Embedding entrepreneurial competence or just "playing the system"?

Entrepreneurship Education has recently shifted from a focus on entrepreneurial “skills” to a focus on entrepreneurial “competencies”. What are the implications of this shift for EE assessment? In this conceptual paper, we grapple with this largely unexplored question by building on an understanding of competence that requires engaging with the learner’s values and beliefs, beyond fostering skills. In grappling with the suitability of current forms of assessment to this new form of student engagement, we break the competence learning process into 3 stages, each allowing the learner to transition across the four stages of competence development (from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence). For each stage, we grapple with learning outcomes and suitability of assessment. Our discussion raises issues on the role of the learner’s motivation (deep and internal versus external and transactional, leading to “playing the system”) and learning timings in relation to assessment suitability. The contribution that we intend to make with this paper is to distil dimensions of learning and associated learning assessment in the context of entrepreneurial competences. These dimensions of learning are intended to help spur new conversations on assessment of competence rather than provide answers.