Promoting Education for Entrepreneurship in Europe

Maud Skäringer

European Commission

Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General

Entrepreneurship Unit

European Commission

Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General

The Lisbon Agenda

• Integrated Guidelines for Growth and Jobs:

Guideline no 15: Member States should reinforce entrepreneurship education

• Commission’s Annual Progress Report, January 2006:

Proposal: Add entrepreneurship to all national school curricula

Instruments

Open method of co-ordination

Tools: Expert groups, studies, dialogue with governments and stakeholders, benchmarking, monitoring of progress, organisation of events

Objectives:

• To promote the exchange and dissemination of good practice

• To steer policy action in the EU Member States

Some activities of the EC

• Education for Entrepreneurship, especially in primary and secondary schools. Expert Reports and Guide on Good Practice

• Student Mini-companies in Secondary Education. Expert Report and audiovisual material

• Commission’s Communication “Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets through education and learning”, February 2006

Ongoing project:

• Entrepreneurship in Higher Education, especially in non-business studies

Higher Education project

Components

• Study: To provide a comprehensive picture of the state of the teaching of entrepreneurship in European higher education

• Group of Experts: To integrate the results of the survey with more “qualitative” information, identify key issues for promotion of entrepreneurship in higher education, draw conclusions for policy making.

Timing

• Study: Spring 2007

• Final report of the expert group: Autumn 2007

Higher Education project

The project will:

• Identify strengths and weaknesses in European higher education institutions as regards providing entrepreneurship training

• Investigate pedagogical methodologies in use

• Highlight factors of success and main obstacles

• Promote the exchange of experiences

• Benchmark public policies in this area

• Draw main conclusions and recommendations for policy action

Commission Communication

Scope:

• Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets among young people from primary school to university education

Objectives:

• Set the scene, and show good practice

• Identify key issues to be addressed

• Suggest measures

• Trigger action

Approach

• Bring together evidence based on projects carried out by Commission and Member States

• Highlight that good practice can be found in Europe – the challenge lies in spreading existing positive examples

• Support Member States in developing a more systematic strategy

Proposed action – General

• Reinforce cooperation between different ministries and departments

• Develop a global strategy on entrepreneurship education

• Include entrepreneurship in national curriculum

• Support schools and encourage take-up of programmes

• Raise the awareness of heads of schools and provide training to teachers

• Favour links between schools and businesses

• Promote the use of student mini-companies

Proposed action – Higher Education

• Integrate entrepreneurship across different subjects and courses, notably scientific and technical studies

• Public authorities’ support especially needed to provide high-level training for teachers and to develop networks to share good practice

• Encourage teacher mobility between university and the business world

• Encourage involvement of business people in teaching

Next steps

Member States to take the necessary action and report on progress (Lisbon Reports)

Commission to support Member States through:

• Coordination, dissemination of good practice, events (e.g. Conference in Oslo, October 2006)

• Specific projects (e.g. on Higher Education)

• Support to concrete initiatives (e.g. new Community programme for Lifelong Learning, ESF)

Information

For more information:

entr-entrepreneurship@ec.europa.euentr-entrepreneurship@ec.europa.eu

Internet:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/entrepreneurship/support_measures/entrepreneurship/support_measures/training_education/index.htmtraining_education/index.htm