This work aims to enhance our understanding of how the teaching of entrepreneurial competencies is conceived in the second level of education and how this relates to students’ employability by drawing a qualitative investigation into six schools located in France. Achieving this understanding is fundamental to overcoming the lack of empirical knowledge regarding the readiness of the educational system to react to the pressure on competitiveness and employability, which is recurrent in policymakers’ discourse regarding the main goals of the educational system. We identified three different perspectives that view the teaching of entrepreneurial competencies: (i) as an emancipatory tool that enables students to set their preferred jobs, (ii) as a way to complement the set of skills students should possess in the vocational and educational training system, (iii) as a not necessary means to employability, as these competencies are not critical in the job market. We highlighted a heterogeneity in the stakeholders’ view, leading us to introduce the concept of ecosystem awareness as a way to share visions among stakeholders that make sense for teaching entrepreneurial competencies to all the actors directly or indirectly involved in the educational system.
