Final Report of the Expert Group - European Commission - Europa

6. Framework conditions, support and the role of public policies6.1. Sources of funding, and support from the private sectorIn most cases student company programmes are driven by external organisations (e.g.NGOs) rather than by the education system itself, although they may receive significantsupport from the public sector. For this reason, and because sometimes they take place outsidethe official school curriculum, these programmes generally suffer from insufficient financialresources.Student company activities are very often based on strong participation from the privatesector, taking the form of funding or of contributions in kind. Depending on the countries andspecific programmes, in some cases the financial resources available are predominantly of apublic nature (this is for instance the case in Austria, France and Norway); in other casesthey are mostly provided by the private sector (for instance in the Czech Republic, Latviathe Netherlands and Poland). An overview of sources of funding shows a great variety ofsituations and different solutions as regards the origin of financial resources for this type ofprogrammes. Most frequently, a large share (e.g. 80 % or more) of funding comes either fromthe public or from the private sector, while in only a few cases the financial participationappears to be more balanced between public and private sectors (e.g. in Denmark, Irelandand Sweden). This situation may suggest some difficulty in matching public and privatefunds.As part of public funding, resources from the EU can play an important role in thedevelopment of these activities, namely through the European Social Fund (ESF) andprogrammes like “Leonardo da Vinci”. For instance, in France, support of the ESF isproviding a valuable contribution to accelerating the adaptation of vocational education to thenew economic and social context. Thanks to the financial contribution of the ESF, it ispossible to provide systematic support for the creation of links between schools andenterprises and the development of entrepreneurship projects in France, including those basedon student companies, in technical and professional schools at secondary level 20 .Also in Greece, under the Operational Programme for Education, one major project is to runvirtual enterprises in upper secondary technical schools and initial vocational traininginstitutions. The adopted concept of a virtual firm already takes into account the definition ofa student company provided in this Report. Starting from the school year 2005/06, alltechnical schools will have the possibility to participate for a two-year period.As regards the private sector, financial support comes mainly from individual enterprises,foundations and business associations. Banks have an important role in a number ofcountries. In some cases, the main source of funding is participation fees from schools andstudents.However, besides financial support, contributions in kind from the business world areequally, or even more important. These take the form of providing expertise and knowledgefor the organisation of programmes; direct participation through business advisors,consultants or tutors; providing specific training to teachers; giving free access to premisesand offices; helping the organisation of events like trade-fairs, etc.20 Revision of ESF programmes for the period 2004-2006. AXE 3 – Mesure 4: Faciliter le passage de l’école autravail.43