The article looks at the two dimensions of skills, namely skills that entrepreneurs need and skills that can be obtained as a result of entrepreneurship education. The authors consider skills using two approaches: the Human Capital theory including the distinction between general and specific capital, and the typology by Dobryakova and Froumin which involves the distinction of three types: competence of thinking, competence of interaction with other people, and competence of interaction with oneself. The empirical material is based on a unique sample of respondents who have both entrepreneurial experience and experience in entrepreneurship education in one of the programs in Russia. The empirical base of the study consists of 82 semi-structured interviews with respondents from 9 educational initiatives aimed at entrepreneurship education. The data was collected using the method of semi-structured interviews.
The authors have identified a gap between the skills that entrepreneurs need and the skills acquired in entrepreneurship education programs. Respondents have a more pronounced demand for general human capital, while their experience in education was focused primarily on the development of specific capital. Respondents have a request for general skills, for example, for competence in interacting with themselves (self-regulation skills, self-control), but they are taught more specific skills: accounting skills, programming skills, the skill of building/describing a business model. The results indicate the need for significant improvement of entrepreneurship education programs in order to more fully take into account the practical demand for skills.