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

HEIs using this guidance method employ either former students of the
entrepreneurial courses or other students at the university. The entrepreneurial
development unit of the career services department at Newcastle University runs
an intern scheme to raise the profile of entrepreneurship. Three student interns
are hired every year on a part-time basis to inform their peers about the benefits
of entrepreneurial learning and skills and the training and support services
offered by the enterprise unit. In Norway, the national entrepreneurship
programme, which involves all Norwegian universities and most university
colleges, also runs a student ambassador programme. Former students are
recruited to promote the entrepreneurship programme; this has proven to be a
successful way of recruiting new students as 70-80% of course attendees learn
about the course from students who previously completed the programme (see
Example 16).

4.1.3. Student-led enterprise clubs
Another peer-to-peer method used by HEIs is the student-led enterprise club.
Such clubs are established by universities in a range of countries, including
Belgium, Denmark, Spain and France. Enterprise clubs provide students with the
opportunity to understand what it means to be an entrepreneur and support
access to entrepreneurship training. In Belgium the FREE Foundation and the
non-profit organisation Les Jeunes Enterprises established 11 student
entrepreneur clubs across HEIs. Currently, some 500 students are members of
these clubs, organising entrepreneurship activities for thousands of students in
different universities (European Commission, 2008a).
The student entrepreneur club at the University of Navarra in Spain is a good
example of the way in which student-led clubs are guiding HE students into
entrepreneurial learning (see Example 17). The club provides information to the
university’s students through blogs, social and professional networking sites and
via word-of-mouth, in addition to traditional information tools. According to the
leaders of the club, engaging with students when they first join the university (for
example at open days, induction fairs, etc.) is the best method for reaching a
wide student population.

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