Policy, practice and harnessing future potential
Anne-Mari Nevala and Pat Irving, GHK Consulting Ltd
Study context – entrepreneurship
and guidance
• Contribution to economic growth
• Economic climate and the need for more entrepreneurial
thinking in public, private and third sector spheres
• Need for new entrepreneurs and improve success rate of
existing ones
• Concept of entrepreneurship education
– One of the eight key competences
– Activities of DG Enterprise
• Council resolution on guidance
The role of guidance
IVET and HE students
Entrepreneurship
education
Start up support
Aspiring and
new
entrepreneurs
Career
management
Guidance in the context of the study
Broad framework for support
- …any assistance to make occupational, training and education choices and to manage
careers…
-
Type
Entrepreneurship agenda
Formal
Trained professionals working in chambers of commerce, PES,
education and training institutions, etc.
Non-formal
• Mentoring and coaching
• Practical teaching methods, incl real life assignments for companies
and mini-companies
• Online business services such as career assessment tests for
entrepreneurs
• Business incubators (guidance and other soft support)
• Holistic business start up support (esp disadvantaged groups)
• Engaging with entrepreneurs through lectures, work placements
and visits
• Entrepreneurship centres
• Awareness raising activities
• Private sector interventions
Informal
Networks of entrepreneurs and other peer learning opportunities
Focus
• Broad topic: 3 sectors
• Goal to provide practical illustrations of the role of guidance
• Not a formal evaluation
– The role of recommendations
Method
• Literature review
• Two surveys
– Telephone survey: entrepreneurship education experts
(IVET, HE and associations of entrepreneurs)
– Online survey: policy makers and practitioners with a
guidance remit
• 26 case studies: in-depth and composite cases
Higher education
• Diversity between and within countries in Europe
• Some of the most innovative and successful guidance based
interventions found from the HE sector
• The potential role of guidance in the entrepreneurship
agenda of HEIs is four-fold:
1. Using guidance to engage students in entrepreneurship
education
2. Guidance embedded in entrepreneurship education
3. Extra-curricular activities to encourage entrepreneurial
activity in students
4. Start up support
HIGHER EDUCATION
1. Using guidance to engage students in entrepreneurship
education
• Mainstream information-dissemination channels still used
(i.e. prospectuses, open days, etc.)
• However, more innovative, student centred approaches
showing significant signs of success. For example
– Integrating enterprise and careers services ‘under one
roof’ (e.g. in Newcastle university increased the number
of student numbers taking part in entrepreneurship
education)
– Student ambassadors (e.g. former participants of the
Norwegian Entrepreneurship programme involve up to
70-80% of new participants)
– Student led entrepreneur clubs (e.g. Entrepreneurs club
at the University of Navarra, ES, successfully utilises a
range of new media channels to involve HE students)
HIGHER EDUCATION
2. Guidance embedded in entrepreneurship education
• Practical learning opps and the involvement of real
entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurship education process
allow students to become active participants in an
entrepreneurial career exploration process
• For example
– Practical assignments for companies increasingly
common (e.g. Hec-Ulg Entrepreneurs programme, BE,
involves existing entrepreneurs in a systematic manner
as mentors and assessors and for placements)
– Internships particularly successful in start up companies
(e.g. Norwegian Entrepreneurship programmes involves a
compulsory placement in a new start up company)
– Fully entrepreneurial delivery model (e.g. Laurea
university of applied sciences, FI, requires students to
work in teams to run assignments for local
entrepreneurs)
HIGHER EDUCATION
3. Extra-curricular activities to encourage entrepreneurial
activity in students
• The goal of ‘demystify the start-up world’, raise awareness
of entrepreneurship as a career choice and build
‘entrepreneurial confidence’
• For example
– Business plan / idea competitions increasingly common
– Building self-confidence (e.g. The Enterprisers
programme at the Cambridge University seeks to build
self-efficacy of students)
– Networks of student entrepreneurs provide an
opportunity to share experiences and build economies of
scale for the provision of training (e.g. Alumni
Entrepreneur Club at the Stockholm School of Economics
in Riga and Entrepreneur club at University of Navarra)
HIGHER EDUCATION
4. Start up support
• Universities are breeding grounds for high tech and high
growth businesses
• Guidance orientated start up support provided, for example,
by:
– Start up advisors employed by universities (e.g. the
careers service of Newcastle Univ employs start up
advisers to help with initial enquiries, experienced
business advisors and Entrepreneurs in Residence –
successful entrepreneurs)
– Business incubators (practical, scientific and ‘soft’
support)
– Mentoring and business coaching – relatively rare still but
good examples for example at the Stockholm School of
Economics in Latvia
HIGHER EDUCATION
Overall assessment
• Many innovative examples of entrepreneurial activities in
which guidance is embedded
• Guidance can support entrepreneurial goals of HEIs during
various stages of students’ life in HE, from recruitment to
the delivery of enterprise education and start up support
• Particularly successful when careers services and enterprise
support services are integrated (Newcastle model)
• Also need to move towards interdisciplinary approach to
enterprise education
– Queen’s University Belfast excellent example of an
entrepreneurial approach – enterprise education
embedded in the curriculum for all students
• Financial shortcomings hindering entrepreneurial aspirations
of HEIs esp in many Eastern European MS, but with the
budget cuts affecting HEIs in most countries
INITIAL VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Introduction
• When compared to the HE sector:
– Fewer innovative approaches were identified (greater
focus on mini and virtual companies)
– Formal guidance services play a less visible role in the
entrepreneurship agenda – non-formal guidance methods
utilised more
• However, guidance orientated enterprise activities in IVET
– Help to engage young people in creative thinking
– Familiarise with enterprising attitudes and behavior
– Start equipping young people with core entrepreneurial
skills and to the career exploration process
INITIAL VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Examples of good practice – Involvement of entrepreneurs
• Involving SMEs in work placement schemes (e.g. Enterprise
Encounter programme in Ireland organises placements in
collaboration with an orgnaisation representing micro
businesses)
• Role model programmes successful, esp with lower attaining
groups of students (e.g. Dynamo Role model programme in
Wales recruits entrepreneurs to give ‘lectures’ to students –
are paid a modest fee for the service)
• Entrepreneurs involved in career guidance events (e.g.
