More efforts are needed to promote entrepreneurship education, says expert group
The final report of an expert group on 'education for entrepreneurship' has concluded that current European initiatives are not enough to make entrepreneurship education widely available to students. 'Promoting entrepreneurial skills and attitudes provides benefits to society even beyond their application to new business ventures,' argues the report. '[E]ntrepreneurship should be considered as a general attitude that can be usefully applied in all working activities and in life.' Coordinated by the Commission's Enterprise Directorate-General, the expert group sought to identify national or regional strategies to promote entrepreneurship within primary and secondary schools. However, the group concedes that there may be a number of different ways of making progress in this area. An important measure recently taken up by a number of administrations is the inclusion of entrepreneurship on the national curriculum, either as a subject or as a cross-curricular theme. But, the report adds: '[I]ntegrating the teaching of entrepreneurship into the curriculum will not, however, be the solution if accompanying measures are not adopted.' Such supporting measures could take the form of promoting links between schools and enterprises, providing teaching materials, supporting dedicated networks and NGOs, and raising awareness and disseminating good practice. The report notes that: 'Particular attention needs to be dedicated to teachers, and to making specific training for them available.' Having recorded best practices in the field across Europe, the report notes that an interesting recent development in a number of countries is the creation of links within national administrations, particularly between ministries for economy or industry, education, and other relevant departments and agencies. Such links, according to the report, are a precondition to adopting a global strategy, as entrepreneurship education is a horizontal issue. In some cases, a next step for governments has been to devise an action plan on entrepreneurship education. The expert group feels that such coordinated strategies are crucial, as success depends not just on the involvement of different sectors of public administration, but also a number of external actors. This kind of institutional cooperation is missing or not yet fully developed in most countries, however. On a more operational level, the expert group calls for systematic collection of qualitative and quantitative indicators in order to monitor efforts, and the definition of voluntary national targets to drive progress. In terms of the Commission's role, the report states that: 'Although most of the necessary action has to be taken at a national, regional or even local level, the European Commission can give valuable support to national policies. [...] In particular, the Commission is called to provide a European reference for all these initiatives, coordinate the efforts, suggest possible strategies and common goals to be achieved, [and] facilitate the exchange of experience and good practice.' Finally, the report makes 21 recommendations designed to promote entrepreneurship education, particularly through policy making and support from public authorities. These include enhancing cooperation between different public departments, adopting a range of support measures that target schools and teachers, supporting existing networks and NGOs that promote programmes based on practical experience such as student companies or virtual firms, and increasing the dissemination of good practice at national and European level.