Future social work professionals’ ideas about social entrepreneurship

Abstract

The relevance of professional training of future social work specialists for social entrepreneurship is justified by the modernization of the system of social protection of the population. Social entrepreneurship is like an innovative social technology. Social work professionals – social entrepreneurs can act as social innovators. In addition, the relevance is justified by the formation of a model of a socio-entrepreneurial university. Modern youth has an innovative potential and at the same time it is not ready for social entrepreneurship; theory and considerable experience have been gained in the methodology of professional training, but there is no built-in system for training future social entrepreneurs from among future social work specialists – this is the contradiction identified by the author. The desire to solve them determined the purpose of the study: to identify the ideas of future social work specialists about social entrepreneurship and their readiness to open a social enterprise. The theoretical analysis of the scientific literature indicates that social entrepreneurship is underdeveloped in domestic social practice. However, the infrastructure supporting social entrepreneurship has been specified; highlighted the role of universities in the training of social entrepreneurs; the prospects for the results of professional training of social entrepreneurs are determined. The article provides a secondary analysis of the results of foreign and domestic researchers who studied students' ideas about social entrepreneurship. The author's survey was conducted on the basis of Samara University. The sample consisted of future social work specialists (68 people). Conclusions are drawn about the poorly formed ideas of future social work specialists about social entrepreneurship. Interest in social entrepreneurship was noted. The common features of social entrepreneurship and social work are highlighted. The importance of entrepreneurial skills for a social worker is recognized. “Helping people” appears to be the main motive for the potential opening of a social enterprise, according to the results of the survey.