Entrepreneurship is one of the eight key competences for lifelong learning (https://aeur.eu/f/jcp ).
Based on this recommendation by the European Union, its Eurydice network drew up a report, published at the end of October by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency, which points out that entrepreneurship “can be learned, practiced, and refined” from school onwards, and analyses the way in which entrepreneurship education is integrated into the school systems of 36 European countries, including the 27 Member States.
According to the study, the vast majority of education systems now have policy frameworks that take entrepreneurship into account.
However, of the 38 European education systems studied, only five (Luxembourg, Austria, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro) have a ‘roadmap’ for entrepreneurship education adopted at national level.
The study reports that, while entrepreneurship education is most often integrated across the curriculum, a number of key skills – such as the ability to develop a strategic vision, understanding financial concepts and the capacity to take calculated risks – are still not taken into account in school curricula.
What’s more, practical activities such as setting up mini-companies or innovation projects are often optional or limited to extra-curricular activities.
The study therefore calls for a move away from an optional approach towards a genuine integration of entrepreneurship into school curricula, with a view to improving the European Union’s competitiveness and ability to deal with crises.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/jck (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)