Performance trends in youth entrepreneur’s capacity prerequisite for the entrepreneurship development of Latvia

The paper found that mostly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) prevailed in Latvia and the EU and their number increased year by year, particularly because various measures for the establishment and support of micro-enterprises, including financial ones, were implemented. In recent years, at the same time, activity in starting up entrepreneurship considerably declined, as well as students’ entrepreneurial attitudes to set up their own business and to associate their future careers with entrepreneurship significantly deteriorated as well. Therefore, the present paper aims to investigate Latvian high school students’ entrepreneurial attitudes to become self-employed and to set up their own business according to the challenges of the twenty-first century for entrepreneurship. To achieve the aim of the present research study, 5910 students aged from 15 to 22 years (2015) were questioned about the factors motivating as well as promoting and hindering the start-up of entrepreneurship. The results of the survey showed that in recent years, students had insufficient information and knowledge about entrepreneurship promotion measures, as well as about the demands of the labour market and further education in learning a profession. This means that there is a need to improve the teaching and training for entrepreneurship in Latvia and implement targeted career education measures.