Training

Examples of best practices at a European level (through European funds)

On the European level, four recent initiatives are worth highlighting:

• “The Virtual Guide to Entrepreneurial Learning” (educational tool for teachers)
• “Jeunes Eco-Entrepreneurs d’Europe” project (creation of a European mini-company)
• The “MIME” project (Initiation method to become an entrepreneur)
• The “Adeptt” project (Acknowledging and Developing Entrepreneurial Practice in Teacher Training)
• The “SEECEL” project (South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning)

The Virtual Guide to Entrepreneurial Learning
“Are you an entrepreneurial teacher?”. “Are you booking for tools and methods to use in your classroom?”.

This question is answered in the guide “The Virtual Guide to Entrepreneurial Learning” published in 2014.

This guide is a practical and useful tool for teachers in primary, secondary and vocational schools that want to mainstream entrepreneurial education in teaching methods and learning processes they set up in classroom every day.

The guide contains more than 100 tools and methods to support entrepreneurial teaching and learning, good practices and framework documents from 85 different schools in 10 countries. It also includes self-assessment and review tools for teachers and schools who want to assess how much entrepreneurial their learning process are and to review their progress on a regular basis.

The materials are designed for different age levels, from primary to upper secondary, including vocational schools. They cover various subjects (e.g. from science, technology, engineering and math to language, arts and history), address the most common teaching issues (e.g. assessment and evaluation, teaching techniques/methods, equal opportunities/inclusion, etc.) and promote a wide range of learning outcomes related to the entrepreneurial learning (e.g. creativity, leadership, business and innovation skills, etc.). The intent of the Virtual Guide is to make it easy for teachers to apply entrepreneurial learning in any subject area and for any age group.

Everybody can access the materials. Furthermore, everyone can contribute to the improvement of the Virtual Guide, for instance by sharing a good practice or reviewing a tool

The Virtual Guide is part of The Entrepreneurial School (TES). TES is one of the largest entrepreneurship education initiatives in Europe, co-funded by the European Commission through the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP). It aims at supporting teachers professional development in applying the entrepreneurial learning in several subjects and learning environments (primary, secondary, upper secondary and vocational schools). This objective is achieved primarily by developing the Virtual Guide to Entrepreneurial Learning.

Jeunes Eco-Entrepreneurs d’Europe” project (2014-2016)
Creation of a European mini-company.
This Erasmus+ project is also an eTwinning/School strategic partnership (https://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/profile.cfm?f=2&l=en&n=106167). It brings together 6 European countries (Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain). It gathers over 150 15-19 years old students and about 20 teachers.

It 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.

Main activities

• To create national junior enterprises (such as “Ecobelys” In Belgium http://www.ecobelys-j3e.be/ - http://www.cdlys.be/nos-projets/erasmus) and a European junior enterprise
• To train in entrepreneurship at the national level and explore entrepreneurship possibilities at the European level creating a synergy of the project partners’ potential.
• To train in innovative approaches (ex: start-ups…) and have students create innovative products or services, available on the online store(s) of the project
• To create using videos educational sequences on eco-responsible entrepreneurship for young people in Europe, in order to disseminate them as MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses).

Expected main results

• To explore further the entrepreneurial approach and thus be better prepared for their occupational integration.
• A better understanding of marketing and trade strategies of online sales (creation of an e-commerce website).
• Awareness of the notions of ethics, social responsibilities of companies, fair trade, sustainable development.
• Developing students’ autonomy and responsibility, confronting them to decision making and initiative. An improved ability to work in national and international groups (collaborative work), and to get organised in a same company (communication, problem solving…)
• Knowledge of tools and methods to produce videos, applied to the production of educational sequences (such as MOOC).

“Manage – MIME” project (2009-2011)
MIME – Initiation method to become an entrepreneur.

MIME is part of the “Manage” project funded within the framework of the “Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of innovation” programme. The project brings together 5 European countries (France, Italy, Romania, Spain and Switzerland). The fund made it possible to translate MIME into English, Italian, Romanian and Spanish.

This method to improve entrepreneurial skills was designed with a view to have an efficient pedagogical tool to contribute to the development of entrepreneurship learning and a better occupational integration of young people in a company.

Created in France with the support of the European Union (Adapt GAME project 1999), this method was successfully adapted to school audiences: (secondary and higher education) students and teachers.

