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Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential

learning needed to be mainstreamed. This led to the establishment of the
entrepreneurial development unit in the careers service of the university.

4.1.2. Student ambassadors
Another innovative method used by European HEIs to guide students and other
young people into entrepreneurial learning is the peer-to-peer method. Many
HEIs employ student ambassadors on a voluntary or paid basis to inform and
advise other students about entrepreneurship courses available. This form of
guidance has two advantages as it utilises the power of recommendation:
students are more likely to relate to, and in some cases trust, another student
than a senior or another outsider; and the information is more likely to be based
on the experience of a former attendee rather than someone who has had no
experience of the course. A further advantage is that student ambassadors have
the potential to reach students who do not tend to use the careers services or
who have not considered entrepreneurial studies or a career in this field; instead
information can be passed from one student to another in an informal manner.

Example 16. Students ambassadors of the Norwegian entrepreneurship
programme

The Norwegian entrepreneurship programme (Gründerskolen) is a joint programme offered by all
seven universities and most university colleges in Norway. The programme consists of three parts: an
introductory course on entrepreneurship that is run within all the participating universities and
university colleges; a three-month internship in a start-up company abroad; and evening classes in
partner universities abroad. It is offered to students who have completed their bachelor degree and it
can be attended on a full-time or part-time basis (five and nine months respectively).
The programme uses a variety of traditional recruitment methods to engage students on the
programme. Information is disseminated through posters, brochures and information events.
However, about 70-80% of students who participate in the programme have heard about it from
students who previously completed the programme; this is down to the student ambassador scheme.
The ambassadors are students who have just finished the course themselves, normally at the
end of August when the participants return from their placement abroad. The ambassadors are
recruited to promote the programme mainly during September and October as the closing date for the
applications is in October. Recent attendees are mainly used as the programme coordinators want to
tap into the enthusiasm and motivation of the students who have just participated in the programme.
At least one student ambassador is active in each university, though some of the larger
universities have up to three ambassadors. They are paid for their work on an hourly basis. Each
ambassador is given the freedom to plan and choose the most appropriate information and
engagement method for their university/college. They submit a plan to the programme coordinators in
Oslo together with an indication of the time required to carry out the work. The time spent on
guidance activities ranges from 10 to 100 hours per ambassador. The ambassadors typically
collaborate with lecturers to organise time slots at the beginning or end of lectures to talk to classes of
students targeted by the programme. They give information about the content of the programme and
explain what their own personal experience was like. They may also have a stand at different events
or display posters about the programme. Many ambassadors seek to stimulate interest through new
social media sites (which have proved to be another useful method) or find other ways of speaking to
students about the programme.

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