.

Open for the introduction of potential improvements for future courses.

One of the uses of the assessments that we found valuable is to use the survey as a tool for reflection by the students. Linking the survey with a reflection task at the end of the course was a great way to finish the course and give the students the opportunity to see the overall picture of the competences they have been working on along the duration of the course. Another way to use the assessment is through a pre-post survey as a general reflection on whether the course improved the intended competences on average.

The Development Kit was not used because the survey was conducted at the end.

However, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the group was highly relevant.

This information triggered the educator’s interest in the reasons why the students scored high in some competences and low in others. Also, for some competences such as “Mobilizing Resources”, the reasons for a low score can be understandable if the students do not have a business background or have never practiced this skill in the current or previous courses. Also, it was interesting to observe that one of the groups scored low in “Coping with Uncertainty, Ambiguity, and Risk”, which immediately raised interest in accessing the modules for the development of this competence.

The use of the Competence Development Kit (CDK) was then estimated as interesting when the instructor or lecturer identified some weaknesses in the students’ group.

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Particularly, some competences such as the one related to “Coping with Uncertainty, Ambiguity, and Risk” raised the curiosity of the instructor about how to help the students improve it. However, the recommendations given by the CDK were not necessarily connected (or at least not directly associated) with the weaknesses identified in the group. This raised a bit of confusion for the educator, who understood that the recommendations were just a random selection of modules. Some of them were indeed nice to have been recommended, because of the appealing titles, such as “Become a scientist entrepreneur”. The educator was willing to access the full catalogue of courses and scroll through them as well.

Lessons Learned There have been different levels of lessons learned: Both from running the assessment and from an organizational level. The following is a list of recommendations drawn from lessons learned from running the assessment, summarized as a list of Do’s and Don’ts: Do’s: • • • •

The approach of administering the survey in class works well to get a high response rate.

The survey can be run as part of a reflection exercise on the students’ side.

At the group level, the results of the survey are a good source to host an overview or general reflection in class, showing the average results of the group and what the students can learn from this (i.e., guiding a discussion).

An individual report is important. A graph showing the development of each student compared with the group’s average or overall average would be nice to show.

Don’ts: •

To use the digital platform to its fullest, it is important to conduct the survey early in the course so that the educator can benefit from the modules suggested in the CDK. Otherwise, they just remain as complementary information that the educator can use in follow-up courses or for the next semester.

Several lessons l can be extracted from running the pilot tests in the courses and also from engaging the institution’s management for a wider institutional commitment.

First, having a motivated teaching staff makes it easier to carry out the assessment.

Students usually follow the teacher’s instructions, especially if it is a task related to a course or subject. Sending a link to a survey has a very low response rate, but motivating students to do the assessment and then using the results to conduct a reflection with them will provide meaning and valuable information for both the students and the educators.

The pre-pilots that we have described in this case study have proven to be very useful to demonstrate the effectiveness and results of applying the survey to a group of students in front of the board of directors of the organization. It has been very useful to communicate the benefits of the survey and obtain institutional support.

Timing is also very important, so we would encourage you to plan a calendar of implementation. This is a very critical issue, both in terms of student response and willingness to respond. It is an important issue for educators, who usually do not want to

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spend time on a topic or issue that diverts them from their "subject", especially when this coincides with the final weeks of the course.

Future Applications of the EICAA Digital Platform Our experience with the two pilots that we conducted with students was very positive and encouraged us to pursue the massive pilot test. As follows, we list several ways in which the survey can be further used in the future, while providing value to educators and the institution as a whole: • • •

• • • • • •

Run the massive test with all students at the institution in the following winter semester.

Run separate tests: By generating differentiated surveys for every academic year and programme, we can compare competence development across different backgrounds and academic years.

Run the test every year: This would enable longitudinal studies of cohort groups and evaluate how their competences (and the perceptions of their competences) evolve along their studies and are connected with taking part in entrepreneurship courses.

Conduct pre- and post-tests to assess the level of progress of a given group before and after a given entrepreneurship course is run.

Apply the survey to master’s students, especially those enrolled in the master’s course on entrepreneurship.

Run the test in other institutions (similarly to other tests such as Guess or GEM surveys).

Apply the survey to international projects with the participation of students (e.g., open it to Start For Future).

Use the results of the tests to conduct reflections at the course level and use the results to improve existing educational programmes.

Add new courses or seminars, e.g., to deal with specific competences where there is an identified gap (i.e., valuing ideas, creativity, co-creation with users…)

In conclusion, we observed that it is crucial to get the engagement of not only the management board but also the programme directors and, ultimately, the professors themselves to get the survey completed at all levels. Entrepreneurship courses are the ideal scenario to run the survey, given the alignment between the survey and the skills that the students acquire during the course. However, in other disciplines, like Health Sciences, obtaining support from academic staff requires greater effort. Furthermore, we observed that the timing of the survey significantly influences the willingness of the students to conduct such a survey. More importantly, we concluded that it is not only about getting a high response rate; we also need to consider the student’s experience and the meaning that the students attribute to the pilot test. At the end of the academic year, students often experience stress related to the upcoming examinations, and adding an additional task to their overload would not facilitate a positive student experience.

Therefore, we have observed that for the successful execution of a large-scale pilot test, the engagement of various stakeholders is crucial. Effective communication and dissemination strategies play a vital role in securing this engagement.

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1.6 Univations Institute: Bridging Entrepreneurship and Knowledge Transfer in Saxony-Anhalt Getting to know the organization Established in 2006 as an affiliated institute of Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Univations GmbH, and its nine full-time employees are responsible for entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer activities in southern Saxony-Anhalt. The private institute fulfils an important bridge function between higher education, industry, and policymakers inside the regional innovation ecosystem. With access to an extensive professional partner network along the knowledge triangle and towards intermediaries, chambers, and policy-shaping authorities, we understand our mission as taking on a key role in fostering entrepreneurial thinking and acting as well as innovation activities in the state of Saxony-Anhalt and beyond. We do so by supporting young entrepreneurs and university spinoffs in all phases of the start-up life cycle as well as by consulting innovative enterprises in their efforts to develop new products, technologies, and services. To sustainably succeed in this mission, Univations pursues a holistic approach to innovation and start-up support, from entrepreneurship awareness and competence development activities (at schools and universities) to management consulting for startups and experienced SMEs. The essential motivation for this systematic support lies in the creation of premium jobs and a top-skilled workforce in a structurally catching-up region whose relevance on the European level needs to increase.

Rationale of the pilot The rationale for establishing a self-assessment use case was rooted in the following: a)

b) c)

Becoming knowledgeable of the entrepreneurial competence portfolio of our company’s employees and also providing inspiration to our employees for future professional training.

Raising entrepreneurial competence self-awareness level among employees.

Testing the self-assessment by gathering feedback from our employees, especially those that are not involved in EICAA operationally.

Moreover, as an affiliated institute of Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg, we are working closely with higher education stakeholders in the region. Fostering entrepreneurship education not only among students but also among employees is part of their self-understanding. By piloting the EICAA Digital Platform internally, we also wanted to prepare for its scaling to universities in the region. In fact, we had informed them about EICAA and wanted to make sure that the platform worked properly before motivating university stakeholders to also make use of it.

Context of the Pilot Univations is leading the EICAA consortium, and the idea behind the project was also born and developed inside our company. Therefore, we had a vital interest in piloting the EICAA Digital Platform ourselves. This is true not only with regard to discovering directions for improving the intrapreneurship competence profile of employees but also in relation to the services we offer to our external clients.

