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Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential

Dedicated enterprise ambassadors are another way of stimulating
entrepreneurship in schools, universities, community groups and the media. The
ambassadors demonstrate, through their own experience, that a career as a
business owner is a feasible and attractive option. In Sweden, more than 800
women’s entrepreneurship ambassadors have been appointed to make women’s
entrepreneurship more visible (Tillväxtverket, 2009).

5.4. Online career assessment tests

There are various self-management strategies, tools and practices that can be
helpful to the career development of aspiring and new entrepreneurs. Often
available online, they provide a means by which the aspiring and new
entrepreneurs can focus their efforts, understand the skills they need and what
steps they have to take to develop them and whether they are suited to a career
as an entrepreneur.
One of the many types of online career and self-management tools available
for aspiring and new entrepreneurs is online career assessment tests. These
range from tests to establish how an individual personality and skills set maps
against the skills, competences and attitudes required to pursue a career as an
entrepreneur, to tests for already established entrepreneurs to check their
‘entrepreneurial skills’ and ascertain areas for future development. The tests
usually consist of questionnaires that allow users to gain an impression or
indication of their entrepreneurial qualities, for example, using a series of
questions or profiles. Some are aimed at specific target groups such as aspiring
entrepreneurs, those who already have their own business, young or female
entrepreneurs. Others are much more generic.
Evidence suggests that the number of online career and self-assessment
tests available for both would-be and current entrepreneurs is increasing. They
are being developed and administered by a growing range of partners, primarily
associations representing entrepreneurs and/or organisations promoting
entrepreneurship. However, a growing number of ‘commercial’ tests were found
(i.e. tests developed by commercially-oriented websites and/or companies),
especially in the Netherlands and the UK.
The variety of tests available for entrepreneurs can be differentiated into four
categories that:
• examine the users’ personality traits in relation to a career as an entrepreneur;
• assess entrepreneurial skills and competences of would-be or current
entrepreneurs, and seek to identify training needs;

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