O3: Talent Management in Entrepreneurial Competencies Who Are More Responsible? Parent or Teachers? A Case Study from Iranian Students

Kaashef is a project with the aim of Talent Management in Entrepreneurial Competencies in Iran. In this project, students (children) are trained over the years in order to learn how to establish their own business in the future. This project, which has developed through collaboration of Faculty of Entrepreneurship of University of Teheran, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, has been recently welcomed and appreciated by UNESCO and Unesco Chair in Entrepreneurship (UCE) in Iran. Kaashef program has several stages: identification, evaluation and development of entrepreneurial characteristics and capabilities. The first stage of this project focused on identification of key entrepreneurial characteristics in Iran. It was carried out through a deep study on Iranian entrepreneurs. The findings of this research revealed 15 key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs in Iran. In the second stage, students studying in the primary and secondary schools are evaluated in terms of these characteristics. In the third stage, a training programme is offered to enhance these characteristics and familiarise students with the concept of entrepreneurship. This program aims to develop entrepreneurial culture among families and children and enable students to start their own business after graduation from school or university. Kaashef designs an exam in the form of a customized questionnaire, to evaluate students` competencies and skills. A pilot study has been carried out on a sample of four thousand students to ensure the accuracy of the questions. In Addition, Kaashef has designed a customised questionnaire for parents and teachers to evaluate their skills in developing entrepreneurial orientation in students (children). This test is carried out with the help of The National Education Assessment Organization (first year) and Ministry of Education (second year), in an annual basis and throughout the whole country at the same time. In this countrywide exam, we found that, in entrepreneurial competencies development, students' behaviour in some competencies are more dependent to their parents besides of their teachers. Parents and teachers have different influence on students (children) and usually their recommendation weaken entrepreneurial orientation in students.