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Process of the Pilot Approach The possibility of piloting EICAA DP internally was first discussed between the team that also coordinates EICAA operationally and the CEO of the company. The team informed the CEO about the chance to engage in the pilot and the added value derived therefrom for guidance on professional training inside. Subsequently, an implementation plan was made that, among other things, put the announcement of the upcoming pilot test on the agenda of the next internal company meetings. Univations is a rather small company, with nine employees currently. Not all employees of Univations are involved in EICAA. Therefore, the project as well as the rationale for the pilot had to be explained to all employees of the company during the meeting. After that meeting, the pilot test session was prepared inside the EICAA Digital Platform, and a link for accessing the German version of the self-assessment was shared via email internally. A deadline of two weeks was set for the full rollout of the field phase. The two weeks appeared appropriate to collect responses from all company staff and allowed the employees to pick a good time for filling out the self-assessment despite other work duties. In addition, a reminder to fill out the self-assessment was sent after week one of the field phase.

Response Rate The link to the survey was shared via email as well as through the internal direct messaging system. In addition, one reminder was sent to all employees. This led to a response rate of 100%; all nine employees filled out the self-assessment.

Problems We did not encounter any problems with regard to the preparation and implementation of the field phase. However, some colleagues reported minor usability issues in relation to the German translation of the self-assessment survey as well as the navigation through the survey using mobile devices. All feedback was forwarded to the developers within EICAA for further improvement of the platform.

Entrepreneurial Competence Profile of the Assessed Group(s) Competence Spider-Web and other charts The participants needed about 10 minutes to fill out the survey (average time). They achieved an average score of 3.76 out of 5 (where 1 = “none” and 5 = “expert”), indicating a near-advanced level of entrepreneurial competence within the group. The highest average score was obtained in the competence area "Into Action," with a score of 3.90.

The area of "Ideas and Opportunities" was the second-highest scoring competence area, with an average score of 3.75. Conversely, the competence area "Resources" received the lowest average score, with a score of 3.64. These results are also reflected in the spider web chart, which shows higher peak scores in the competence area of "Into Action" and lower scores overall in the area of "Resources." However, the average performance per competence area is also not substantially different, a notion that is graphically supported by the heatmap in Figure 2, which shows the that advanced level has been most selected by participants in 14 out of 19 competences (5/6 "Ideas and Opportunities, 4/6 in “Resources”, and 5/7 in “Into Action). However, an advanced entrepreneurial competence proficiency level can be reported only for 66.7% of the participants (see Figure 46).

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Figure 46: Competence Spider-Web Chart of Univations Employee Self-Assessment.

Figure 45: Progression Level Heatmap of Univations Staff Competence Scores.

Figure 47: Distribution of Participant Progression Levels.

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Strengths & Weaknesses The following table summarizes entrepreneurial competence strengths and weaknesses as identified per the EICAA Competence Monitor based on the answers of the Univations employees: Table 4: Strengths and Weaknesses of the Univations Employees.

Strengths

Weaknesses

1. Taking the Initiative (4.5)

1. Design Validation and Co-Creation (2.7)

2. Motivation and Perseverance (4.2)

2. Valuing Ideas (3.1)

3. Learning Through Experience (4.2)

2. Digital Competence (3.1)

4. Process Management (4.0)

4. Enterprising Literacy (3.4)

4. Planning and Management (4.0)

5. Mobilizing Others (3.6)

Strengths: Not surprisingly, our employees consider their proficiency in competences that can be related to project management to be relatively well developed. The development and coordination of projects lie at the heart of Univations service portfolio. Almost all staff included in the self-assessment are actively managing projects. Nevertheless, the high performance in “Taking the Initiative” stands out somewhat, indicating a (self-assessed) strength of our employees for: I. II. III.

Taking responsibility while performing tasks Working independently when required Initiating action on new ideas and opportunities

We believe this result not only reflects the particular qualities that our employees need to have in the execution of their daily tasks but also the workstyle and underlying liberal approach that has been embedded internally across our company.

Weaknesses: Identifying which competences belong to the group of weaker performers was of particular interest to us. The result is somewhat surprising, as our company works with start-ups as well as innovation-driven stakeholders that pursue research and development in the region. It is part of our work with these clients to be able to “value ideas” appropriately. This competence is measured through the following items: I. II. III.

Developing strategies to assess the value of new ideas Identifying which stakeholder prefers which value type of a new idea (economic, influence, harmony, etc.)

Protecting and sharing intellectual property by using appropriate strategies (like patents, copyrights, trademarks, agreements, etc.)

However, this competence scores lowest after “Design Validation and Co-Creation”. We will need to analyse the results further to better understand where the low score originates. A potential explanation for it may be that survey participants considered giving 109

a more optimistic self-assessment answer to item number III only possible if they had specific legal expertise in the field of intellectual property rights.

What stands out, however, is the low score on” Design Validation and Co-Creation” (2.7), which the self-assessment operationalizes through: I. II. III.

Identifying the basic functions of a prototype Testing and refining the key assumptions and the prototype Co-creating products, services, or solutions with others

This result may be due to the fact that our company has more of the profile of an intermediary organization that connects the worlds of business and academia. While we engage in knowledge brokering and transfer, we do not pursue (technological) research and development ourselves. However, having a good notion about the necessary instrument set to accompany design validation activities is certainly also needed in our regular activities with start-ups and innovation drivers. This is even more true with regard to co-creation, where competence improvement appears to be equally needed.

It is less complicated to find a rationale for the relatively low digital competence, which is measured through the following items in the self-assessment: I. II. III.

Knowing when and how to use general digital tools (MS Office, virtual communication, etc.) best suited for my purpose Employing complex digital tools (CRM, web analytics, etc.) to grow an entrepreneurial idea Reporting data in meaningful and clear ways like graphs and charts

We consider item 1 to matter most for our daily work. However, a good competence endowment with regard to the other items - not only if needed in and suitable for the services that we offer - is certainly an advantage in the data-driven and digital world of today. However, we will need to analyse and discuss the results further internally to pinpoint the area of development most needed.

Last, we would not consider the score on the competences “Enterprising literacy” (3,4) and “Mobilizing others” (3,6) as weak. Rather, our company finds itself somewhere between an intermediary and an advanced proficiency level. This is why we think focusing on the three competences that take positions 1-3 in the weakness tables may be most meaningful for improving the overall level of entrepreneurial competence through targeted interventions. Nevertheless, we will discuss the enterprising literacy score internally given that most employees have a business (study) background.

Exploitation of the Self-Assessment Results The results of the self-assessment will be presented and discussed at an internal company meeting in August 2023. They have already been pre-discussed by the EICAA coordinator and the CEO of the company. We will involve all colleagues in a structured dialogue to let them reflect on the results themselves and as a group. The goal will be to jointly determine the competences that bear the most development potential in terms of competence improvements and actual competence needs (for the services we offer).

Once this discussion has been concluded, we will agree on a set of actions that seem appropriate to trigger improvements. For the latter, we will first consider the training material in the EICAA Competence Development Kit. More specifically, we will consult the suggestions provided inside the platforms Competence Monitor and check for an inhouse implementation of them. However, we will also confront external training providers with the assessment results to gain further inspiration for interventions that may help us improve the weaker competences. Finally, available inputs and options will be discussed 110

internally to select the ones most suitable for further training of our employees in 2023 and 2024.

Lessons Learned The overall feedback from rolling out the competence self-assessment internally was very positive. However, given that our employees are working closely with the start-up community of the region (and beyond), they mostly carry a narrow understanding of entrepreneurship inside. This somewhat contradicts the broad understanding of entrepreneurship that is integral to the European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework, the EICAA Competence Framework, and, ultimately, the instruments of the EICAA Digital Platform (as they are conceptually rooted in these frameworks). Thus, implementing a self-assessment without providing further conceptual background information may prevent a good field-phase result. Due to the size of our company, we were able to raise awareness for this broad understanding rather efficiently within the internal meetings held to announce the self-assessment and explain its rationale.

However, this may not be possible in the same way in larger organizations. Therefore, we can only recommend thinking of appropriate communication measures that explain the approach of the self-assessment as well as measures that encourage students or employees to take part in the assessment. As with any successful online survey, it is vital to plan and prepare these measures at an early stage.

