Entrepreneurial Competencies and Intentions of Grade 12 Students in Selected High Schools in Los Baños, Laguna

Date

5-2018

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness Management

College

College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Dinah Pura T. Depositario

Committee Member

Nanette A. Aquino, Melodee Marciana E. De Castro, Agnes T. Banzon, Normito Zapata, Jr.

Abstract

According to Mr. Jose Ma. Concepcion III (2017), the Philippines is an entrepreneurial country. Though this may be true, Filipinos face the challenge of developing skills and capabilities in creating and growing businesses through formal and informal training. This makes entrepreneurship to be highly encouraged among the Filipino youth. Starting at a young age, young aspiring Filipino entrepreneurs can have early exposure to the basics of entrepreneurship through sufficient textbook knowledge and hands-on activities. Being exposed to entrepreneurship at an early age and having gained experience increases the likelihood of starting a business and succeeding in it. The higher the level of experience is, the greater is the individual’s exposure to different sources of ideas. This idea of youth entrepreneurship is further developed through the implementation of the K-12 program in the Philippines.

The K-12 recently implemented covers thirteen years of basic education instead of the usual eleven. This includes kindergarten, grades 1 to 6, 7 to 10 for junior high school, and 11 to 12 for senior high school. This program seeks to strengthen early childhood education, build proficiency through language, and provide specialized secondary education. According to the Department of Education (DepEd), entrepreneurship is embedded across all their suggested curricula for schools because entrepreneurial education is vital in developing a person’s entrepreneurial skillset to succeed in business.

Studies say that an individual’s propensity to pursue any type of entrepreneurial activity can be better predicted by looking at his entrepreneurial intentions. Personal entrepreneurial competencies are equally important as they are key characteristics that should be possessed by aspiring entrepreneurs to become successful and be able to perform entrepreneurial functions effectively (Dara, 2013). Hence, this study aims to identify the levels of personal entrepreneurial competencies and intentions of Grade 12 students from selected high schools in Los Baños, Laguna and how they could be enhanced.

The research utilized a descriptive and correlational research design. Data were gathered through paper-based questionnaire which was adopted from the survey instrument developed by Jumamil (2017), who based it on Liñan and Chen’s Entrepreneurial Intentions Questionnaire; Niewenhuizen and Swanepoel (2015); Ngugi et. al. (2012); and from other researchers who may have touched on the topic of entrepreneurial intention. The second part of the questionnaire is an established survey instrument which concerns personal entrepreneurial competency statements. Other factors that were included were demographic traits, prior entrepreneurial experiences, and entrepreneurial education of the respondents. For the data analysis, the researcher used descriptive analysis for the socio-demographic profile of the respondents; descriptive and chi-square analysis to determine the relationship between the PECs and EI; factor analysis to determine which factors contributed to the entrepreneurial intention of the students; and lastly, Kruskal-Wallis test for the determination of the differences of the means per competency across all the strands of each school.

The survey was conducted among one hundred and ninety-three Grade 12 students from Maquiling School Inc. under the STEM (23) and GAS (12) strands. For Christian School International, the strands present in the school were STEM (40) and ABM (12). University of the Philippines Rural High School consisted of three strands, namely STEAM (83), ABM (8), and HUMSS (15).

Complete enumeration was targeted. For the STEM strands under MSI and CSI, the majority was composed of females (60.87% and 55.00%). On the other hand, in UPRHS, the STEAM strand was dominated by males (54.22%). Majority of the ABM students of CSI were female (66.67%) while in UPRHS, there were more males (87.50%). Moreover, there were more males under the GAS strand of MSI (58.33%) and more females under the HUMSS strand of UPRHS (80.00%). It was found that most of the students that had outright entrepreneurial plans in CSI and UPRHS were those under the ABM strands of both schools with 83.33% 100%, respectively.

After running a chi-square test of significance between the personal entrepreneurial competency level of each competency and the entrepreneurial intention level among the grade 12 students, it was seen that PEC levels for almost all competencies – opportunity seeking (α=1%), persistence (α=5%), commitment to work contract (α=10%), risk taking (α=10%), goal setting (α=5%), information seeking (α=10%), systematic planning and monitoring (α=1%), persuasion and networking (α=10%), self-confidence (α=5%) – were significantly related to entrepreneurial intention at the respective significance α levels.

Chi-square test of significance was also conducted to find out if school, strand, and the different PEC clusters were significantly related to the EI of the Grade 12 students. It was determined that all of the factors mentioned above were significant in affecting the entrepreneurial intention of the grade 12 students at different correlation strengths. Results showed that the school and strand of the students were moderately correlated to their EI, while all of the PEC clusters had strong correlation strengths to their EI. Another chi-square test was also done to check if the different strands were significantly related to the PEC levels of the grade 12 students. Results showed that the strands were only related to four of the ten PECs - opportunity seeking, commitment to work contract, goal setting, and self-confidence.

Through factor analysis, it was identified that self-efficacy, attitude towards entrepreneurship, perceived definition of entrepreneurial success, entrepreneurial connections, personal behavioral control, entrepreneurial capacity, prior entrepreneurial education, social support, and peer approval were the factors which influenced the entrepreneurial intention levels of the Grade 12 students. The factors contributed 70.56% of the total variance in entrepreneurial intention.

Further, based on selected socio-demographic factors, those which had high entrepreneurial intention were female (64.00%); under the ABM strand (75.00%) followed by STE(A)M (48.63%); had own prior entrepreneurial experiences (66.67%); and lastly, 65.65% and had expressed outright entrepreneurial plans in the future (65.65%).

Kruskal-Wallis test was done for all schools to test if there were significant differences in the means of each PEC across the different strands. In CSI, the students under the different academic strands differed only in terms of four PECs: opportunity seeking, persistence, commitment to work contract, and demand for efficiency and quality. Contrary to this, MSI’s strands showed that the strands were significantly different on only one PEC: persuasion and networking. On the other hand, based on the pairwise comparison results of the strands of UPRHS, there were significant differences in the means for opportunity seeking between HUMSS and ABM as well as STEAM and ABM; goal setting for all paired strands; and lastly, self-confidence for HUMSS and STEAM and HUMSS and ABM.

In general, the study found that entrepreneurial competencies and intention were shown to be influenced by both internal and external factors. Further, the top contributors to entrepreneurial intention – self-efficacy, attitude towards entrepreneurship, and perceived definition of entrepreneurial success – may be influenced effectively by the enhancement of the students’ prior entrepreneurial education which is linked to the entrepreneur-related curriculum of the schools.

Various formal and informal learning activities about entrepreneurship were recommended by the researcher in her study so as to enhance the PEC and EI levels of students in high school and even in the undergraduate level. It is also advised that the mentors for the entrepreneurial subjects of

each school learn how to tackle the courses differently based on what strand he is teaching. Tailor- fitting how the subject should be taught based on the students’ strand may help them better

understand entrepreneurship through scenarios and concepts that are more familiar to them.

Language

English

LC Subject

Decision making, Entrepreneurship--Vocational guidance

Location

UPLB College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Call Number

LG 993 2018 M17 O45

Notes

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Document Type

Thesis

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