FORMAZIONE E SVILUPPO DELLE COMPETENZE IMPRENDITORIALI NEI GIOVANI: UN CONFRONTO TRA STUDENTI UNIVERSITARI ITALIANI E BRASILIANI

This research work has originated from the observation that the importance given, in recent times, in Italy and Brazil to the promotion of the "entrepreneurial culture" among college students, has become a crucial point to provide the new generations with the necessary tools to face with increased awareness their future educational and professional choices. This importance is also explained, in both countries, mainly because of the existing economic and financial crisis that, in large part, hit the working world, determining, in addition to increasing rates of youth unemployment, a thorough revision of the very concept of "employment", with a more and more important trend towards the so-called "self-employment". In this perspective, therefore, it is essential to clarify what should be understood by the term "entrepreneurship", underlining - through a critical analysis of the current legislation, of the literature on the subject, of the projects and practices - the implications on the training plan: in particular it is the concept of "competence" in its many forms, to allow a theoretical reflection about "entrepreneurship education". The debate, in this regard, is problematic, because it points out the oscillation between two requests where conciliation is anything but straightforward: on the one hand, strong demands for professionalization immediately spendable in the labour market and, therefore, often corresponding to utilitarian training and, on the other hand, although less strong in terms of policy, requests for "humanization" of the training, that is turned to the education of the whole person so that he can be a leader aware of the change and not only better provided to conform to the pressures of the contingencies. The comparison, on these issues, between Italy and Brazil was conducted both on a strictly theoretical level, through the recognition of the legislation, literature and documentation about practices, and on an experimental one, collecting and processing information about the perception and personal experiences of university students of both countries. To this end, a questionnaire was prepared and administered to two representative samples of italian and brazilian university students, together with a qualitative interview aimed to ten selected witnesses working at the promotion of education for entrepreneurship among young people. The results of the research, in terms of interpretation, has allowed to point out the differences and similarities of the approaches to the entrepreneurial world between the two sampled realities, as well as allowed to highlight motivations, goals, methods, strategies and tools for entrepreneurship education. The work is completed with the pointing out at the strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches - that, in Italy as well as in Brazil, are still under development and experimentation - and with the formulation of some proposals relative to the meaning of education as part of a lifelong learning of the individual and social person.