Digital entrepreneurship competence: training needs of future professionals

Digital entrepreneurship competence tends to be more present in higher education than in earlier stages. For this reason, this article analyses the initial training of university students in digital entrepreneurship and their training needs. This considers both the students' own perspective, as well as the vision of successful digital entrepreneurs on the related training actions. Using a sequential explanatory mixed methodology (DEXPLIS), 1108 final-year university students from the Region of Murcia (Spain) completed a questionnaire as a first phase of information collection. Subsequently, 17 successful entrepreneurs at national level were interviewed. From all the results analysed, it can be seen that the main training needs are to be found in relation to both the first steps in the creation of an initiative and the application of certain management tasks. It is concluded that it is essential to implement a training action based on the needs reported in this study. It is also concluded that the creation of training itineraries according to gender or branches of knowledge is not relevant, although the integration of complementary materials for certain branches, as in the case of the Sciences, is relevant.