Guidance night organised in France by the chambers of
commerce – provide opportunity for student take part
in‘trade dating’ with entrepreneurs)
INITIAL VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Examples of good practice – Enterprise familiarisation
activities
• Guidance embedded in these practical activities
• Innovation camps – 24hr business workshop involving
assignments for companies are proving success across
Europe
– Companies keen get involved as long as assignments are
practical (not too theoretical)
• Business simulation activities (mini and virtual companies)
– Evaluation suggest that mini company alumni twice more
likely to set up their own business than non-alumni
INITIAL VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Lessons
• Entrepreneurship agenda particularly pertinent for VET
schools (many fields have high proportions of self-employed)
• Guidance practitioners in IVET lack experience and training
in dealing with entrepreneurship
– Consequently the role of formal careers services in IVET
is fairly marginal (ad hoc and mainly supportive)
– Non-formal methods more widely used
• Role model approaches underpin many successful guidance
based interventions
• Innovation camps and other ‘high profile’ activities are
great for raising awareness but should not replace the in
depth experience association with mini-company approaches
• Important to capitalise on young people’s interest in blue
and green entrepreneurship
CAREER MANAGEMENT OF ASPIRING AND NEW ENTREPRENEURS
Overview
• Each entrepreneurs has skills, competences, strengths and
weaknesses that are unique to them
• Career management skills can help to survive and succeed in
business world, e.g.
– Help to identify strengths and weaknesses and how to
address weaknesses
– Improve ability to take charge of their own career
• Tools to improve career management skills of
entrepreneurs:
– Mentoring
– Information, advice and coaching, including TV and
other awareness raising channels and networks
– Online tools such as career assessment tests
– Specific measures for under-represented and
disadvantaged groups (presentation in working group 2)
CAREER MANAGEMENT OF ASPIRING AND NEW ENTREPRENEURS
Example of good practice - Mentoring
• Between experienced and novice/aspiring entrepreneur
• Very positive feedback
• However, the only, significant national programme in
Europe can be found in Sweden – involving 1000 mentors and
mentees each year (see presentation in working group 2)
• Important to tap into the willingness of experience and
retired entrepreneurs to volunteer their time as mentors
(demonstrated by the Swedish example)
• Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs at European level
• Online mentoring services help many but do not replace the
‘human element’ associated with other mentoring
programmes
CONCLUSIONS
• ‘Not everyone needs to become an entrepreneur, yet all
members of the society should become more
entrepreneurial’
• Important to familiarise children early on to entrepreneurial
principles and thinking
• Business involvement in entrepreneurial support activities
still patchy and unstructured – however there is interest
from the private sector to be more involved (e.g. Frech
Guidance nights, successful entrepreneurs volunteering their
time as mentors)
– Resources needed to identifying and engaging businesses
and entrepreneurs in enterprise support initiatives
– Non-gov organisations also play an important role
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Policy framework guidance related to entrepreneurship
should promote:
– Entrepreneurship as a career option for all, to facilitate
diversification in the population of entrepreneurs;
– Entrepreneurship as a mandatory element of the career
guidance offer at all levels, for all pupils and students,
in all types of education and training;
– A progressive and coordinated curricula for
entrepreneurship education, where basic skills are
developed in primary and lower secondary education and
are further developed through upper secondary, IVET
and HE which is then taken forward by individuals as
they enter working life; and
– Training for career guidance professionals (and other
education and training professionals) to ensure they are
equipped to support individuals acquire entrepreneurial
skills / competences.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Appropriate media needs to be used to promote
entrepreneurship to students and workers interested in
establishing their own businesses.
• Guidance practitioners and education and training
professionals need to ensure that individuals interested in
entrepreneurship have access to credible role models and
possible mentors, hence links need to be established with
appropriate business people: former students, local
entrepreneurs etc.
• Entrepreneurship guidance and learning cannot operate in a
vacuum: it has to be intrinsically linked to the employment
and enterprise development policy agendas
• To support this policy agenda, there is a need for a strong
evidence base: such evidence is necessary to affect change
and demonstrate how and why different approaches work,
for whom and in which education, training or employment
contexts.
Contact details
Anne-Mari Nevala
Anne-mari.nevala@ghkint.com
Pat Irving
Pat.Irving@ghkint.com