The global pandemic has left many freelancers and entrepreneurs without income for months, which imposes an incoming challenge to stimulating entrepreneurship. If we want Europe to continue to nurture talent, create great startups, and compete on a global scale, we need to teach entrepreneurship. This will require joint efforts from the public and private sectors, as well as regional, national governments and European Institutions. This webinar gave us a glimpse of different actions needed at different levels to foster an inclusive entrepreneurial mindset and discussed local challenges for their implementation and replicability. 

The AER launched this dedicated webinar within the 2021 edition of the Skillman International Forum which took place from 15-18 November 2021. The forum aimed to redefine the future of learning, and this year it addressed three main topics: Digital and green revolution, Micro-credentials and Sharing is caring. The event was part of our series of webinars on EU funding opportunities organised as part of the Erasmus+ project, Skillnet. These webinars bring together experts in different fields linked to vocational education and training (VET) and aim to build partnerships for future EU project proposals.

Teaching Entrepreneurship in all fields of study

Teaching Entrepreneurship is necessary not only if Europe is going to continue to nurture talents, create innovative startups companies and compete on a global scale, but also because many skills involved in entrepreneurship translate well to other aspects of life and give students real-world skills. In this webinar, we have had a glimpse of different actions needed at different levels to foster an inclusive entrepreneurial mindset and discussed local challenges for their implementation and replicability.

The webinar counted upon an international panel of experts in the field, from academia to regional and civil society representatives.

Kristina Detelj, from the Zagreb University, Faculty of Organisation and Informatics Varazdin, opened the discussion providing insights on the project “WeRin: Women Entrepreneurs in Regional Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystems” and specifically stressed the importance of the participation and involvement of women in the area of entrepreneurship and enhancing their level of embeddedness in regional entrepreneurial ecosystems across Europe. The example of their influence in Croatia was shared and the speaker commented on the difficulties that most women face, especially in Croatia, to access the ability to create a startup due to the high bureaucracy level. This goes hand in hand with the importance of the introduction of entrepreneurship in the curriculum in primary and secondary schools and not only on university level.

Following her, we had another academic, namely Richard Tunstall, Associate Professor of Enterprise, Entrepreneurship Education, Leeds University Business School, who informed us about the work on teaching enterprise programmes across different sectors at the Unversity of Leeds, thus being able to implement and mainstream the Entrepreneurship courses in faculties of arts, biology, design, etc. Knowledge, skills and attitudes were presented as three key targets within entrepreneurship education, as developing students’ skills and mindsets and attitudes towards problems are just as important as their knowledge about their information knowledge. 

Next, Annabelle Favreau, who is an EU Project manager at Gestión Pública de Extremadura (GPEX) in Directorate-General Enterprise of the Extremadura Region, introduced the audience to the project of “The Entrecomp Framework in Extremadura.” She shared the experiences from regional entrepreneurship programmes in Extremadura. Within the framework of the learning competences of entrepreneurship, Annabelle stressed the importance of compromising with global challenges that are apparent as an external factor. EntreComp intends to break down the barriers between work, education and civic engagement by focusing on the development of competences through the actual creation of entrepreneurial value. In this light, the EntreComp is transversal to formal, non-formal and informal learning contexts and applies equally to education and training systems, from primary to vocational education and training, and to non-structured learning contexts.

Lastly, Minna Melleri, Director of Advocacy & Growth, JA Europe, elucidated on the benefits of recognition of skills and micro-credentials and presented the Entrepreneurial Skills Pass, an international certification qualifying young people that have had real entrepreneurship experience and thus have the right competences. She added that Iceland, all EU member states, but also other states outside of the EU share a lot of history and experience, and empower young people. Developing a broad set of skills for the young people is a key element in the work she proposes. Furthermore, Minna gives the example of JA Europe as having Entrepreneurship programmes on all levels of education. She mentioned that young people within the age range of 15-21 are eligible to take part in their one year programme.

The discussion was moderated by Manos Andreadis, Responsible for the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme as National Contact Point in Greece, and Director at Asset Technology responsible for Business Development, International Cooperation and Entrepreneurship.

Current and future EU funding opportunities and initiatives

• NEW CulturEU funding guide: an interactive online tool for EU Funding Opportunities for the Cultural and Creative Sectors
• [Forthcoming] Apply for the Horizon Europe open call for grants ‘Expanding Entrepreneurial Ecosystems’ by 10 May 2022
• [Forthcoming] Apply for the Horizon Europe open call for grants ‘Integration of social innovation actors in innovation ecosystems’ 26 April 2022
• Apply for the Erasmus+ open call for grants ‘Capacity Building in the field of Vocational Education and Training (VET)’ by 31 March 2022
• [Forthcoming] Apply for the Horizon Europe open call for grants ‘Conditions for the successful development of skills matched to needs’ by 20 April 2022
• [Forthcoming] Apply for the Horizon Europe open call for grants ‘Open schooling for science education and a learning continuum for all’ by 20 april 2022
• Apply for the Erasmus+ open call for grants ‘Civil Society Cooperation: Education and Training’ by 15 December 2021
• Apply for the Erasmus+ open call for grants ‘Civil Society Cooperation in the field of Youth’ by 15 December 2021
• Apply for the Erasmus+ open call for grants ‘Capacity building in the field of youth’ by 7 April 2022
• Apply for the Erasmus+ open call for grants ‘European Youth Together’ by 22 March 2022

Skillman.eu is a worldwide community of practitioners, researchers, and institutions engaged in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). It’s a network that aims at creating work-based learning solutions to respond to the challenges of skills shortages in industry with a participatory model and a peer learning approach. The network develops tools consistent with industry needs and relevant to the latest education challenges introduced also by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.