Enhancing the Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship in VET Students: preliminary results

Abstract

This paper describes some preliminary outcomes from two formative interventions which are being conducted between Australia and Italy. The research seeks to find which elements trigger entrepreneurship education in Vocational Education and Training (VET). To do so, two small groups of VET students going from school to work experience (either block or once a
week) are taking part in the so called Change Laboratories. They are meeting with their work tutors and teachers once a week for two months. The discussion of the problems students are having when transferring from school to work and the presence of different points of view will trigger dialectics.
By so doing the participants are finding better and shared ways to
improve their learning experience, thus showing initiative and being entrepreneurial.
The theoretical framework chosen is the Cultural Historical Activity
Theory (CHAT), because it enlarges the unit of analysis to multiple interacting activity systems, as could be the case of VET students going to school and undertaking work experience at the same time.