FOSTERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

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.

For the education and training sector, this means that efforts need to be taken to make sure that todays’ European students develop entrepreneurial skills and get the chance to have a ‘practical entrepreneurial experience’. Needless to say, teachers and educators have a critical role to play in this. They are facilitators of learning and multipliers of ideas. They shape learning processes and can help students to achieve entrepreneurial learning outcomes - concrete knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Teachers and educators also need the opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to include entrepreneurship education and enable entrepreneurial learning.

The Entrepreneurial Teacher

Entrepreneurial teachers have a passion for teaching. They are inspirational, open-minded and confident, flexible and responsible - but also, from time to time, rule-breakers. They listen well, can harness and sell ideas and can work student- and action- oriented. They are team players and have a good network.

They seek to close the gap between education and economy and include external experts in their teaching; focusing on real-life experiences. They always refer to the economic aspect of a topic; and business-related subjects play an important role in their classes – across the disciplines.

They follow a flexible and adaptable study plan and prefer interdisciplinary, project-based learning; using training material rather than textbooks. They put emphasis on group processes and interactions; and understand the class room sometimes as a ‘clash room’, giving room for diversity – a diversity of opinions, answers and solutions and the reflection about the learning process.

An entrepreneurial teacher is more of a coach than someone who lectures. They support the individual learning processes of students and the development of personal competences.

The current thinking on entrepreneurial teaching is based on a number of recurring themes:

• Entrepreneurship education is more than preparation on how to run a business. It is about how to develop the entrepreneurial attitudes, skills and knowledge which, in short, should enable a student to ‘turn ideas into action’. Teachers cannot teach how to be entrepreneurial without themselves being entrepreneurial.
• Entrepreneurial competences require active methods of engaging students to release their creativity and innovation.
• Entrepreneurial competency and skills can be acquired or built only through hands-on, real life learning experiences
• Entrepreneurial skills can be taught across all subjects as well as a separate subject
• Entrepreneurship education should focus on ‘intrepreneurs’ as well as entrepreneurs, in light of the fact that most students will use entrepreneurial skills within companies or public institutions
• To give entrepreneurship education real traction, there is a need to develop learning outcomes related to entrepreneurship and related assessment methods and quality assurance procedures for all levels of education. These should be designed to help teachers progress in the acquisition of entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and attitudes
• The entrepreneurship education agenda should be promoted beyond teacher education institutions to businesses and the wider community
• Teachers and schools will not be able to realise their ambitions without cooperation and partnerships with colleagues, businesses and other stakeholders

 To realise all of the points above, several necessary conditions need to be in place:

 Good initial teacher education

Student teachers should get the chance to experience entrepreneurial learning in their initial training. By studying in an institution that enforces entrepreneurship education in a broad sense, student teachers develop a range of skills and methods that enables them to be innovative and entrepreneurial themselves. Teachers entering their profession with an awareness of entrepreneurial principles are able to ignite the ‘entrepreneurial spark’ and inspire their students right from the beginning of their professional career.

Teacher education institutions with an entrepreneurial strategy and a vision

Teacher education institutions benefit from a mission and, a clear vision on how entrepreneurial strategies can serve their institutional goals. Entrepreneurship education can be embedded as a horizontal approach throughout the whole study programme, by viewing it as a key competence important to any teachers’ qualifications rather than as an isolated subject.

Entrepreneurial teacher education programmes built around new pedagogies

To act entrepreneurially, active learning is necessary. Contemporary pedagogies (e.g. project-based, active learning or independent learning) should be applied. These can be piloted in specific programmes; emerging good practices should be shared amongst teacher educators to eventually become embedded in day-to-day pedagogy. Non-traditional learning environments (real-life situations, out of classroom) should be available for all students.

Quality continuing professional development

High quality programmes for the continuing professional development of existing teachers are needed to support entrepreneurial teachers, and to make sure that those who did not have the chance to experience entrepreneurship education during their initial training can catch up with the latest developments.

A school to work in that values entrepreneurial spirit and good support from effective school leaders

An entrepreneurial school has a vision for its future needs and a clear view of how entrepreneurship education fits into the broader curriculum and development plan. Developing entrepreneurship in initial teacher education will struggle to have significant impact if teachers subsequently progress into schools which are not embracing the concept of entrepreneurship education. Entrepreneurial teachers benefit from good support from effective school leaders.

Partners in the community

Support systems have a vital role to play in making progress. Schools and teacher education institutions should establish links and cooperation structures with businesses and community organisations to support their entrepreneurship curriculum.

Entrepreneurial teaching networks

To assure continuous quality, teachers engaged in entrepreneurial teaching and learning should develop networks, meeting regularly and exchanging experiences, know-how and material.

All of these components are interrelated. To achieve sustainability and longevity, action is required in all areas. Leadership, vision and incentives are key at all levels.

Whilst these are common principles, they need to be owned by each institution and adapted to their context. Governments, institutions, schools and stakeholders across Europe are in different stages of development regarding the implementation of entrepreneurial teaching and learning. Some countries have launched a comprehensive strategy on entrepreneurship education for all levels of education years ago, whilst others are only in a baseline position, where entrepreneurial principles are largely absent in teaching and learning; and support to actions on an institutional level is scarce. This means that in all of the areas above, tailor-made solutions have to be developed for every individual setting.

The scope of solutions may also be different. Whilst in one country, solutions on national level may be possible, in others, small-scale action in a pilot school might already constitute an important step forward.

