Final Report of the Expert Group - European Commission - Europa

1. Introduction1.1. BackgroundIt is recognised that entrepreneurship is a major driver of innovation, competitiveness andgrowth. Europe needs a more entrepreneurial culture. Following the conclusions of theLisbon Council in 2000, which defined entrepreneurship as one of the new basic skills thatshould be provided through lifelong learning, the promotion of entrepreneurial attitudes andskills in our societies through education at all levels has been at the centre of the politicalagenda of the EU. The role of schools and universities in fostering an entrepreneurial mindsetamong young people, and in making the relevant skills available, has been emphasised forinstance by the European Charter for Small Enterprises 1 and by the Communication on theAction Plan “The European agenda for Entrepreneurship” 2 .However, learning how to run a business is only one aspect of it. Entrepreneurship should beunderstood in its broader meaning. Entrepreneurial skills and attitudes provide benefits tosociety even beyond their application to business activity. They are also a vehicle for personaldevelopment. In fact, learning about entrepreneurship will include developing personalqualities such as creativity, taking initiative, responsibility, which will prove generallyuseful in life and in any working activity.In 2002, a Report 3 coordinated by the Commission under the Best Procedure project“Education and Training for Entrepreneurship” concluded that although numerousentrepreneurship-related activities are currently being developed at all levels of education,many of them are neither integrated into the curriculum nor part of a coherent framework, andthat as a result of this most students do not have yet the possibility of taking part inentrepreneurship courses and programmes.In that context, a concrete definition of entrepreneurship education was proposed bynational experts and put forward as a reference at European level. This definition relates to thedifferent levels of education and clarifies which objectives would be typically pursued at eachstage of the educational path. There was a wide consensus on the importance of including twocomplementary elements:− a broader concept of education for entrepreneurial attitudes and skills, which involvesdeveloping certain personal qualities and is not directly focused on the creation of newbusinesses; and,− a more specific concept of training on how to create and run a business.The Best Procedure project also highlighted activities based on students running a minicompanyat school as a particularly effective methodology for fostering entrepreneurialmindsets.On that basis, a follow-up project 4 focused in particular on primary and secondary leveleducation in order to identify policy measures and strategies that would make it possible to1 http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/charter/index.htm2 Action Plan: The European agenda for Entrepreneurship, European Commission, COM (2004) 70 final,11.02.2004.3 Best Procedure project on Education and Training for Entrepreneurship. Final Report of the Expert Group,November 2002.4 Making progress in promoting entrepreneurial attitudes and skills through Primary and Secondary education.Final report of the Expert Group, March 2004.11