Activity
MIME is a simulation game to make participants fundamental mechanisms that determine how companies work while confronting them to situations that require entrepreneurial competences and problem solving, and improve them.

Expected results

• Understanding fundamental economic principles that determine how companies work, the relations companies develop with their environment, the essential contributions of the men and women who work in companies.
• A realistic vision of the position of company head, of the skills they need, of the role the participants plan to play in decision making.
• A practical analysis: widely used management tools, accountancy and financial statements, strategies and processes.

“Adeptt” project (2011-2013)
Acknowledging and developing entrepreneurial practice in teacher training

The “Adeptt” project funded by the Leonardo Da Vinci programme, gathers thirteen schools from eight European countries (Belgium, Germany, Iceland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom).

This project aims to promote teachers’ entrepreneurship training as a way to develop entrepreneurship in young Europeans.

Activity
The project offers teachers a training aiming to support and improve the practice of entrepreneurship education. This very targeted and practical training stresses the “performance”, i.e. the practical means needed to perform a task.

The approach is based on five key principles:

• Bird in the hand: to understand you do not need a “genius” idea or to search “fantastic” opportunities”, but simply the solution to a simple problem
• Affordable loss: to wonder how long you can commit, knowing the company could fail
• Crazy quilt: to create as many partnerships as possible with other people and organisations
• Lemonade: to adapt to unexpected events originating from uncertainty, to stay flexible rather then hold onto predefined objectives
• Pilot in the Plane: to focus on activities that you control, the future is not invented or forecast, it is done.

Expected results
The training has six specific objectives to produce a long-lasting change of attitude and practice:

• The teachers create a new product or new services (in education), ready-to-use “the next week”
• The teachers learn to validate the project and the new learning environment
• The teachers convince several partners to make students’ learning process easier
• The teachers are able to define the respective benefits of the entrepreneurial activity (win-win) for the entrepreneur, and as a form of learning
• The teachers learn how to use and translate the entrepreneurial vocabulary
• The teachers acknowledge and enjoy entrepreneurship and know how to exploit resources.

“SEECEL” project (2008)
Regional entrepreneurship learning project specifically focussed on teachers’ initial and continuing training.

This transnational project brings together eight European countries (Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey). They created in 2008, the “South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning” (SEECEL) that received financial support from the European Commission.

The aim of SEECEL is to share references to foster the development of learning economies. This project is a teacher training model that defines learning results for students and teachers.

Activities
In the piloting phase, the activities addressed the following topics:

• Designing a project and a strategy to create a “ENTRschool”
• Setting management objectives (headteachers) consistent with the strategy
• Setting objectives for teachers consistent with the strategy
• Defining learning results for students
• Organising resources consistent with the strategy
• Designing an entrepreneurship education training programme for teachers, other staff members and “teachers in network”
• Support from the local community, local companies and other stakeholders of the “ENTRschool”
• Developing a common conception of the ENTRschool and continuing efforts to promote this culture
• Strategy to share knowledge and models for other schools.

Results

• Students, teachers and school administrations benefited from their participation in the project
• Sharing references, the different countries learn from one another and develop better learning economies.
• The instrument used to measure the impact of the entrepreneurship learning activities about the skills of teachers and school administration regarding entrepreneurship was developed and tested and has become fully operational.

In future evolutions, it was decided that the focus would be on the mentorship process and the integration of national institutions responsible for teacher training. The SEECEL was the object of an in-depth analysis in the research “Entrepreneurship Education: A road to success” (Case Study 1), presented in the introduction to the chapter.

Online Resources

• The Virtual Guide to Entrepreneurial LearningThis guide is a practical and useful tool for teachers in primary, secondary and vocational schools that want to mainstream entrepreneurial education in teaching methods and learning processes they set up in classroom every day.
• 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.
• Manage – MIMEThis method to improve entrepreneurial skills was designed with a view to have an efficient pedagogical tool to contribute to the development of entrepreneurship learning and a better occupational integration of young people in a company.
• AdepttThis project aims to promote teachers’ entrepreneurship training as a way to develop entrepreneurship in young Europeans.
• SEECELThe aim of SEECEL is to share references to foster the development of learning economies. This project is a teacher training model that defines learning results for students and teachers.