Entrepreneurship Education

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System Wide

  • Framework for policy development

This includes political backing through inclusion of EE by establishing a common EU framework integrated into existing EU monitoring, the launch of national and regional strategies, ensuring coherent funding and recognising career structures. 
Source: The Oslo Agenda

…Entrepreneurship education needed to become more commonly treated as a key competence across subjects rather than a business related and or separate subject. Individual teachers were seen as central key but the evidence shows that they also need external support.

Develop national strategies based on a share vision of the teacher as facilitator and coach. Make E.E. a mandatory part of the curriculum with minimum standards in quality frameworks and labeled recognition for innovative practice. Put in place assessment measures that are sympathetic to the advocated teaching approaches for E.E. Ensure that there are incentives for entrepreneurial teachers including rewards, tool kits, resource centres and recognised centres of expertise.  Develop communication channels between all stakeholders and establish communities of entrepreneurial teachers.
Source: The Budapest Agenda Item 2 : Entrepreneurship Education: Enabling Teachers as a Critical Success Factor

  • For public authorities:

These recommendations include:

  • Developing an overall strategy for entrepreneurship education in schools. In this
     strategy, student company programmes should be highlighted as one important option within the established curricula.
  • Setting up regular cooperation between different ministries, business associations,
    non-governmental organisations, educational institutions, municipalities, with the objective of further promoting activities based on the student company methodology.
  • Cooperating in particular with those organisations (such as NGOs) that are widely
    disseminating these programmes, and involve them in national plans for
    entrepreneurship education.
  • Endorse, and actively promote student company activities to schools, heads of school and teachers.
  • Ensure that legal and administrative barriers to the setting up and implementation
    of mini-companies are removed;

Source: Best Procedure Project: Mini-Companies in Secondary Education

  • At Regional and Community Level:

These programmes can represent an important instrument within regional development policies. In fact, especially in less developed or more isolated regions, activities may have positive effects in increasing the number of school leavers to remain in the area by building direct links with the local community.
Source: Best Procedure Project: Mini-Companies in Secondary Education

Building links and opening education to the outside world

This includes enhancing the contribution of intermediary organisations dedicated to the dissemination of entrepreneurship activities within schools and universities, and to building links between education and the business world, encouraging the contribution of private partners in E.E. as part of their corporate social responsibility and supporting research to improve the educational contribution of businesses within schools. This would include the development of pedagogical abilities of entrepreneurs and business partners. Centre of Educational Expertise in E.E. should be recognised.
Source: Oslo Agenda

Large corporations for example may be willing participants in collaborations with schools, but though they may offer good experience of the private sector that is not the same as offering the opportunity to acquire entrepreneurial skills. Careful selection of partners is therefore required.
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Source: Entrepreneurship Education: Enabling Teachers as a Critical Success Factor