At the end of 20th century a marked increase in the development and spread of in-formation technologies has taken place. These processes have brought radical social and economic changes in the world and create the new era in economy, where knowledge, accession to the latest information becomes the main driving-force of development and the condition for competitiveness. Under the deepening of these processes, the impor-tance of intellectual capital has increased, when competitive advantage can be achieved only by creating and applying new knowledge.
The main elements of a knowledge economy are human capital, ICT, entreprene-urship, innovation policy and state’s management situation in a given national environ-ment.
Taking into the consideration the limits of this study, in Figure 1 the development of knowledge expression with all the elements of knowledge-based economy will be presented.
Figure 1. Development of knowledge expression. [4, 465]
Characteristics of knowledge expression
Human capital
Innovation policy
ICT Entrepreneurship State management Acquisition of
knowledge
Creation of knowledge
Dissemination of knowledge
Usage of knowledge
Preconditions of development
All elements of a knowledge economy are very important. The most important fac-tor for the creation of a knowledge economy is an effective government management policy. The maintaining of the economic stability and government management situa-tion shows the state’s ability to create knowledge economy. The stable and developed economies can ensure the creating, diffusion and usage of ICT, foster investment in human capital as well as in innovations, and stimulate knowledge intensive enterpri-se. Effective government management policy infl uences the creation of stimulating or restricting factors, which encourage or block the progress of the knowledge economy.
[4, 455–456]
The main condition for the possibility of developing knowledge- based economy is human capital. Investment in human capital can be accomplished by strengthening education and training, making the teaching profession more attractive, improving the links between education and the labor market and adapting labor market institutions to the changing nature of the work. [OECD 2002].
V. Bikse. Knowledge-based Economy and Developing of Entrepreneurship .. 131 A new change puts forward the task of developing human capital, key competencies of individuals – to shape the new generation according to the tendencies and trends that are present in many countries of the world.
Many experts in the fi elds of sociology, education, philosophy, psychology and eco-nomics have tried to defi ne the nation of competence. The main conclusion to be drawn from the large number of contributions to this search for a defi nition is that there is no universal defi nition of the notion of “key competence”. At the Council of Europe’s sym-posium on key competencies (1996) J. Coolahan proposed that competence and compe-tencies should be regarded “as the general capability based on knowledge, experience, values, dispositions which a person has developed through engagement with educational practices”. [10] That means that the term “competencies” includes three areas: knowle-dge, skills and attitudes.
After a series of meetings in 2002, the European Commission’s working group of experts on basic skills, suggested the following eight principal domains of key compe-tencies: literacy and numeracy, mathematics, science and technology, foreign languages,
“Learning to learn”, cultural awareness, social/ personal skills, entrepreneurship, tech-nological culture (include ICT skills).
The key competencies (basic skills) cover the vocational or technical skills as well as those social or personal competences which enable people to work together and to lead happy and fruitful lives. New basic skills were defi ned as skills required for active participation in the knowledge society and economy. Spreading these more personal skills required is a challenge for the knowledge society.
Social or personal competencies are most closely associated with the development of entrepreneurship competence. The term entrepreneurship is often taken in the narrow meaning: to running a business, being an employer/self-employed. Entrepreneurship has a much wider meaning than just training on how to start business. It is also an active and reactive spirit as an important personal quality crucial to the ability to managing one’s own life; to being creative in any working activity; and to establishing and expen-ding a business successfully. Entrepreneurship is something that society as a whole should value and invest in. The term “entrepreneurship” is used to label a certain set of competences needed by and useful to all.
Therefore Lisbon Council included entrepreneurship as a basic skill, considered ne-cessary for all in order to live and work in a knowledge based society. The 2006 Spring European Council fully endorsed the Commission’s view that Member States should reinforce entrepreneurship education at all levels. [5]
As regards personal qualities of the individual that are relevant to entrepreneurship and which are important to develop are the following:
Personal solving abilities and skills such as: planning, making decisions,
com-•
munication and desire to take up responsibility, to possess independence, abil-ity to see (fi nd) a certain problem and to solve it, that is, to possess the man-agement competence.
Cooperation and networking features such as: the ability to co-operate with
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others, to work in a team, to be able to reorient and to start new activities, as well as to possess other kinds of social competence.
It is indispensable to develop self-confi dence and the motivation of action,
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fl exibility, critical and independent thinking, especially paying attention to the
fact that the young person should have a desire and should be able to imple-ment lifelong learning independently thus expanding his/her personal fi elds of competence.
It is essential that the young person would show initiative, put forward real
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aims and try to achieve them, act creatively, be able to overcome failures and critically evaluate them, take the risk in order to implement his/her idea, that is – one should possess entrepreneurial qualities.
The expert group of the European Commission has worked out the defi nition of the concept entrepreneurship teaching. Included are two signifi cant aspects:
a broader concept of education for entrepreneurial attitudes and skills, which
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involves developing certain personal qualities not directly focused on the cre-ation of new businesses, as well as:
a more specifi c concept of training in how to create a business. [6]
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Entrepreneurship education is about developing attitudes, behaviors and capacities at the individual level. It is also about application of those skills and attitudes, which can take many forms during an individual’s career, creating a range of long term bene-fi ts to society and economy. [5] Developing a broader framework for assessing entre-preneurship education is necessary. Therefore entreentre-preneurship education should not be confused as meaning merely general economic studies. [6]
In that context, entrepreneurship education includes development both of personal qualities and attitudes and of formal knowledge and skills concerning what must be done to establish a new enterprise, and how to be successful in developing an idea into a practical, goal-oriented enterprise, together these two main elements will give young people competence in entrepreneurship.
It means, that in order to develop of entrepreneurical competence, there are some signifi cant government policy objectives that apply to all levels of the educational system:
1. Policy commitment to promote learning about entrepreneurship. Entreprene-urship must be defi ned as an objective in education, and be included in the government strategy.
2. Introducing entrepreneurship into the national curriculum at all levels of for-mal education (from primary school to university. Curriculum and teaching methods development for entrepreneurship education should be driven by na-tional policy with full engagement of the relevant ministries.
3. Training of entrepreneurship educators (teachers).
4. Collaboration between educational institutions and the local social and busi-ness sector for involving entrepreneurs and local companies in the design and running of entrepreneurship courses and activities.
5. Changing the attitudes of educational institutions managers. They must follow up the focus on entrepreneurship in curricula and management documents, to encourage and motivate teachers to have knowledge in entrepreneurship, to take the initiative in collaborating with business sector and other agencies.
6. At higher education level teaching of entrepreneurship should be outside eco-nomic and business courses. Entrepreneurship education needs to be expan-ded across the all study programs and integrated as an important part of the curriculum, particularly to the scientifi c and technical faculties.
V. Bikse. Knowledge-based Economy and Developing of Entrepreneurship .. 133 Nowadays the role of educational systems and policy makers in the training of a new generation for the entrepreneurship has increased signifi cantly.
International experience of Government management policy
As has been stressed, the most important factor for the creation of a knowledge economy is the effective government management policy. In terms of to implement en-trepreneurship in education at all levels in the local community, government can pro-mote entrepreneurship education by developing a strategy that will target educational institutions, local businesses, including adapting the curriculum and supporting the de-velopment of programs.
Good examples of policies and programs can be found in many European countries:
in France, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, Poland, Lithuania and other states. One of the best experiences of entrepreneurship education can be found in No-rway. [5]