WorldSkills competitors and entrepreneurship: strengths and limitations of the study design, data analysis, and findings Maia Chankseliani Department of Education 18 June 2015
‘A youth festival in which competitors would recognise their role in helping to construct the future. Individual excellence is recognised in sports and the arts, and for this reason it was felt that achievements in vocational education and training were deserving of the same (Wilson, 2000, p. 201).
Developing and Understanding Vocational Excellence (DUVE) Research Overarching research questions : What are the characteristics of individuals who excel? What kinds of support enable the development of high- level vocational skills? How can vocational education be structured to aim not just for minimum standards of high achievement but for high achievement that reflects world class standards? Can broader societal benefits to developing vocational excellence be identified?
DuVE research team Susan James Ken Mayhew Maia Chankseliani Jennifer Allen Marta Mordarska Stephanie Wilde www.vocationalexcellence.education.ox.ac.uk
Developing and Understanding Vocational Excellence (DUVE) research projects Project 1. Modelling the characteristics of vocational excellence Aim : to study the characteristics of young people involved in the WorldSkills UK programme. Project 2. Learning environments to develop vocational excellence Aim : to understand what constitutes a learning environment where world-beating performance can be developed. Project 3. Benefits of developing vocational excellence Aim : to examine how and in what way skills competitions provide social and economic benefits, not only to the individual involved but also to society. Project 4. FE college participation in WorldSkills Aim: to establish benefits and costs of involvement in skills competitions for FE colleges. Project 5. WorldSkills contestants and entrepreneurship Aim : to illustrate how the acquisition of greater skill and capability might develop entrepreneurial instinct and ideas and to investigate the sustainability of the activities involved. Project 6. Training managers: benefits and barriers to WorldSkills UK participation Aim : to identify the main benefits and barriers facing TMs in order to inform WorldSkills UK in the recruitment, selection and training of TMs in the future.
WorldSkills competitors and entrepreneurship: Research context, aims, and questions The main research question: How does WorldSkills experience facilitate the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities to create future goods and services? Three sub-questions: How does WorldSkills competitors' propensity to become entrepreneurial relate to various motivators, industry-specific factors, and geographical contexts? How, if at all, did WorldSkills influence competitors' motivation to become entrepreneurial? How do WorldSkills competitors' psychological capital, social capital, and human capital facilitate the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities to create future goods and services? How is the development of these three forms of capital linked with competitors' WorldSkills experience? How do entrepreneurial competitors view their core business challenges? How can WorldSkills support entrepreneurial competitors?
Methodological overview Method Instruments Sample Limitations
Data analysis • Qualitative data analysis • Quantitative data analysis
Is the knowledge constructed/co-produced during the interview or is the knowledge a pre-existing phenomenon? Miner Traveller Source: http://kmuw.org/post/kansas-coal-miner-featured-new-usps-stamp Source: http://www.historytoday.com/becky-taylor/britains-gypsy-travellers-people-outside
Psychological capital: average scores for different groups 5.5 5.39 5.38 5.4 5.3 5.2 5.2 5.1 5 4.9 4.77 4.8 4.7 Intrapreneurs Entrepreneurs Latent Not interested
Hope/willpower – Self-efficacy/confidence - Optimism - Tell me Tell me about your Tell me about your most about your experience experience that developed important experience that that was the strongest your willpower to attain developed your confidence influence on developing goals and ability to see the to take on challenging tasks, your optimism, i.e. pathways to these goals, complete them and reach expectation of positive redirecting paths to goals goals [SELF-EFFICACY] and desirable events in in order to succeed. the future. Resiliency - Tell me about Since that event, are you Are you more determined your experience that was more likely to attribute to achieve your goals and most influential in positive events to is it difficult to distract you developing your resilience, personal, permanent from your targets than it i.e. the ability to recover and pervasive causes used to be prior to that from unfavourable events or and interpret negative experience? Can you give stressors. events in terms of an example? [HOPE] When beset by problems external, temporary and and adversity, are you more situation-specific factors likely to continue working now than you used to hard towards achieving your Psychological before that experience? goals than you used to Can you give an before that experience? Can capital example? [OPTIMISM] you give an example? [RESILIENCY]
The proportions of participants who recognised WorldSkills as the most important influence for the development of these psychological characteristics (n=40) Self-efficacy 95% 5% Hope 35% 65% No Yes Optimism 35% 65% Resiliency 33% 67% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Entrepreneurship category of those who recognised WorldSkills as the most important influence on developing these psychological characteristics Hope 93% 7% Self-efficacy 74% 26% Optimism 71% 29% Resiliency 62% 38% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Entrepreneurial group Non-entrepreneurial group
Social capital very few occasions when you achieve something completely on your own. You rely on other people, whether it’s your partner making you dinner when you get home, or whether it’s a supplier who has to send something on time. The relationships you build up really matter (I1, 1999).
Five key networks Type of network Entrepreneurial % (number of respondents in the category entrepreneurial or non-entrepreneurial groups, respectively) recognising the importance of the network Professional networks Entrepreneurial 80% (24) Non-entrepreneurial 80% (8) Family networks Entrepreneurial 67% (20) Non-entrepreneurial 30% (3) WorldSkills Entrepreneurial 47% (14) community networks Non-entrepreneurial 50% (5) Customer-base Entrepreneurial 40% (12) Non-entrepreneurial 0% (0) Friends Entrepreneurial 20% (6) Non-entrepreneurial 10% (1)
[WorldSkills] gives you the right tools to go and network, you can ask questions and you feel confident asking the questions. It puts you where high profile [professionals] would be, like designers to go and work with them, you would never get that anywhere. You go and you use what you can to make the most of that opportunity so it’s not wasted and you keep in touch with those people just through meeting them. Not always but they get in touch with you back. (E9, 2011)
Human capital • education and training (E&T) attainment • technical skills • business interaction skills • work experience • exposure to entrepreneurship within the family
Chankseliani, M., James, S., & Mayhew, K. (2015). WorldSkills competitors and entrepreneurship . Oxford, UK: University of Oxford http://vocationalexcellence.education.ox.ac.uk/pu blications/reports/ maia.chankseliani@education.ox.ac.uk
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