Promoting Entrepreneurship Education in Europe

1. European Commission Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General Promoting Education for Entrepreneurship in Europe Maud Skäringer European Commission Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General Entrepreneurship Unit

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. Commission Communication Scope: • Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets among young people from primary school to universityeducation Objectives: • Set the scene, and show good practice • Identify key issues to be addressed • Suggest measures • Trigger action

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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)

12. Information For more information: entr-entrepreneurship@ec.europa.eu Internet: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/entrepreneurship/support_measures/training_education/index.htm