The relationship between VET teachers’ entrepreneurship education teaching practices and students’ learning needs.

This article contributes to the field of entrepreneurship education (EE) research by raising the question of vocational teachers’ ability to respond to the students’ need for entrepreneurial guidance. The main research question in this article is: How do VET teachers’ EE teaching practices match with the learning needs of the students. Two types of quantitative data and the theory of guided preparation are used to answer this question. The first part of the data was collected from Finnish VET teachers and the second part from Finnish ninth graders applying for VET. Based on these two datasets, a four-field matrix was formed and how teachers are successfully able to boost students’ entrepreneurial preparedness was analysed. The research findings have implications for guidance within VET, both for the students and the teachers. The results combining the teachers’ EE practices with students’ learning needs open a wide range of new possibilities to understand the relevance and timeliness of EE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]