Model for Entrepreneurial Teaching

•  Instilling empathy with entrepreneurial values and associated ‘ways of thinking, doing, feeling, seeing, communicating, organising and learning things'.
• Development of the capacity for strategic thinking and scenario planning and the practice of making intuitive decisions based upon judgement with limited information.
• Creating a vision of, and empathy with, the way of life of the entrepreneurial person. This implies a strong emphasis upon the employment of educational pedagogies stimulating a sense of ownership, control, independence, responsibility, autonomy of action and commitment to see things through while living, day by day, with uncertainty and complexity.
• Stimulating the practice of a wide range of entrepreneurial behaviours such as opportunity seeking and grasping, networking, taking initiatives, persuading others and taking intuitive decisions. This demands a comprehensive range of pedagogical tools.
• Focusing upon the conative (value in use) and affective (enjoyable and stimulating) aspects of learning as well as the cognitive as the relevance to application is of key importance (as is instilling motivation).
• Maximising the opportunity for experiential learning and engagement in the ‘community of practice’. Of particular importance will be creating space for learning by doing and re-doing. Projects will need to be designed to stimulate entrepreneurial behaviours and assessed accordingly.
• Creating the capacity for relationship learning, network management, building ‘know-who’ and managing on the basis of trust-based personal relationships. The Business Plan becomes an important component of relationship management leading to understanding that different stakeholders need ‘plans’ with different emphasis (a venture capitalist or angel is looking for different things than a banker or a potential partner).
• Developing understanding of, and building knowledge around, the processes of organisation development - from start, through survival to growth and internationalisation. This will demand a focus upon the dynamics of change, the nature of problems and opportunities that arise and how to anticipate and deal with them.
• Focusing upon a holistic approach to the management of organisations and the integration of knowledge.
• Creating the capacity to design entrepreneurial organisations of all kinds in different contexts and understand how to operate them successfully.
• Focusing strongly upon processes of opportunity seeking, evaluation and opportunity grasping in different contexts including business.
• Widening the context beyond the market. Creating opportunities for participants (students) to explore what the above means for their own personal and career development.

 Best Masters in Entrepreneurship in Europe

1.  Rotterdam School of Management (Netherlands): Msc in Strategic Entrepreneurship
2.  Copenhagen Business School (Denmark): MSc in Social Science Organizational Innovation and Entrepreneurship
3.  Université Catholique de Louvain – UCL (Belgium) : Entrepreneurship Formation interdisciplinaire en création d’entreprise
4.  ESADE Business School (France): Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
5.  University of Cambridge - Judge Business School (UK) Postgraduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship
6. Grenoble Ecole de Management (France): MS Entrepreneurs - Pédagogie HEC Entrepreneurs
7. Manchester Business School - Faculty of Humanities (UK): MSc in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship
8. BI Norwegian Business School (Norway): MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
9. SDA Bocconi School of Management (Italy): Master in Imprenditorialità e Strategia Aziendale
10. Nova School of Business and Economics - Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal): Innovation and Entrepreneurship
11. ESCP Europe Business School (France): MS Innover et Entreprendre / MS Innovation and Entrepreneurship
12. Maastricht University (Netherlands) : MSc International Business - Entrepreneurship and SME Management
13. Aalto University (Finland): Entrepreneurship
14. ESSEC Business School (France): MS Centrale - ESSEC Entrepreneurs
15. EMLYON Business School (France): MS Entreprendre
16. Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics - Universidade Catolica Portuguesa (Portugal): International MSc in Business Administration/Strategy & Entrepreneurship
17. Université Paris-Dauphine (France) : Master Entrepreneuriat et Projets Innovants
18. HEC Paris (France): MS Entrepreneurs
19. SKEMA Business School (France): MSc Entrepreneurship & Innovation
20. University of Limerick (Ireland): MSc in International Entrepreneurship Management
21. University of Groningen - Faculty of Economics and Business: Business Administration (Netherlands) - Small Business and Entrepreneurship
22. The University of Nottingham (UK): MBA Entrepreneurship
23. LUSEM - Lund University School of Economics & Management (Sweden): Master programme in Entrepreneurship - New Venture Creation
24. Antwerp Management School (Belgium): Master of Innovation & Entrepreneurship
25. EBS Universität Für Wirtschaft Und Recht (Germany): Master in Business Innovation
26. WHU Vallendar - Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany): MS Innovation & Entrepreneurship
27. University of Glasgow (UK): International Business & Entrepreneurship
28. Faculty of Economics University of Ljubljana (Slovenia): Master in Entrepreneurship
29. Riga Technical University - Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management (FEEM) (Latvia): Innovations and Entrepreneurship
30. IAE Lyon Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 (France): Master Entrepreneuriat et Management des PMO
31. HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management (Germany): M.Sc in Management Entrepreneurship
32. ISC Paris Business School (France): MBA Entrepreneur
33. Grenoble Ecole de Management (France): MSc in Innovation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship
34. Poznan University of Economics (Poland): Entrepreneurship in small and medium business (Course: Management)
35. INDEG-IUL / ISCTE Executive Education - University Institute of Lisbon (Portugal): Executive Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation
36. University of Maribor (Slovenia): Entrepreneurship and Innovation
37. ISEG Lisboa - School of Economics and Management, Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal): Ciências Empresariais
38. Newcastle University Business School (UK): MSc Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship
39. Danube University Krems - Department for Management and Economics (Austria): Danube Professional MBA Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management
40. INSEEC (France) : MSc Business, Innovation et Stratégie Entrepreneuriale
41. The University of Southern Denmark - Faculty of Business and Social Sciences - Dpt. of Entrepreneurship Relationship Management (Denmark): Master in Economics and Business Administration - Strategic Entrepreneurship
42. Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) (France) : Master 2 Pro Management Stratégique et Entrepreneuriat
43. IEDE Business School - Universidad Europea de Madrid (Spain): Máster en Innovación y Creación de Empresas