Analysing the relationship between the lifelong learning tendencies and entrepreneurship levels of public education center trainees (A case of Sakarya)

In 21st century, the high number of qualified people is very important in the socio-economic development of societies. In the information age and rapidly increasing competitive environment, qualified person appears a lifelong learner due to the information age and an entrepreneurial individual due to the rapidly increasing competition. Entrepreneurship; is an important force that forms the basis of the economic and social development of developed countries. As long as countries hold this power in their hands, they can obtain innovative and creative production opportunities, maintain their economic independence and increase their level of prosperity. In 21st century, where the understanding of information society is dominant, knowledge based power becomes more important than man power as in every field. The entrepreneurial activities of those who have knowledge and those who are able to use the informationdrawattention;and this situation creates the need to learn new information. The need for knowledge requires lifelong learning. In Turkey, public education centres operate as an institution that supports lifelong learning through courses and extracurricular activities in order to develop the knowledge, skills and competencies that individuals need throughout life. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the lifelong learning tendencies of the public education centre trainees and entrepreneurship levels. The research is a descriptive research and carried out using the relational screening model. The research working group consists of 930 trainees in total, attending the courses opened in January, February and March2019 at public education centres operating in Sakaryaprovince. "Personal Information Form" prepared by researcher, "Lifelong Learning Tendencies Scale" developed by Gür-Erdoğan and Arsal (2016) and "Entrepreneurship Scale" developed by Yılmaz and Sünbül (2009) were used as data collection instruments. The analysis of all the data obtained from the study was done by using SPSS 21.0 packaged software.For the reliability of the scales used in the study Cronbach Alpha Index was calculated and Confirmatory Factor Analysis was applied for construct validity. In order to determine the scores of the trainees from the scales, descriptive statistics was first used in the analysis of the sub-problems of the research. Scale items were shown with the frequency and percentage charts. Arithmetic mean, median, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values of the scores were calculated for the scales and their sub-dimensions. In comparison analysis, the Kolmogrov-Simirnovand Shapiro-Wilk normality tests and Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used. Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient was examined for the relation analysis. In the research, it has been determined that there are significant differences in the lifelong learning tendencies of the public education centre trainees according to their education level and hometown. And also there are significant differences in the entrepreneurship levels according to the variables of gender, age, education level, and employment status, hometown and number of courses they have attended before. It has been concluded that the lifelong learning tendencies of the public education centre trainees are high and their entrepreneurship levels are above medium level; there is a positive and moderately significant relationship between lifelong learning tendencies and entrepreneurship levels. Keywords: Lifelong learning, Entrepreneurship, Public education center, Trainee.