To support productivity and growth in Europe, it is essential to invest in education and training. Europe needs creative and innovative entrepreneurs; and it needs a flexible and resilient work force well equipped with the necessary skills and key competences.
“I particularly welcome efforts in taking entrepreneurship education further in Europe and offering as many students as possible a real-life experience of what it means to be entrepreneurial in today’s world”
Ursula von der Leyen
President of the European Commission
We need more citizens with entrepreneurial competence
Europe needs more people who can tackle the challenges we face, people with the right knowledge, skills and attitudes to turn ideas into action for the betterment of our society. In other words, people with entrepreneurial competence. We need them to support the fulfillment of the human person and master the transition to the new environmental and digital balance. We need them in governments, enterprises, civil society, schools and higher education. To develop the required competence, the right education will be key. This calls for entrepreneurship education.
Support for entrepreneurship has never been more important than it is now. Reinforcing entrepreneurial education in schools, vocational education institutions and universities will have a positive impact on the entrepreneurial dynamism of our economies. Indeed, besides contributing to the creation of social enterprise and business start-ups, entrepreneurship education will make young people more employable and more ‘intrapreneurial’ in their work within existing organizations, across the social, public and private sectors. Therefore investing in entrepreneurship education is one of the highest return investments that Europe can make: research shows that pupils and students who have received entrepreneurship education are three to six times more likely to start a business at some point later in life than those who do not.
Teachers have a central role, as they have a strong impact on the attainment of learners. Reflective teachers keep their practice under constant review and adjust it in the light of desired learning outcomes and of the individual needs of students. As a key competence, entrepreneurship does not necessarily involve a specific school subject. Rather, it requires a way of teaching in which experiential learning and project work have a main role. Teachers do not provide students with the answers, but help them to research and identify the right questions and find the best answers. To inspire their pupils and students, and to help them develop an enterprising attitude, teachers need a wide range of competences related to creativity and entrepreneurship; they require a school environment where creativity and risk-taking are encouraged, and mistakes are valued as a learning opportunity. Developing the competences of school leaders and teaching staff — including aspiring new teachers.
A key policy objectives for the EU
The development of the entrepreneurial capacity of European citizens and organisations has been one of the key policy objectives for the EU and Member States for many years. There is a growing awareness that entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and attitudes can be learned and in turn lead to the widespread development of entrepreneurial mind-sets and culture, which benefit individuals and society as a whole.
The European Commission first referred to the importance of entrepreneurship education in 2003, in the European Green Paper on Entrepreneurship in Europe. By 2006, the European Commission had identified a ‘sense of initiative and entrepreneurship’ as one of the eight key competences necessary for all members of a knowledge-based society. The 2008 Small Business Act for Europe, the 2012 Communication on Rethinking Educa-tion, the 2013 Entrepreneurship Action Plan 2020, and more recently the New Skills Agenda for Europe, have kept the need to promote entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial learning under the spotlight. This has led to a wealth of initiatives across Europe.
The European Commission has emphasised the need to embed entrepreneurial learning in all sectors of education including non-formal learning. Interventions call on Member States to provide all young people with practical entrepreneurial experience before leaving compulsory education, highlighting the importance of learning by doing within education and training.
Where we are?
Germany: Grunaer Str 20,
10169 Dresden, DE
Italy: Via Vittorio Merighi 3,
37138 Verona, IT
contact@dway.eu
phone +39 045 65 77 199
ENTREPRENEURSHIP, as a competence, APPLIES TO ALL SPHERES OF LIFE. It enables citizens to nurture their personal development, to actively contribute to social development, to enter the job market as employee or as self-employed, and to start-up or scale-up ventures which may have a cultural, social or commercial motive.
It’s Time TO TAKE CARE OF IT.
Whatever challenge, with a significant personal and social impact, can become a power entrepreneurial adventure to be faced together.
Contact us: its-contact@dway.eu