Future Applications of the EICAA Digital Platform A smaller company such as Univations may not need to engage in regular assessments (e.g., yearly basis) due to a low fluctuation of staff and limited offers for professional training. However, we plan to engage in a self-assessment cycle every second or third year for comparing and monitoring results over and at different points in time (longitudinal and snapshot analysis).

Moreover, we believe that the EICAA Digital Platform has the potential to become an integral part of the service portfolio we offer to our clients. Already now, we were able to incentivize pilot applications at the University of Applied Science Merseburg and the University of Applied Sciences Anhalt, both located in the southern part of SaxonyAnhalt. We plan to intensify efforts that are targeted at integrating more universities or specific segments of them. Other potential use case candidates are: Martin-LutherUniversity Halle-Wittenberg, the University of Jena, TU Ostrava (Czech Republic), and Babes-Bolyai University (Romania). In addition to this engagement with academic stakeholders, we will also introduce the EICAA Digital Platform to our corporate clients.

While they will be able to use the platform instruments autonomously to detect the potential for professional development in the area of entrepreneurship, they will also need an entity that also acts upon their results in terms of training offers. It is our plan to further enhance our service portfolio to align better with the materials offered by the EICAA Competence Development Kit. This would put us in a position to offer competence self-assessment along with tailored competence development.

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1.7 Navigating Competence Dynamics Relations: A Case Study of Kommunikation GmbH

in Public ProMedia

Getting to know the organization ProMedia Kommunikation GmbH was founded in Innsbruck (Tyrol) by journalists more than 25 years ago. As a public relations (PR) agency, from the very start, the tasks included the planning of campaigns and strategies for business partners, writing press releases, and organizing promotional events, among other things. Through entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial thinking, the aim always was – and still is – to constantly develop and maintain a modern orientation. Therefore, the field of activity expanded over the years from traditional PR tasks to further responsibilities. Today, we act as an experienced multimedia company that provides efficient content in text, photography, graphics, animation, audio, and video. Furthermore, we develop complex communication strategies, produce high-profile stories with state-of-the-art technology, and organize events with broad coverage. This creates networks for hosts and participants not only in German-speaking countries but also all across Europe.

Since the foundation of ProMedia, our portfolio has continuously been expanded, because a key factor for us is learning through experience by working with various clients from different sectors, including tourism, EU projects, or sports. The currently employed 14 people behind ProMedia are (almost) always on the road and close to the action. This enables them to respond even better to the needs of individuals and to work in a solutionoriented way.

The dynamic process is at the core of entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial thinking within the agency. It is important to be able to adapt at any time because of the rapidly changing market situation, new media, digitalization, and many other factors that must be considered. That is especially the case in tourism, the main area of work for ProMedia.

Lifestyle, culture, and industry are some other examples of the wide range of topics that are covered by our agency daily.

Rationale of the Pilot ProMedia conducted the EICAA Pilot Round, aiming to evaluate and analyse the competences within their own organization. As a company that values continuous improvement, ProMedia recognized the importance of understanding its strengths and weaknesses.

While ProMedia had previously engaged in internal discussions with external consultants on various topics, this tool provided an additional avenue to assess the company's overall proficiency and identify areas for growth. Until now, evaluations have primarily relied on personal assessments rather than utilizing tools and platforms like the EICAA Digital Platform.

With its work culture, ProMedia fosters freedom and autonomy for every employee, meaning that everyone can do their tasks in their own way and evolve through practical experience. Nonetheless, our company acknowledged the value of the professionally produced assessment survey that is the EICAA Digital Platform by gaining insights into their entrepreneurial competences and future potential for development. The Competence Development Kit (CDK) offered by the tool proves beneficial in providing immediate suggestions for improvement, which is very welcome in a fast-paced work environment like public relations.

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The team was enthusiastic about conducting this assessment within the company, recognizing the potential it holds for enhancing its collective competence. By leveraging this tool, ProMedia aims to identify areas where the organization can possibly evolve, adapt, or ultimately thrive in the dynamic business landscape.

Context of the Pilot ProMedia undertook the pilot round within our organization with the aim of evaluating the collective capabilities of all employees and identifying areas for growth and improvement.

While there were no specific expectations set by the company's management, they were enthusiastic about the potential of the survey to drive active growth and development as a cohesive unit. The CEOs recognized the value of leveraging the assessment tool to enhance the overall competence of the organization. Similarly, the participants themselves did not have any expectations, but they were keen to see how their performances would be evaluated.

The competences typically expected from employees in this department encompass a wide range of skills, including “Spotting Opportunities”, “Self-Awareness and SelfEfficacy”, “Mobilising Others”, “Taking the Initiative”, and “Working with Others”. These competences are considered crucial for success within the organization and for its overall effectiveness. Generally, the employees either already have those skills when they are employed or further develop them while “learning by doing”. Traditionally, ProMedia has seldom initiated specific training opportunities, but the company is always supportive of employees seeking training on their own initiative.

The survey was sent to 14 employees and was conducted by 11, including both CEOs. It is worth noting that more than half of the participants have accumulated over 10 years of work experience. The wide diversity and equal distribution of employees when it comes to gender and age promised a well-balanced outcome.

Process of the Pilot Approach To ensure maximum understanding and participation in the self-assessment, we took a proactive approach within our weekly team meetings and explained our intentions. Over the course of several weeks, we consistently communicated our objective behind the survey, providing a brief overview of the project and emphasizing how conducting the EICAA Pilot Round would benefit both the company and the individuals themselves.

Following these discussions, we sent a comprehensive email and WhatsApp message to all team members, including a link to the survey and a clear explanation of the assignment. This ensured that everyone was well-informed and understood their role in the process.

To allow sufficient time for completion, we established a deadline of one month from the initial communication. Throughout the subsequent days and weeks, we regularly reminded the entire group, as well as individuals, about the importance of completing the survey. We made ourselves readily available to assist anyone who encountered difficulties or required additional support. Our team was committed to ensuring that everyone had the necessary resources and guidance to navigate the survey successfully.

By taking these proactive measures and providing ongoing communication and support, we created an environment that encouraged active participation and engagement from the team members.

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Response Rate Participants were given the flexibility to complete the survey on either their smartphones or computers. We shared the survey link through our group chat and email, allowing individuals to choose their preferred device. Out of the 14 possible participants, 11 actively engaged in the survey.

Problems The overall sentiment among the participants was positive; however, there were a few issues that they noted. They found the survey to be lengthy, questioning the necessity of, e.g., four questions for each competence. Additionally, some text fields were not translated into German, and there was a minor issue of overlapping text fields. Despite these concerns, the issues did not impede their progress or deter them from completing the survey.

Entrepreneurial Competence Profile of the Assessed Group(s) Competence Spider-Web Chart Based on the results of the competence self-assessment, the employees of ProMedia achieved an average score of 3.67 out of 5. This shows that the group is well above an intermediate level of entrepreneurial competence. The highest average score was obtained in the competence area “Into Action” with a score of 3.79, but “Ideas and Opportunities” almost reached the same number with 3.78. The competence with the lowest average score is "Resources," which has a score of 3.45. The results are depicted in the spider web chart, showing an even level in almost all competences that fall within the areas “Into Action” and “Ideas and Opportunities”, while there is some divergence within “Resources”.

Figure 48: Competence Spider-Web of ProMedia Kommunikation GmbH.

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Strengths The self-assessment results of the group indicated the following competence strengths: “Working with Others”, “Learning Through Experience”, “Ethical and Sustainable Thinking”, “Taking the Initiative” and “Design Orientation”.

The competence of “Working with Others” was expected to be a strength due to the nature of the company's work. Collaboration within various teams and interactions with clients and journalists make this competence area crucial in ProMedia’s field of work.

The company places great emphasis on “Learning through experience”. This approach involves providing new employees with diverse tasks and responsibilities from the beginning, allowing them to develop their abilities through hands-on experience. While individuals are encouraged to work independently, they can always rely on the support of their colleagues. Furthermore, this competence is also crucial, especially in crisis communication, which ProMedia also must deal with. “Taking the Initiative” is another vital competence at the company, as employees are encouraged to proactively generate their own ideas for clients, adding value and taking ownership of their work. This aligns with the company's ethos of fostering creativity and responsibility.

