Page 124 - Guiding-at-risk-youth-through-learning-to-work-Lessons-from-across-Europe

Guiding at-risk youth through learning to work
Lessons from across Europe

universities, provide pupils and teachers with an opportunity to meet
entrepreneurs and reflect on skills and professional choices together.
In some countries, such activities are part of the curriculum. In Portugal, for
example, at the end of the third cycle of basic education (lower secondary
education), seminars, company visits and vocational guidance fairs are included
in the school project subject of the curriculum. Further, individual learning
providers have established their own projects to allow their students to familiarise
themselves with the world of work. For example, the Kandinsky College in
Nijmegen, the Netherlands, has launched a working life familiarisation project.
Here students pay short visits to workplaces; take part in work placements; are
made aware of the preparation they need to make when applying for jobs; are
given a chance to rehearse applying for a job (become aware of methods of
applying for jobs, and learn to identify their own and job related attributes); and
learn how to handle interviews.
Special careers events can bring benefits to young people, although they
should be seen as one transition support measure among many. They enable
participants to learn about the options available to them in terms of the transition
to further education, training or employment and therefore help young people to
make better informed decisions about their learning and career pathways.
Participants can gain better understanding of what certain job roles might entail,
may discover a career path they had previously been unaware of, and may even
be able to establish contacts for future work experience or to apply for positions
when they become available.

6.3.3. Entrepreneurship education
In the past 10 to 15 years, entrepreneurship education has grown dramatically
throughout the world, particularly in those countries already known to be
entrepreneurial such as Australia, Canada and the US, but also in many
European countries. This growth is reflected in the development of numerous
new entrepreneurship curricula, study programmes and initiatives, as well as
increasing research activities on enterprise education in general, and on its
various effects (Schoof, 2006).
Entrepreneurship education is decisive in assisting young people to develop
entrepreneurial skills, attributes and behaviours, as well as developing enterprise
awareness and understanding that entrepreneurship represents a career option
(Schoof, U, 2006). With regard to the wider impact, it has been acknowledged
that spreading an entrepreneurial attitude among young people in everyday life
(school, work, home, etc.) can help them to overcome barriers and develop self-
confidence (European Commission, 2001a). Setting up a business is also seen

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