A comparison of entrepreneurship competencies of Turkish and European Union member countries primary level students

The main purpose of this study is to assess the level of entrepreneurship competencies of the primary school level students in the city center of Sakarya province, and to analyze the assessments by comparing them with the assessments of 13 EU member states' 1362 pupils at the same level. Based on the initiatives taken by EU for entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship competencies are consisted of five dimensions including entrepreneurship skills, entrepreneurial attitudes, entrepreneurship knowledge, entrepreneurship education efficiency and entrepreneurial intentions. In this study, general survey method of quantitative research is applied. In the scope of the study, ''ASTEE Project Assessment Tool for Entrepreneurship Competencies at Primary Level Supported by European Commission'' is adapted into Turkish. The tool is a 5 choice Likert type questionnaire consisting of 39 questions in 5 factors as well as demographic related questions. The language of the questionnaire is validated by a team of experienced experts from different fields. Two pilot applications of the questionnaire are conducted. First application is done to validate it into Turkish language at two different schools, including 99 females and 107 males. Second application is conducted to 97 males and 104 females in 2 different schools in order to determine the validity and reliability values. Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient is found .879 as whole and .894 for entrepreneurial attitudes, .892 for entreprenurship education, .932 for entrepreneurship knowledge, .919 for entrepreneurship skills and .904 for entrepreneurial intentions. Model fit indices in Confirmatory Factor Analysis follows the cut-off criteria as they are: RMSEA: .046, RMR: .071, CFI: .93, NFI: .90, GFI: .88. For the major application, totally 746 pupils, including 384 females and 362 males, are sampled from 6 different geographic education districts by using stratified sampling. For the analysis of the study; t-test, correlation and regression analysis, frequencies and descriptive tables are used. The main findings of the study suggests that the level of entrepreneurship competencies of the pupils in Sakarya city center are statistically and meaningfully higher than their peers in EU as whole and in all factors.