Study On Developing Entrepreneurial Skills In The Science And Engineering Talents

The age of entrepreneurship calls for science and engineering talents with entrepreneurial spirits. The report of the18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party proposes "to thoroughly implement the strategy of rejuvenating China through science and education and the strategy of rejuvenating China through human resource development" and "to promote employment with entrepreneurship, and improve the workers' employability and entrepreneurial ability".With the increasing integration of engineering technology and the modern business, more and more attention has been placed on how to cultivate science and engineering talents' entrepreneurial skills in order to transform new knowledge and technology into business. However, there are not many research on developing science and engineering talents' entrepreneurial skills. Therefore, the challenge of training science and engineering talents' skills y of entrepreneurship has become a significant problem for the national public policy makers to seriously consider. To address above issues, this dissertation research focused on the entrepreneurship development of science and engineering talentsBased on reviewing literature in entrepreneurial skills, science and engineering human resource development theory, and entrepreneurship education ecology system theory, this dissertation defined science and engineering talents' entrepreneurial skills and its constituent elements. Through case analysis, literature analysis,and expert interviews, this dissertation proposed a framework for the developing science and engineering talents' entrepreneurial skills.Quantitative data were collected using survey and other methods and were analyzed using validity and reliability analysis, factor analysis, regression analysis, and other methods to validate the initial framework and propose optimization strategies for training science and engineering talents'entrepreneurial capabilities.The research participants were defined as undergraduate students majoring in science and engineering.This dissertation addressed four main topics:(1) the concept and constituent elem-ents of science and engineering talents'entrepreneurial skills;(2) the key factors influencing science and engineering talents'training;(3) the relationship between the constituent elements and the key influencing factors of science and engineering talents' entrepreneurial skills,and (4) the optimizing strategies for training science and engineering talents' entrepreneurship in today's China.To address the above topics,this dissertation made the following conclusions based on theoretical and empirical research:(1) Informed by previous literature in entrepreneurial skills, science and engineering talents'entrepreneurial capabilities were defined as possessing foundational knowledge in natural science, engineering, or technology and abilities to create business in areas related to engineering or technology development, production, and services. The constituent elements were identified as self-management skills, team leadership, technological innovation, and market skills.(2) The author reviewed cases of how science and engineering talents' entrepreneurial skills were developed in western countries by analyzing from national, higher-education, and industry levels. According to case analysis,the essential elements of national policy protection include training strategic plan, training programs, financial support, organization, laws and regulations. The elements of entrepreneurship training in higher education include training objectives and plans, cutting-edge scientific and technological knowledge, entrepreneurship courses, interactive teaching methods, school-based entrepreneurial mentors, international exchanges, practice opportunities, professional organizations, student organizations, evaluation mechanisms, entrepreneurial atmosphere, etc. Elements of collaborative training by higher-education and industry include university-industry cooperative organizations, interactive platform, business mentors, internships, funding, etc.(3) Based on literature review and expert interviews, the author validated the three factors-the national policy factor, the entrepreneurship education factor, and the industry collaboration factor-and added the fourth factor of individual traits, including individual background, personality, entrepreneurial motivation, and entre-preneurial intention. The author proposed four dimensions for the framework of developing science and engineering talents'entrepreneurial skills,including the national policy guarantee mechanism, the entrepreneurship education mechanism, the industry-university collaborative training mechanism, the individual driving mechanism(4) Factorial analysis of data from297valid questionnaires identified one common factor. Regression analysis of the same dataset identified four key factors, including the national policy guarantee mechanism, the level of entrepreneurship education mechanism, the industrial level of collaborative training mechanism, the individual level of driving mechanism. The four factors contained a total of25variables (factors), which constituted the key factors of science and engineering talents'entrepreneurial abilities.(5) Findings indicated that the national policy support mechanism played a significantly positive role in team leadership, technological innovation skills, and marketing control skills.University entrepreneurial education mechanism had significantly positive influence on team leadership and technological innovation. The industry-university collaborative training mechanism had the same level of influence on team leadership. The individual driving mechanism also had a significantly positive effects on management, team leadership, and marketing control skill. This dissertation concluded that the individual driving mechanism and the national policy support mechanism may play more important roles in the development of science and engineering talents'entrepreneurial skills than the university entrepreneurial education mechanism and industry-university collaborative training mechanism.Based on the above results, this dissertation proposed optimization strategies for training science and engineering talents'entrepreneurial skills:(l)Establish and refine entrepreneurship education operating mechanism, focusing on building the platform for entrepreneurship practice;(2)establish a sound industry-university collaborative training mechanism by forming industry-university alliances;(3) continue improve national policy protection mechanism by following the strategy of cultivating science and engineering talents;(4)further improve individual entrepreneurial driving mechanism,starting from developing individuals' entrepreneurial intention.