Assessing the Relation between Entrepreneurial Environment and Institutions and Aptitude towards Entrepreneurship: an Experience in Veneto’s Vocational Schools

Satisfaction of those needs which are fundamental to life-quality often depends on availability of opportunities related to human and social capital, which in their turn are favoured by education. As in financial and social crises young people with low qualifications are one of the weakest segments in the labour market as they are exposed to work exclusion, long-term scar effects, and vulnerable market position, public institutions must reinforce policies and practices to foster school-to-work transition. European Union indeed advocates the enhancement of entre-preneurial education related policies and practices. As entrepreneurship is however strongly interlinked with formal and informal institutions, socio-cultural and eco-nomic contexts, a similar interplay exists between regional context, enterprise ed-ucation and vocational training. The present work explores characteristics and ap-titude towards entrepreneurship possessed by students of vocational education and training centres in the Italian Veneto region as a case study to explore the de-gree to which low qualified young students, in contact with an entrepreneurial formal or informal environment, show higher level of knowledge, propensity, self-efficacy and aptitude towards entrepreneurship. Some implications for entrepre-neurial education and policies are provided