ETF PARTNER COUNTRIES DEMONSTRATE ENTERPRISE CULTURE

Entrepreneurial education is increasingly a part of lifelong learning plans in European Union partner countries as key stakeholders in the public and private sector face the challenge of economic and social change.

An impressive range of projects, initiatives, programmes and policies being implemented in the countries of South Eastern Europe, Turkey and the Mediterranean region suggest that EU plans to create a strong and flexible knowledge society in the coming decades already have foundations beyond its borders.

A two-day high level reflection panel on entrepreneurship education jointly hosted by the European Training Foundation, the European Commission and the Croatian government in Zagreb mid-March, brought together leading policy makers, government officials and educationalists from 11 non-EU member states to share experience, promote cooperation and plan for the future.

With Europe still reeling from its worst economic recession in 70 years and growing global competition from emerging economies such as India and China bringing new challenges, the pressure to create an enterprise culture has never been greater, participants agreed.

Peter Baur, Deputy Head of Unit in the Commission’s DG Education and Culture, underlined the importance of a meeting that followed four similar panels last year involving EU member countries.

“It is essential to open up education and training to other countries and to encourage cooperation. It is extremely important to share good practice and policies. Our problems are similar; it is critical to see if we can find common solutions,” Mr Baur said during the meeting held at Zagreb’s Dubrovnik Hotel.

Examples of best practice included Tunisia, where since 2005 the University of Sfax has been introducing an institution-wide policy of entrepreneurial education that integrates the principle into all study programmes through purpose-built teaching modules.

Coordinated via an Entrepreneurship and Placement University Centre, (known locally by its French name the Centre Universitaire d’Insertion et d’Essaimage de Sfax) the university’s mission to make its graduates more employable, promote an enterprise culture and validation of research into the area has proven so successful that, with the backing of the ministry of higher education, it is now being adopted across all of Tunisia’s universities.

The proportion of students citing setting up their own businesses among their top three post university career plans, has risen steeply from just 3.8% in 2004 to 46% last year, when a third of all Sfax graduates stated that becoming an entrepreneur was their key aim.

Validating projects

“We still have more to do. We need to improve implementation and for that we need ideas,” Professor said Lassaad Mezghani, Associate Professor of Economics at Sfax said, adding that one way to share good practice would be to agree methods for validating projects that could be adapted to country-specific needs.

The extent to which entrepreneurship education could be promoted in different countries depended on many factors – political, structural and cultural – participants agreed.

In countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, where a federal structure meant that educational policy was decided at a local (canton) level, achieving a common approach was a challenge. In other countries, such as Israel where there is no national strategy for entrepreneurship education, a strong enterprise culture has encouraged the establishment of small businesses, particularly in high technology fields.

Delegates at the meeting agreed that continued cooperation, networking and sharing of best practice would enable the momentum to be maintained.

Tony Gribben, the ETF’s team leader for entrepreneurial learning, noted: “If we are going to move forward with entrepreneurship education in any kind of strategic way it requires a national vision with strong leadership.”

Leaders in business, education and government ministries needed to work together with other stakeholders to create societies where entrepreneurship becomes part of the culture.

Ivana Pulitz, Director of the Croatian Education Ministry’s Directorate for International Cooperation and European Integration, stressed that while entrepreneurship education remained “an evolving area in policy terms” it was one where partnership could only strengthen it.

Suggesting a follow- up meeting in one year’s time, Mr Curavic of DG Industry and Enterprise, urged participants to concentrate on sharing “good practice and indicators based on pragmatic experience.”.