Lifelong Learning Programme

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

This section of the School&Work portal provides administrative information for the project contractual partners and for the European Commission and it is password protected.

Training

Homepage > Training > Innovative Entrepreneurial Experiences at Schools

This module focuses on initiatives and training to stimulate entrepreneurship among students, suggesting ideas to train entrepreneurial teachers, presenting entrepreneurial projects carried out in schools and proposing methods to create a network and to find funds.

Innovative Entrepreneurial Experiences at Schools

Table of Content

Chapter 2: How to develop entrepreneurship at school
Which entrepreneurial projects to involve students in?
Schools can create their own projects, integrates initiatives proposed by local stakeholders, education authorities… or adopt concepts that have proved to work internationally. Enterprise projects can be of two types: real or virtual.

Real projects

The first approach that comes to mind is the “mini-company” developed in classes of the last year of secondary education. Students create in a few months of the school year a small-size enterprise.

This approach is worldwide. It is presented with details in the “Best practices” chapter through three examples: “Junior achievement” at the national level, the “Jeunes Eco-Entrepreneurs d’Europe” project at the European level, and the “Company programme” at the global level.

There are other approaches, such as the concept of “Conscious entrepreneurial community schools”. This pedagogical method developed in Quebec since about twenty years encourages students to “get into enterprise” at school. Vegetable gardens, libraries, publishing houses… or the school newspaper are born in schools thanks to this initiative. This pedagogical method is presented with details in the “Best practices at the international level”.

School projects are developed too, such as that of school Matija Antun Reljković (Croatia) located in an agricultural area. This schools seeks to develop its students’ entrepreneurial skills through the production of agricultural products. The project is presented with details in the “Best practices at the national level”.

Virtual projects

The most renowned approached is that of “Practice enterprises”. This concept developed in Germany in the years 1970 has become global.

In this approach, a fictitious company is used as a practical training centre to immerse vocational education students in a real professional context. The approach is presented with details in the “Best practices at the international level”.

There are other more local approaches, such as the concept of “Enterprise-schools” developed in Bulgaria, the “UPI project” (Slovenia) aiming to organise in primary schools a series of workshops on creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation, or the approach of “Manchester Academy”, a school located in an underprivileged area of Manchester with a varied student population. These three approaches are presented with details in the “Best practices at the national level”.
Online Resources
  • Jeunes Eco-Entrepreneurs d’EuropeThis Erasmus+ project aims to study the creation of a European mini-company by European students. It relies on young people’s open-mindedness as future builders of their country, future entrepreneurs, future parents, future industrials [in French].
  • Company Programme The “Company Programme” is the most famous training offer of Ja-Ye Europe and is recognised by the European Commission as the best practice in entrepreneurship education. In this programme, the participants create a mini-company supervised by a teacher and a counsellor.

Table of Content

Comments on this section

In order to post a comment it is compulsory to be logged in.

Date: 2016.08.03

Posted by S. Cabrerizo - Spain

The e-learning guide is very useful. Module 4, Innovative Entrepreneurial Experiences at Schools, provides easy examples for teachers.
The negative side is is that there is a lot of information in English, and sometimes it is difficult to follow it if you have an intermediate level of English. Moreover, as a suggestion, I think it could be a good idea to have it in a download version to print the most interesting parts.

Date: 2016.07.07

Posted by Didier Cahour - France

This module is a little bit complex and theoretical. Good practices at the end are relevant.

Date: 2016.07.06

Posted by Gabriela Vrabie - Romania

This module highlights a very important aspect of education: entrepreneurship education in schools, vocational schools and universities, which will definitely have a positive impact on entrepreneurial dynamism in our economies, on young people’s employability.
To this end it not only raises teachers and counsellors’ awareness about the benefits of enterprise projects but also provides them with invaluable tips on how to implement such enterprise projects at their own school. Teachers and counsellors will find practical advice on the necessary steps in creating an enterprise project at school, how an enterprise works or how to search for funds such as crowdfunding. The module also proposes teachers, educators or guidance counsellors a series of best practices to get inspired from.

Date: 2016.07.05

Posted by Martine Prignon (AEDE-EL) - Belgium

The choice of topics and the study of them provide a valuable source of information to teachers, trainers, counselors...
The best practices and online resources add a useful complement to theory, by presenting concrete examples of experiences, projects, exchanges between peers...

Follow us

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.