Entrepreneurship Education Matters: Exploring Secondary Vocational School Students’ Entrepreneurial Intention in China

Abstract

Based on the theory of entrepreneurial human capital, this study employs questionnaires from 730 secondary vocational school students to explore the status quo of entrepreneurship education and the influence of entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial knowledge, and entrepreneurial competence on entrepreneurial intention. The study results prove the following. First, the participation rate of entrepreneurship education in secondary vocational schools is much higher than in their counterpart (academic schools), with more than half of secondary vocational students reporting having received entrepreneurship education of diverse types. Second, students evaluated themselves with relatively high entrepreneurial competence and intention, although they answered “unclear” to entrepreneurial knowledge and entrepreneurship education. Third, motivation and leadership, as well as enterprise knowledge, play mediating roles through which entrepreneurship education affects entrepreneurial intention, and represent two types of entrepreneurial human capital-entrepreneurial knowledge and entrepreneurial competence. The implications of effective educational implementation are discussed.