“Ethical and Sustainable Thinking” also emerged as a core ability in self-assessment, which is no surprise. ProMedia emphasizes the importance of considering the impact of actions from the outset, ensuring ethical practices are upheld. Similarly, “Design Orientation” stands as a core competence, as identifying target group needs and anticipating future requirements are vital for the success of a PR agency like ProMedia.

Understanding and addressing these design aspects are essential to delivering effective solutions and staying ahead in the industry.

Overall, ProMedia values a proactive approach of seeking “Ideas and Opportunities” and going “Into Action” by implementing them. These two competence areas received nearly identical average scores, reflecting their utmost significance within the company.

Weaknesses The self-assessment results of the group indicated the following competence weaknesses: “Digital Competence”, “Design Validation and Co-Creation”, “Mobilising (financial) Resources”, “Enterprising Literacy” and “Valuing Ideas”.

While “Digital Competence” is often regarded as crucial in this field of work, it has two sides at ProMedia. Staying updated with developments is important, especially for a multimedia PR agency, and employees should be able to propose digital solutions to clients. However, most digital structures are already in place within the company, allowing new members to easily adapt. In cases requiring advanced expertise, one of the CEOs is well-versed and can handle complex tasks.

“Design Validation and Co-Creation” emerged as a weakness, but it holds less relevance for the group. Output creation typically follows predefined guidelines, with new projects primarily discussed among upper management in small groups. Thus, not everyone possesses extensive knowledge in this area.

The competence of “Mobilising (financial) Resources” also received a low rank. This can be attributed to the fact that many recently employed individuals, particularly younger ones, are not yet involved in this aspect. The responsibility of resource mobilization falls on longer-serving, experienced employees, and the CEOs themselves.

The low ranking of “Enterprising Literacy” can be attributed to the fact that these tasks are usually assigned to more experienced employees and CEOs initially. New hires primarily concentrate on operational duties when they join the company and gradually

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acquire financial, economic, and enterprising knowledge as they take on additional responsibilities over time.

The competence assessment result that was truly surprising was the ranking of “Valuing Ideas”. Given the importance of leveraging ideas and opportunities in the PR sector, one would assume this competence to be highly developed at ProMedia. Since everyone is expected to consistently offer exceptional ideas and solutions to clients, individually developing them, further discussion is necessary to understand the underlying factors contributing to this unexpected result.

Overall, the assessment results have highlighted areas of weakness that may require attention and improvement in the future, especially in the competence area of “Resources”. It should also be considered that not all competences carry equal weight for the PR sector and the company itself.

Exploitation of the self-assessment results The plan is to explain the competence assessment results in detail to the participants and initiate a discussion on potential improvements within the group. Even though there are interesting options shown in the Competence Development Kit, ProMedia has traditionally pursued an individualized strategy, offering targeted interventions when necessary rather than conducting assessments for the sake of it.

Implementing significant structural changes within the company might be challenging due to time constraints. However, by identifying and addressing strengths and weaknesses, a foundation is established for future planning. If individuals have specific development needs, they can always request external educational training from superiors. Although in-house possibilities for development exist, they are limited to some extent. Hiring a trainer has been an option in the past to discuss crucial work aspects and develop necessary skills.

Unfortunately, the intervention repository appears to be the least likely option for application at our company. While the recommendations listed in the Competence Development Kit seem reasonable, implementing them in a professional environment could prove difficult as they are perceived as detached from the real business world. The general belief is that these recommendations are better suited for higher educational institutions.

Nonetheless, the manuals provided have a clear and understandable structure.

However, they need to be adapted to individual companies and their specific needs. For instance, the recommended solution of “Finance for Non-Financial Managers” in the category “Intermediate” goes beyond the requirements of ProMedia employees and lacks customization. Other recommended CDK modules in this category were “Talented Youngsters Mentoring Program (TYM-Program)”, considering the recent influx of young employees, and “Entrepreneurship: Finding and Testing Your Business Ideas”, which covered both the strengths and weaknesses of the assessment results.

One observation is that not all weaknesses were addressed in the recommendations.

For instance, the competence of “Design validation and co-creation” was overlooked, which is surprising since one would expect assistance for all identified weaknesses.

In conclusion, the discussion with participants will serve as a starting point for planning improvements based on the competence assessment results. While the implementation of structural changes may be limited, we will explore options such as external training, in-house initiatives, and hiring trainers. The recommended CDK modules will be assessed for relevance and customized to address the specific needs of our company.

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Lessons Learned The employees at ProMedia were generally excited about taking the assessment since it was not something the company typically engaged in. However, despite prior explanations, some employees still had uncertainties about what to expect from the assessment. Overall, the employees appreciated the assessment, but many felt it was too lengthy. Additionally, they desired more specific and tailored results and recommendations based on their individual profiles, which had been anticipated beforehand.

The assessment provided value to the company by having its strengths and weaknesses documented for the first time. Previously, discussions on these topics had been more general, and non-professional analyses were made on what could be the exact strengths and weaknesses. Some results were expected due to the specific types of employees the CEOs tend to hire, and the diversity may not be as big as in other companies, especially given the company's smaller size. However, other results were still surprising.

While the potential solutions for development offered valuable insights, they could not be implemented directly as a 1:1 approach. The general feeling we recorded was that the recommended formats were more suitable for university settings. For instance, working in groups of 3-4 people seemed impractical in a company of 10-15 employees, where collaboration among everyone would be preferred. Furthermore, the suggested workload often appeared overwhelming, considering the time constraints in a company setting.

However, the recommended formats and subsequently seeking similar solutions proved helpful as a starting point for adaptation.

In summary, the assessment allowed us to document the strengths and weaknesses within ProMedia, providing valuable insights for the first time. While some expectations were met, other results were surprising. The employees appreciated the assessment overall but desired more tailored and specific results. Although the recommended solutions required adaptation, they still offered valuable guidance for development.

Future Applications of the EICAA Digital Platform After successfully implementing the pilot round of the assessment tool at ProMedia, the focus now shifts toward identifying possible areas for improvement. We plan to assess which of the areas highlighted in the results truly require development and how ProMedia can benefit from those improvements. Recommendations from CDK will be carefully examined and considered. And if we come across individuals or companies in our network searching for similar tools, we would gladly recommend the EICAA Digital Platform. This reflects the company's willingness to share valuable resources and information with others in their industry.

While a second round of assessment could be considered down the line, we acknowledge that it would only make sense after evaluating the specific needs identified and addressing them accordingly. We would examine the recommendations and leverage our personal network to find suitable assistance, as building on personal connections is highly valued within ProMedia.

Only after addressing the identified improvement areas and exploring potential solutions will it make sense to undertake a second round of the assessment. This sequential approach ensures that the company focuses on targeted growth and aligns with its strategic needs.

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1.8 Using the Student Self-Assessment in an Executive Programme in Austria Getting to Know the Organization The Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) is a renowned institution for higher education located in Innsbruck, Austria. It was founded in 1995 and has since gained a strong reputation for its innovative approach to business, social sciences, and engineering education. MCI is known for its commitment to practical relevance, internationalization, and fostering entrepreneurial spirit among its students.

MCI offers a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and executive education programmes across various fields, such as business administration, social sciences, information technology, tourism, and engineering. One of the key features of MCI is its close ties to the business community. The institution maintains strong connections with industry partners, enabling students to gain real-world experience through internships, projects, and collaborations. This approach ensures that MCI graduates are wellprepared for the demands of the job market and possess practical skills that are highly valued by employers.

MCI also places great emphasis on internationalization. It has established partnerships with numerous universities and institutions globally, allowing students to participate in exchange programmes and gain international exposure. Additionally, MCI attracts a diverse student body from different countries, creating a multicultural and dynamic learning environment.

