Self-assessment of Entrepreneurial Competences by Students Pre- and Post-Covid-19: Increased Self-Image as Future Entrepreneurs and the Overcoming of Gender Influence

Covid-19 is an unprecedented health crisis that has severely disrupted the world. Young people, especially students, have changed their habits about sports and social gatherings, and experienced new ways of learning both through online learning platforms and remote courses. A sample of more than 1.400 Italian university students was surveyed to highlight students’ self-perceived entrepreneurial competences, as well as their self-image of being an entrepreneur in the future. Using a substantial dataset, this study helps to track changes and trends in students' self-perceptions and assess whether the pandemic had a positive or negative impact on their self-image as entrepreneurs. A portion of the Covid-19 timeline, from its onset in earlier months of 2020 until the end of the year, is considered with the aim of understanding how students' self-perceptions and aspirations are affected by external crises like Covid-19, and to prospectively inform strategies to support and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs.