Make your entrepreneurship competence visible
Competence is everyone’s unique combination of abilities, knowledge, skills and attributes that can be learned and developed. Competence is accumulated in many environments: working life, everyday life, leisure, studies, courses, hobbies, family life – anywhere.
In the EntreFox project, we work with more than a hundred entrepreneurs over the age of 55 to develop entrepreneurial skills, skills related to maintaining and developing well-being, and digital competencies. In addition to entrepreneurship, participants in EntreFox are also professionals in a content or industry, such as coaches, hairdressers, accountants, or supervisors. The spectrum is very wide. In addition, each of the participants is a unique individual with tremendous life experience and their own strengths.
The competence of an entrepreneur can be roughly divided into professional competence and entrepreneurial competence. Both are needed. The relationship between entrepreneurial and professional skills must be in order, even when the real passion is in making content that uses professional skills.
Entrepreneurial competence can be divided into different entities. It includes at least sales and marketing skills, financial skills, legal skills, business development and the ability to lead others’ and one’s own work.
Your own skills and strengths need to be communicated and brought to the attention of others, both customers and partners. This is the only way customers know how good you really are. Recognizing and communicating skills is important to you too: How tough of a professional I am! I can do so much! Experience of ability, competence and coping is important, because it supports the absorption of work and the sense of relevance of work.
At the European level, the promotion and development of entrepreneurial skills has been on the surface for many years, as a part of the development of the EntreComp Entrepreneurship Skills Framework. As a part of the EntreFox project, we are developing the Entrepreneur’s competence survey, which deals with entrepreneurial skills, i.e., the general skills, abilities, experiences and qualities that I need specifically as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial competence mapping is an awakening and encouraging self-assessment tool that allows an entrepreneur to identify aspects of their own competence and get tips for developing their competence.
Identifying and making competence visible is especially important right now. EntreFox participates in Sitra’s competence visibility weeks, where almost 350 operators support people to identify and make their competence visible. At the heart of the campaign is Sitra’s idea: “We want individuals and communities to be able to make their expertise visible and utilize it.”
The Osaaminen näkyväksi (Visible competence) campaign was launched on the 30th of August 2021, and from there we would like to pick up Topias Filpu’s tips from Varma Employment Pension company:
Tips of Topias
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Try things that you find difficult beforehand and start trying things that feel strange at first or that others avoid. You will find that you have expertise that you did not know about.
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Ask for feedback. Other see or may say your skills are different than you yourself do. Facilitated, for example, team members could take turns telling each of their colleagues about their skills, strengths, and relevance.
What all can You do?
For Know-how,
Sara Lindström, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
Marika Säisä, Turku University of Applied Sciences
Heli Ansio, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
Read more:
Sitra: make your competence visible
Sitra: tools for competence
EntreFox: competence mapping
EntreComp – development of entrepreneurship skills reference development
Originally posted on the 31st of August, 2021