A key feature of MCI is its faculty deployment model. With a relatively low number of internal faculty (= permanently employed by the MCI), MCI delivers a large set of diverse courses through hiring external faculty. The course on which this case description is based on was delivered by Prof. Bernd Ebersberger of the University of Hohenheim, which brings two partners of the EICAA project (MCI and the University of Hohenheim) nicely together.

Rationale for the Pilot MCI shines when it comes to delivering student-centric education. Particularly in executive education, student-centric education with a strong emphasis on competencebased learning is crucial. To tailor educational offers to the competences of the participants of a teaching and training session, the EICAA Competence Monitor can provide a quick overview of where participants stand with respect to entrepreneurship and innovation competences. The EICAA CDK was intended to provide suggestions for interventions to be included in the training session.

Context of the Pilot The EICAA competence monitor was used in an executive education course in innovation management and entrepreneurship. This course is part of the certificate programme ‘General Management’ and is among the foundational courses of MCI’s MBA and MSc executive education programmes.

The course is a two-day compact course with an overall classroom time of 4 x 4 teaching units, where a teaching unit equals 45 minutes. As part of the course, the students participate in an innovation challenge.

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The 15 participants in the course, among whom are only two female students, are from three countries: Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. As is traditionally the case in executive education programmes, these students can draw on different educational backgrounds, different occupational experiences, and different careers. The course was held in German, but some parts – such as the slides about innovation and entrepreneurship competences – were presented in English.

The main objective of the course is that participants know about the basics of innovation management and entrepreneurship and are able to discuss them; that participants identify the most important types of innovation and know the business impact of these innovations; that participants will be able to understand the basic dynamics of innovation and technical progress; that students can transfer this to their respective area of activity and impact and discuss its context; that participants can estimate the effects of trends on their respective field, discuss these and derive opportunities for their company/organization from different trends; that students can make well-informed decision about a career change to become entrepreneurs.

Process of the Pilot Approach After a general introduction to the course, the course defined the relevant terminology, such as creativity, idea, invention, discovery, innovation, entrepreneurship, etc. Without explicitly defining what competences are, a section of the course was introduced that directly refers to innovation and entrepreneurship competences after introducing historical innovators and entrepreneurs, which became immortalized in an interactive session. This interaction was intended to spark the participants’ interest in entrepreneurs and help the participants see what entrepreneurs have achieved, thereby building an innovator’s and entrepreneur’s role model: Figure 49: Innovator's and Entrepreneur's Role Model.

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The question of which competences innovators and entrepreneurs need was posed with the introductory slide of the section. Participants were given enough time to think about innovation and entrepreneurship competences. Their contributions were collected on a whiteboard.

The EICAA competence framework was then introduced and compared to the participants’ own collection of competences. A discussion ensued about the plausibility and relevance of the competences collected in the EICAA framework. The upshot was that the framework captured pretty much all of the participants' ideas about the competences required for successful innovation and entrepreneurship. One can rather plausibly attribute the good match of the participants’ collection of competences with the EICAA framework to the participants’ experience in leadership positions in firms in various industries, of various sizes, and at various stages of career progression. The collective wisdom of the participants' crowd yielded comparable results to the extensive literature review in EICAA’s WP2, which led to the EICAA Competence Framework.

Figure 50: Competences Based on the EICAA Framework.

Participants were then introduced (without a slide) to the overall structure and the aims of the EICAA project. They were given the opportunity to participate in the pilot round of the survey via QR-code.

Results We created a QR code so participants could use their tablets and smartphones to directly go to the assessment (see screenshot above).

Problems Out of 15 participants in the classroom, only 10 took the assessment. I was not made aware of technical problems, so I assume some reluctance toward what might be seen as some sort of psychological screening.

In discussing the results of the assessment, the radar plot was seen as somewhat confusing. The bold titles of “Ideas & Opportunities”, “Resources”, and “Into Action” were

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confusing as the competences were not placed in the radar plot in a grouped fashion.

The radar plot could be modified to yield a more intuitive interpretation of the radar plot visualization.

Entrepreneurial Competence Profile of the Assessed Group(s) Competence Spider-Web Chart Overall, the course score is 3.31 out of 5. This indicates an overall intermediate level in the group. The group scores the highest in the competence area “Into Action” with 3.44, followed by “Ideas and Opportunities” with 3.25, and the lowest in the competence area “Resources” with 3.21.

Figure 51: Competence Spider-Web Chart.

Strengths Based on the analysis of the EICAA Digital Platform, the group has only several strengths: The highest scoring strength is “Ethical and Sustainable Thinking”. Also, the group scored rather high on “Motivation and Perseverance” (69.1%), “Taking the Initiative” (66.7%), “Coping with Uncertainty, Ambiguity, and Risk” (64.0%), and “Process Management” (65.5%). Hence, these competences are identified as strengths as well.

Weaknesses According to the dashboard analysis on the platform, the group’s biggest weaknesses are “Mobilizing Others”, “Design Orientation”, “Self-Awareness and Self-Efficacy”, “Valuing Ideas”, and “Enterprising Literacy”.

“Mobilizing Others” incorporates social as well as communication skills. Those skills are relevant to getting the needed support from stakeholders or peers.

“Design Orientation” captures the ability to interact with customers (and other stakeholders) to identify needs, prototype, test, and co-create (WP2, p. 34). It encompasses the ability to immerse oneself with users or customers, to identify needs, to prototype and test, and to co-create.

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“Self-Awareness and Self-Efficacy” refer to believing in one’s own ability and keeping going. Overall, it is quite sad to see those participants – most of them with successful careers –not believe in their abilities and strengths.

The competence “Valuing Ideas” comprises the ability to make the most of ideas and opportunities. By being able to judge an idea in terms of social, cultural, and economic value, learners can recognize the potential of an idea. This is especially important for future (or current) managers, who need to be able to value others and their own ideas to prioritize resource allocation and ensure strategic fit.

As the participants were rather at the early stages of their MBA or MSc curriculum, it is not surprising that they judged their enterprising literacy as rather weak. We can assume the participants chose to pursue a post-graduate executive management programme because they saw room to improve their management and economic literacy in the first place.

Exploitation of the Self-Assessment Result Making use of the assessment results was of utmost importance. Participants deserve to learn more about their competences. The results of the assessment were discussed with the group during the course (about 15 minutes).

As the Design Orientation was one of the weaknesses, I tried to address this with an intervention that was not contained in the EICAA competence development kit. After lunch, I used the “One-Handed Paper Planes” to energize the group and address the issues in design orientation.

Here is what we did: The one-hand paper plane is a great way to take a mental break from topics that are at hand and to physically get people up, move around, and have some fun. It is a perfect energizer after a hefty lunch. This intervention also integrates nicely into an innovation and entrepreneurship course as it contains some lessons about design orientation.

Without being able to provide an exact reference (I have known this intervention for too long), I believe it originates from the design thinking community. Aside from this, it sparks group dynamics, enables teams to experience failure, and works only well when people motivate each other to carry on in the face of roadblocks and challenging environmental conditions.

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Figure 52: One-Hand Paper Plane Instructions [German].

Here is how I structured the activity: I break the group down into teams of about 3 or 4 people. And I explain the task at hand: Take the A4 papers and build a paper plane together. In the end, there will be a competition between the teams, and the winner will be the team with the plane that flies the furthest.

There is only one condition.

I make everyone raise their dominant hand (the one that they use for writing, just in case this is not clear to participants). This hand goes immediately to the lower back (put it in the back pocket of your jeans, etc.) because people will not use this dominant hand. It is forbidden to use the dominant hand until the winner of the challenge is announced.

Everyone in the team will only work with one hand, and this hand is the non-dominant hand. This creates challenging environmental conditions for the development of a paper plane. This also means that the plan is thrown with the non-dominant hand. Teams have 20 minutes. Without co-creation and collaboration, it is literally impossible to build a working paper plane with only one hand- even worse, when it is the non-dominant hand.

