Thursday morning the Summer Academy focused on social entrepreneurship and the opportunities it offers to young people. The three moderators from the Youth Regional Network (Sebastian Sandberg, Diana Galeeva and Anton Eriksson) led the participants through the different phases of the interactive workshop and contributed to a fruitful session where everybody shared and learnt with the guest speakers and from the other participants.

First speaker was Tone Helstad Glomsrud, from Rakkestad School. She teaches entrepreneurship to young students coming from a rural area. Yesterday we had the opportunity to meet some of her students and learn about their projects. Today we have listened to more stories from the students at Rakkestad, their struggles and the successful stories, all of them shared with passion and inspiration by Tone. “I would shift the focus of the education system more focused from subjects to individuals”, she answered without hesitation when Summer Academy participants asked her about what she would choose if she could just change one thing in the educational system.

Second speaker was Michael Lund Thomsen, who works at the Østfold prison as responsible for education. They use entrepreneurship as a method in teaching because it helps young adults to see a purpose in their education, and therefore they take it more seriously. He highlighted how inmates  enjoy every little victory with the same amazement kids would have: “Entrepreneurship does not discriminate based on their records, and it motivates them with the promise of a future when they leave the prison”.

Follow the AER Summer Academy 2016 on our web page, on our twitter @europeanregions, and all the pictures on our Facebook album.