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What actions will define a new European agenda in entrepreneurship education?

The Covid-19 pandemic affected not only the format of the 3rd peer-learning workshop in Entrepreneurship Education, organised in a fully virtual format on 10 March, but also the content of the discussions amongst the 65 experts present. During three plenary sessions and two sets of breakout sessions, participants representing 25 countries took stock of the overall progress in entrepreneurship education in Europe and strategies to speed up further uptake across education systems.

To kick-off the day, a first panel debate moderated by Prof. Christine Volkmann from University of Wuppertal and including distinguished researches and educators raised issues around the use of terminology, the importance of evidence and impact and the need for developing assessment in Entrepreneurship Education. New measurement systems to complement the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor are needed to further increase awareness and understanding of the impact of Entrepreneurship Education.

In the three breakout groups that followed, participants identified and discussed indicators to measure the successful implementation of Entrepreneurship Education. Three national and regional case studies were presented from France, Ukraine and Spain (Catalonia region) to inspire the co-creation process. In a later session, the groups also gave final input to the policy recommendations along six focus areas. The input included a call for more opportunities and initiatives of co-creation across regions and countries, an ecosystem-approach to stakeholders, communities of practice to complement networks and the need to develop more robust assessment tools.

Teacher training was a recurrent theme throughout the workshop, highlighted both in the Plenary Sessions as well as the dedicated breakout sessions. Workshop participants called for compulsory Entrepreneurship Education modules to be included in all initial teacher training, and suggested new ways to scale-up successful national examples of continuous professional development trainings for teachers.

A second panel debate focused on the policy context of digital and green transitions, and in particular how to embed Entrepreneurship Education into policy priorities to ensure follow-up. Amongst the key issues identified were awareness-raising on the broad range of transversal skills developed by entrepreneurship education, and ensuring alignment with sustainability and ethical considerations. Instead of new policy frameworks, the implementation of existing ones such as the EU’s EntreComp Framework was seen as a priority.

Work will continue in the Online Community dedicated to the peer-learning workshop, in order to finalise the outcomes in the form of concrete and actionable policy recommendations. The project team is confident that the identified actions will start a new chapter in Entrepreneurship Education implementation in Europe!

For additional information, please check the project's website or contact the coordinators for entrepreneurship education and women’s entrepreneurship.

Read more on the website of the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (EASME) here.