At this point, it is fun to watch and enjoy the energy of the groups trying to figure out how to function with one not so dominant hand. Groups will tend to work together. This is great. The secret goal is getting groups to make prototype planes. People might casually point out a flaw in a plane and suggest they build a second, third, or fourth one.

When the time is up, a pilot from each group brings their airplane to the starting line. One by one, the pilots launch the plane with the non-dominant hand, which is another challenge and requires the team to pick the right person for the job. Also, this activity can be prototyped (i.e., trained in this context).

Generally, the group or groups that built prototypes together (build-measure-learn) do better and will typically win the contest. It is important to point this out, as the moral of this exercise is that iteration yields better results. The design thinking process 125

emphasizes using iterations to refine and innovate designs to their fullest potential. Just like the groups who built a prototype plane first, saw what worked and what did not, then iterated on their prototype to build a better airplane.

Lessons Learned During the course, one thing became clear: it is hard, if not impossible, to use the Competence Development Kit for interventions if the assessment with the EICAA Competence Monitor is done within the same session (half a day or a day). There is literally no time to adapt the workshop concept, the slides, or the structure of the day to accommodate an intervention from the EICAA CDK. So, I used a low-asset intervention that can be pulled off with the material that is easily available and that has on top of the educational learning, additional energizing powers to bring the group back from a lunchtime low.

It became increasingly obvious that the use of the EICAA Competence Monitor and the subsequent implementation of an intervention from the EICAA CDK is only possible if there is access to the group of participants prior to the (two-day) course so that the participants fill out the survey well ahead of the training. This would give the teacher or trainer the opportunity to integrate material from the EICAA competence development kit into the workshop so that it feels organic and is well-prepared. For teachers and trainers, it always holds true – and here in particular: Do not underestimate the time required for preparation.

The “One-Handed Paper Plane” will be included in the next version of the EICAA CDK. The student feedback after the intervention was rather positive. Generally, I am not sure whether fundamental weaknesses can be addressed with one rather short intervention.

What a short intervention can do is highlight weaknesses and show that there are ways to address these weaknesses that are light-hearted, fun, and effective.

Further, it is my impression that the dashboard in its current state lacks some intuitive visual guide to interpretation. This particularly relates to the radar plot. The construction of the structure, the colours, and the labels do not yield a visualization that I can interpret easily; even after looking at the numeric outcomes, the visualization is hard to comprehend.

Future Applications of the EICAA Digital Platform MCI also offers a certificate programme in innovation management. I am also the academic head of this certificate programme, and I teach the first course in this programme as well. I foresee the EICAA Competence Monitor being an integral part of the first day of courses in this programme. The results of the measurement – the strengths and weaknesses of the cohort – will be communicated to the teachers and trainers of the courses in the programme that will take place spread out over a whole academic year. Even though I cannot react based on the findings of the Competence Monitor when I survey the students in my course, teachers and trainers of the subsequent modules in the programme can and will do so.

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1.9 Using the Szeged International Week for Fostering Entrepreneurship Competences? The University of Szeged EICAA Employee Case Getting to know the organization The University of Szeged is a prestigious higher education institution in Hungary with a rich tradition, committed to quality education on all levels, including Bachelor’s, Master’s, and doctoral programmes, higher-level vocational, and postgraduate specialist training, basic and applied research and development, the fine and performing arts, as well as quality health care, social responsibility, and the development of entrepreneurship.

In line with its tradition, education at the University of Szeged ensures the unity of highlevel theoretical foundation and practice, the latter also based on external partnerships.

The University is committed to the continuous improvement of the content of education, both in multilevel and multilingual education, in line with scientific progress, the development of information technologies, and the needs of society.

The purpose of the University of Szeged is to issue quality degrees that meet labour market demands and to make sure that its graduate students are sought-after by both national and international employers. The University provides educational conditions leading to highly prestigious degrees, which at the same time promote the academic development of its students. The Institution plays an important role in the organization of students’ lives by providing opportunities that promote their intellectual development and the maintenance of equal opportunities among them.

The University of Szeged’s mission and goal are to cultivate science, conduct internationally competitive research, and ensure its position as a research university. Its research and creative activities, as part of international and domestic programmes, include basic and applied research, artistic creation, and product and service development. The social and economic exploitation of the University’s research results, supported by innovative solutions, contributes to the Institution’s role as a knowledgeintensive engine in the innovation ecosystem and in regional economic development.

Entrepreneurial competences are essential in fostering this mission; the EICAA project was considered an essential international opportunity.

Rationale of the Pilot The overall aim of the EICAA project is to promote the development of entrepreneurial competence among both university students and business actors. This means that the direct target group is university students (and indirectly lecturers) on the one hand and employees on the other. The project presented in the current case study is a combination of these two target groups, as it targets university colleagues who are employees of the university but are key stakeholders for the EICAA project.

A challenge for all surveys and pilot testing is how to motivate participants to complete the survey. In the EICAA project, a number of solutions have been developed to motivate students - these can be found in more detail in the case studies available on the EICAA online platform - but in the case of the employee target group, this was a challenge. The following factors make it particularly difficult to motivate university employees to complete a pilot survey: -

Time constraints: Like university students, educators also have busy schedules, which may include teaching, research, administrative responsibilities, and other

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commitments. Filling out a survey may be perceived as an additional task that competes with their limited time and priorities.

Lack of perceived relevance: Some educators may not immediately see the relevance or importance of participating in a survey that measures their entrepreneurial competences. They might feel that their expertise lies in teaching or research rather than entrepreneurship, leading to a lack of interest in the survey.

Survey burden: Educators might be more experienced and knowledgeable, making them more cautious about participating in surveys that appear too lengthy or redundant. If the pilot survey is overly extensive or asks repetitive questions, educators may feel discouraged from participating.

Fear of judgment: The survey's focus on entrepreneurial competences may lead some educators to worry about how their responses will be interpreted or used.

They might be concerned that their perceived entrepreneurial abilities could affect their reputation or evaluations, leading them to be hesitant about participating.

Lack of incentives: Without appropriate incentives or perceived benefits, educators might not find enough motivation to participate in the pilot survey. If they do not see how the survey's outcomes will positively impact them or their professional development, they may be less inclined to take part.

Context of the Pilot At the EICAA project, we considered it crucial to address these above-mentioned challenges when recruiting university employees for the pilot survey to increase participation rates and ensure the data collected is representative and reliable. To overcome these challenges, it was crucial to communicate the value and relevance of the EICAA survey to educators, ensure that the survey is concise and focused, address privacy concerns, and consider offering incentives (even if minor ones) to encourage participation. Moreover, involving educators in the survey development process and recognizing the potential benefits for their personal or professional growth could increase their willingness to participate.

Taking the above into account, we completed the EICAA employee pilot survey in a specific setting: at the International Week of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Szeged. International Week is a traditional (now almost 10 years old) event of the faculty that aims to promote the internationalization of the faculty and host foreign teaching colleagues for a week. During this week, foreign colleagues teach classes to students studying in Szeged, as well as participate in professional training and workshops. The workshop was attended by the German consortium leader of the EICAA project and several members of the Szeged team. The audience included 14 foreign colleagues, from Romania to the United States. In the first part of the workshop, which lasted almost 3 hours, we learned about the objectives of the EICAA project, followed by the structure, purpose, and potential benefits of the EICAA survey for the participants as trainers. This was followed by the completion of the questionnaire and the presentation, evaluation, and feedback of the results. This method was used to address a number of issues detailed above: -

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Problem: Time constraints → Solution: As the colleagues were at the International Week anyway and their time was dedicated to learning new skills, they were less distracted by the daily distractions (research tasks, emails, etc.), so the 3 hours were dedicated to this workshop only.

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→ Solution: In the first 90 minutes of the workshop, we introduced the importance, essence, and EntreComp interpretation of entrepreneurship competencies to the participating trainers. After this, it became clear to them that knowledge of these competencies is also important in their own field. Afterward, we presented the purpose and structure of the EICAA survey in detail so that they understood its practicality.

