Embedding Entrepreneurial Knowledge in Vocational College Curriculum: A Case Study of the Competency of TVET Instructors

Abstract

Entrepreneurial knowledge is important and it has been adopted in numerous curriculum and subject matters. Even though the embedding of the entrepreneurship syllabus in the curriculum might be able to enhance the knowledge of the students and subsequently trigger their interests in business, very often students would forget about it once they graduated from the program and fail to put their entrepreneurial knowledge to use. One of the common postulations was the lack of effective teaching by the teachers. Based on this assumption, a case study was conducted to explore the competency requirement of teachers related to the teaching of entrepreneurial-based knowledge and to investigate the process of teaching and learning entrepreneurship curriculum in the classroom settings. A semi-structured interview was conducted to the 7 informants. The informants were chosen using purposive sampling from the selected vocational colleges (3 instructors, 3 students, and 1 director). In-depth and constant comparative analysis was utilized to validate the themes. We triangulated the narratives along with five other sources of data, including note-taking via observations, document analysis of lesson plan, curriculum content, policy, and guidelines. NVIVO software was used to organize the narratives and guide the thematic analysis findings. The findings demonstrated that entrepreneurial competency is important for the engineering TVET instructors to pass on the necessary entrepreneurial skills to students. In view of the latest trends in business and marketing strategies and wide application of gig economy, the range of competency in entrepreneurial skills identified in shaping the future orientation of entrepreneurial fields.