Perception of Vocational School Students in Croatia towards the Carrier of Entrepreneur

U ovom radu predstavljeni su rezultati dijela istraživanja na nacionalnom reprezentativnom uzorku učenika srednjih strukovnih škola (N=2 353), a koji se odnose na percepciju učenika strukovnih škola prema karijeri poduzetnika. Istraživanje je realizirano u okviru projekta Nacionalnog centra za vanjsko vrednovanje obrazovanja „Zastupljenost poduzetničkih sadržaja u programima srednjih škola“, a koji ima za svoju osnovnu zadaću, kvalitativnim i kvantitativnim metodama, utvrditi stavove ključnih aktera prema poduzetničkim sadržajima u srednjim školama koje provode različite obrazovne programe. Naime, upravo za učenike srednjih strukovnih škola pretpostavljamo da će činiti jezgru budućih poduzetnika na kojima se velikim dijelom temelji ekonomska budućnost zemlje. Učenici su generalno pozitivno usmjereni na mogućnost poduzetničke karijere, no svoje poznavanje praktičnih pravila poslovanja ocjenjuju osrednjim. Velika većina smatra da je praktične vještine potrebne za pokretanje vlastitoga posla moguće naučiti (92,5%) i to podjednako lako kroz dodatne edukacije (upisivanje tečaja) i odrađivanje prakse te u radu za nekoga drugoga, a najteže kroz pokretanje vlastite tvrtke. Ovaj nalaz ukazuje na to da učenici završnih razreda strukovnih škola imaju visoka očekivanja od redovnih, izvanrednih i dopunskih obrazovnih programa, a zapravo prilično nevoljko sami preuzimaju inicijativu.The results of one portion of student survey on the national representative sample of vocational high school students (N=2 353) related to the perception of vocational school students towards the carrier of entrepreneur is presented in this article. The research is administrated within the National Centre for External Evaluation of Education project “Representation of Entrepreneurial Contents in high school educational programmes” which has for its primary goal, using qualitative and quantitative methods, to establish the attitudes of key agents towards the entrepreneurial contents in the high schools implementing different programmes. Namely, we assume that the students in vocational schools represent the core of future entrepreneurs on whose economic future of the country is widely based. These students are generally positively orientated towards the possibility of carrier as entrepreneurs, but they self-evaluate their knowledge in practical procedures at medium quality. In large majority they believe that practical skills for starting the business can be learned (92.5%) equally easy throughout additional education (signing in for a course), practical work placements and working for somebody else, but most difficult throughout starting their one private business. This finding suggest that students from final grades in vocational schools have high expectations from basic, extra-curricular and additional educational programmes but are in fact rather unwilling to take the initiative