Problem: Fear of judgment → Solution: Colleagues were informed before filling in the form that only they would see their own results on their own devices, and we would only see the aggregated group-level results. We also stressed that this is not a professional test, i.e., we are not measuring knowledge or preparedness but a state of competence. In other words, no wrong answers or failed participation can be given.

Problem: Lack of incentives → Solution: During the workshop, we prepared special Hungarian food (lángos) and drinks for the participants, and we even named the event "EICAA lángos workshop", thus motivating them to participate. This was, of course, only a small incentive, but it had symbolic appeal among colleagues. And, from a professional point of view, it was also attractive for them to be told in advance that their feedback could change the final survey, i.e., that what they said would be relevant.

Process of the pilot Approach As detailed above, the pilot was completed at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Szeged International Week event, at a dedicated EICAA workshop. The workshop was structured as follows: -

Welcome and short introduction from the host and from the participants (general background and experience in the field of entrepreneurial competences) Introduction and insights about the relevance of entrepreneurial competences in nowadays education Introducing EntreComp as a Basis for Entrepreneurial competences Feedback and discussion about the relevance of the entrepreneurial competences in the field of the participants Introduction of the EICAA project and EICAA survey (aim, structure, scientific background, usefulness, etc.)

Showcasing the platform and filling out the survey by the participants Show and discuss the group-level results Collecting feedback about the EICAA project in general and the survey in particular

Response Rate The International Week event was attended by a total of around 20 foreign colleagues, 16 of whom came to the EICAA workshop, but not all participants filled out the questionnaire. Some did not have the right tools, and some simply started but did not finish. In the end, we received 14 completions.

Problems As they were colleagues with experience in scientific research, they paid particular attention to commenting on the questionnaire and providing constructive criticism. This resulted in a relatively lengthy discussion on how the questionnaire could be improved.

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Some technical errors were also pointed out, which have since been corrected. The main problem was seen in the redundant questions, which they felt made the questionnaire unnecessarily long.

Entrepreneurial Competence Profile of the Assessed Group(s) The figure below shows the main results of the pilot survey. The average completion time was about 11 minutes, which is slightly longer than in the student sample but in fact in line with preliminary expectations. In the EICAA Competence Monitor, competences are presented in three categories, in line with the EntreComp framework: „Ideas and Opportunities“, „Resources“, and „Into Action“. One way of analysing this could be to look at the differences between these three categories, which were minimal in this sample: the „Into Action“ category was slightly higher, but the difference was not significant.

Competence Spider-Web Chart Figure 53: Summary of the Self-Assessment

The spider (radar) chart below shows all the results in detail. The different colours represent the different competency areas („Ideas and Opportunities“, „Resources“, and „Into Action“), and each score represents the average of the competences tested for all respondents. The larger the area covered, the higher the level of the competency type.

It can be seen that the green area is larger than either the red or the blue area, i.e., the „Into Action” competences are more advanced among the completers (note that there are seven competences covered in “Into Action“, while only six competences are in the other two categories, so we shall take this into consideration when analysing the covered areas).

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Figure 54: Competence Spider-Web Chart

The results are also visualized in a Competence Heatmap, where the darker shades of each colour represent the level of each competence, so for example, it can be seen that „Learning Through Experience“ is at almost an expert level among the respondents.

Figure 55: Competence Heatmap

Strengths The highest average score was in „Learning Through Experience“ (3.548), which suggests that respondents have to find their own way in higher education and often have 132

the opportunity to try out their own ideas, which is where entrepreneurial skills have a role to play. „Design Orientation“ (3.46) also scored highly, indicating a design thinking type of attitude and an emphasis on the importance of value creation. „Working with Others“ (3.45) scored similarly high, which is understandable given that in higher education, working as part of a faculty or institutional community is a common practice, and in a sense, working with students requires this type of competence. In addition to these, two other competences worth mentioning that have similar scores are „Planning and Management“ (3.36) and „Motivation and Perseverance“ (3.36). These are more general competences, suggesting that the respondents are able to consciously shape their careers and activities and that they have perseverance. It is worth noting here that a research career is typically one in which participants have to endure a number of criticisms, so perseverance is much higher than average.

Weaknesses In general, respondents scored relatively high on all competences tested, so lower scores are not necessarily a sign of weakness, as even the lowest score was close to the average (3). „Valuing Ideas“ (2.83) scored the lowest of all the variables examined, which is strange because it is essential for an educator to be able to evaluate a solution or idea from a student. Two other competences were below the average (3): „Design Validation and Co-Creation“ (2.93), „Coping with Uncertainty“ (2.98). The former is probably not yet sufficiently common among the completers. The latter was the least surprising, as higher education actors typically operate in a less market-driven environment (often as employees of public universities) and thus have less to cope with the challenges of uncertainty compared to business actors.

Exploitation of the Self-Assessment Results On the one hand, all participants received the results of the self-assessment so that they could use the results themselves. On the other hand, the group-level results were discussed on the spot. We assessed which factors scored the highest and lowest and validated the perception of the participants' opinions on the extent to which this was a true picture of the situation.

The survey results could provide a clear picture of the educators' individual and collective strengths in entrepreneurial competence. Moreover, the survey may highlight specific areas where educators need to enhance their entrepreneurial competence. This information can guide the development of targeted training and professional development programmes.

In addition, we presented the EICAA Competence Development Kit (CDK) to the participants, which did not yet contain specific modules, but we were able to give an indication of the training material and the structure of the CDK. This also showed that trainers can develop their own entrepreneurial competences through the EICAA CDK, as can the students they train.

Lessons Learned This particular version of the EICAA pilot testing, which took place in the framework of the University of Szeged‘s Faculty of Economics and Business Administration International Week event, was an overall success. Not only because the majority of the foreign participants in the event were actively involved in the EICAA workshop but also because they were informed about the importance of entrepreneurial competence. The majority of them were not familiar with the EntreComp framework, so entrepreneurial competence was narrowly understood by them as business and start-up competence.

This extended interpretation was new to them.

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The EICAA Competence Monitor was very well received; they were happy to try it out, and their feedback was largely positive.

All of this suggests that it was a useful method and one that we would recommend to other institutions to try out, as follows: -

Reach a wide range of educators (not just within their own institution).

Ensure the commitment of trainers.

Once they have tried the platform, they will find it easier to use it in their own classes.

It can highlight the diversity and complexity of entrepreneurial competences.

Future Applications of the EICAA Digital Platform Based on our benchmark from EICAA pilot testing, we can assume that a group of higher education professionals can learn several valuable insights from the EICAA Competence Monitor that measures their entrepreneurial competence. These experiences also hold opportunities for further exploitation, as detailed below: -

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Understanding the overall competence level: By analysing the aggregated data, the group of university employees can gain insights into the overall competence level of educators in entrepreneurship. This understanding can inform strategic decisions related to entrepreneurship education and initiatives within the institution.

Curriculum and programme development: The survey outcomes can guide the enhancement or modification of existing entrepreneurship curricula and programmes. The educators or decision-makers can use the data to ensure that the educational offerings align with the needs and expectations of both educators and students.

Identification of best practices: Through analysis of the survey responses, the programme managers can identify educators who excel in specific entrepreneurial competence. Sharing best practices from these individuals can foster a collaborative learning environment and improve the overall quality of entrepreneurship education.

Benchmarking against other institutions: Comparing the survey results with data from other higher education institutions can offer valuable benchmarking opportunities. This enables the higher education institution to gauge their performance in entrepreneurial competence relative to peers and make informed improvements.

Evidence-based decision-making: The EICAA Competence Monitor provides a data-driven foundation for decision-making related to entrepreneurship education. Rather than relying on assumptions, the programme managers or faculty leaders can use the survey data to make informed choices that align with the institution's goals and objectives.

Supporting accreditation and evaluation processes: The EICAA Competence Monitor data can serve as evidence for accreditation and evaluation purposes.

Demonstrating a commitment to assessing and improving entrepreneurial competence can strengthen the institution's standing in the higher education landscape.

Overall, the EICAA pilot survey empowers the group of higher education professionals with valuable information about their entrepreneurial competences, enabling them to optimize their teaching practices, develop targeted initiatives, and foster an environment that nurtures entrepreneurial skills among both educators and students.

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2. Main Findings of EICAA Pilot Round – Highlighting the Opportunities to Implement the EICAA Digital Platform In part B of the EICAA Digital Platform Handbook, we have described a number of applications of the elements of the platform. In particular, use cases of the EICAA Competence Monitor across Europe have been detailed. This was complemented, where appropriate, by descriptions of the EICAA Competence Development Kit applications. In the following, we summarise the use cases, both to put them in context and to possibly stimulate interest for a more detailed study of each case. While we focus on the lessons learned from each use case, a detailed quantitative analysis of the use case data (i.e. all data compiled from using the Competence Monitor during the pilot round) can be found in a separate document – namely, the EICAA Data Analysis Report.

In that document, we specifically address the characteristics (strengths and weaknesses) of the competences of the groups of students and employees studied, also considering various forms of analytical segmentation. In addition, we attempt to identify which socio-demographic factors determine a groups competence “performance”. The EICAA Data Analysis Report is available here: https://www.eicaa.eu/results/pilot-round/.

The EICAA Pilot Round demonstrated that the EICAA Competence Monitor can be used in various forms, depending on the educational context and scope. a. Applying EICAA Digital Platform as part of an innovation challenge – a case from University of Hohenheim.

In this case, EICAA Competence Monitor was an integral part of a Bachelor level course where students engaged in an innovation challenge. They are tasked with generating an idea for a sustainable innovation that addresses a self-selected societal problem. This component of the course was evaluated via a halfway problem statement pitch, a final pitch during the last week of classes, and an exam covering the lecture material.

Competence Monitor was an integral element of the challenge for identifying strengths and weaknesses in entrepreneurship competence and also a 90-minute competence development session was dedicated to addressing these weaknesses.

Lesson learned: While it is generally challenging to precisely measure the impact of educational interventions, a noticeable change in behaviour among students when communicating with each other was observed. b. Identifying entrepreneurship competences in real-life interaction with family firm entrepreneurs in a speed-dating format – the Management Center of Innsbruck case In this case, the EICAA Competence Monitor was integrated into a master’s course in Management in the 4th semester. Students discussed challenges and possible solutions with family firm entrepreneurs in a speed-dating format and were challenged to put the outcomes of the EICAA Competence Monitor into practice, using it to reflect on competences they have acquired (or not) in the past and relating them to the experiences and stories of the entrepreneurs. Thus, an in-depth discussion evolved based on which

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types of entrepreneurial competences may be needed and useful in different situations to cope with different entrepreneurial challenges.

Lesson learned: The EICAA Competence Monitor was considered a useful tool not only for educators monitoring their students’ progress but even more so for students themselves to self-assess and reflect on their skills. It not only helped students to identify and address specific competences but also to link them to practice and real-life entrepreneurial situations and challenges. c. Using the EICAA Competence Monitor for curriculum design in a MA programme – the Antwerp Management School case In this case, the EICAA Competence Monitor was used as a tool to measure the entrepreneurial competences of students for a better-designed curriculum, especially the Global Leadership Skills programme at Antwerp Management School (AMS).

Lesson learned: The opportunity to provide students with a deeper understanding of the theoretical framework underlying the Competence Monitor proved instrumental in fostering their appreciation for the relevance of the Competence Monitor, thus preventing it from being perceived as a generic survey. d. Using innovative incentives to recruit respondents for the EICAA Competence Monitor – the University of Szeged case This case provides a hands-on solution for the challenge of recruiting students on a large scale to take part in any surveys – in this case, filling out the EICAA Competence Monitor questionnaire. The core idea is about incentivising the students of a large lecture through the following mechanism: if the group achieved at least 300 fully completed surveys, students would only have to choose from 5 answer choices instead of 6 for the end-ofyear multiple choice exam. If the number of answers exceeds 400 completed surveys, they will only have to choose from four answer choices.

Lesson learned: On the one hand, this incentive worked out well as it resulted in 600+ responses in less than two weeks. Also, the implementation of the platform testing fostered a culture of feedback and continuous improvement. By making the individual results accessible to the students, the initiative encouraged self-assessment and introspection. Students were empowered to analyse their performance and identify areas for personal growth. This feedback loop proved to be an invaluable aspect of the testing process, as it not only enabled students to improve their entrepreneurial competences but also instilled a sense of accountability and motivation for continuous selfimprovement. e. Integrating the EICAA Competence Monitor into an international context – cases from Tecnocampus and University of Szeged These cases highlight the possibility of integrating the EICAA Competence Monitor into international education formats that were either part of an international event or project.

Thus, both applications do not represent the usual context of university study programmes. Rather they demonstrate how flexible the Competence Monitor instrument can applied in various educational contexts. Tecnocampus integrated the EICAA CM into a Blended Intensive format of an intensive international entrepreneurship programme and an entrepreneurship programme of the international initiative “Start For Future” (funded by the EIT HEI Initiative and EIT Urban Mobility.) The University of Szeged

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piloted the EICAA Competence Monitor as part of a workshop during the International Week of its Faculty of Economics and Business Administration in 2023.

Lesson learned: The pilot applications were successfully embedded into the education formats of the featured international initiatives. This can be stated not only because the majority of the foreign participants were actively involved in the EICAA CM testing but also because they became aware of the importance of entrepreneurial competence by doing so. Most of the participants were not familiar with the EntreComp framework and the EICAA Competence Framework before. Hence, entrepreneurship competence was only narrowly understood by them to start up a business successfully. Apart from the insightful self-reflection induced by EICAA CM, the broad understanding represented by the EICAA Competence Framework was new to most participants. Moreover, working in interdisciplinary and intercultural teams was also fostered, along with the skills of effective communication and pitching of entrepreneurial ideas. f.

The possibility of piloting the EICAA Competence Monitor internally in SMEs – cases from Univations and ProMedia Kommunikation

In these use cases, it was highlighted that the EICAA Digital Platform can be applied to not just higher education but also to the business environment. Both Univations and ProMedia Kommunikation used the EICAA Competence Monitor to internally investigate the entrepreneurship competences of their colleagues and provide inspiration to our employees for future professional training. They are innovation-centred SMEs, and their employees are working closely with the start-up community of the region (and beyond), still, they mostly carry a narrow understanding of entrepreneurship inside. This somewhat contradicts the broad understanding of entrepreneurship that is integral to the EICAA Competence Framework, and, ultimately, the instruments of the EICAA Digital Platform. Thus, implementing a self-assessment tool like EICAA CM required also further conceptual background information about the wider understanding of these competences. The CEOs recognized the value of leveraging the self-assessment tool to enhance the overall competence of the organization. Over several weeks, they consistently communicated the objective behind the survey, providing a brief overview of the project and emphasizing how conducting the EICAA Pilot Round would benefit both the company and the individuals themselves.

Lesson learned: Previously, discussions on entrepreneurship competences had been more general, and non-professional analyses were made on what could be the exact strengths and weaknesses of the company employees. Some results were expected due to the specific types of employees the CEOs tend to hire, and the diversity may not be as large as in other companies, especially given the rather small size of Univations and ProMedia Kommunikation. However, other results were surprising and demonstrated that the EICAA CM can efficiently reveal (unknown) deficits to work on. The cases emphasized that the benefits coming from applying EICAA CM internally need to be explained well to the envisioned target group. This is also true concerning the conceptual background of the EICAA instruments as they divert from the understanding of entrepreneurship competence(s) that most participants have. If these aspects are considered well, applying the EICAA Competence Monitor in a corporate context bears promising potential for generating valuable information that can be exploited to set up targeted professional training that enhances entrepreneurship competences in-house more efficiently.

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The information and views set out in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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