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

not only act as role models but are involved directly in teaching entrepreneurship
education (McCoshan, 2010).

4.2.2. Internships and shadowing opportunities
Some other HEIs use internships/work placements as a method of familiarising
students with the world of entrepreneurship. Internships can be an effective
method of equipping students with entrepreneurial skills and careers provided
that they are well organised and tailored, and supported by pre- and post-
placement evaluations that allow students to reflect on the objectives and lessons
they have learnt. Another important element is tailoring the placement to the
needs of prospective entrepreneurs, for example, by organising internships in
start-up companies. While it is mandatory for HE students in some
countries/courses/HEIs to take part in a placement as part of their course, unless
the placements are tailored to the entrepreneurial context, the impact on the skills
and aspirations gained may not be as great as initially hoped.
There is usually a cost attached to organising high quality, targeted
internships in start-up companies. Consequently, relatively few entrepreneurship
programmes identified as part of this study use this method. A lack of such
opportunities can also depend on the HE system of the country and the extent to
which work placements are used. Work placements are not a mainstream feature
of HE systems in some countries (e.g. the UK) and in others they are used
primarily by vocationally orientated HEIs, such as polytechnics (e.g. Finland). In
some countries work placements are only used in the context of business and
management studies and are yet to be introduced as part of entrepreneurship
courses (e.g. Iceland). In Lithuania, the government made a decision in March
2010 to invest an additional EUR 4.6 million (LTL 16 million) in work placement
schemes for HE and VET students. In the Netherlands, the number of
opportunities for prospective student entrepreneurs to participate in internships is
being increased in the context of the HOPE programme. The HOPE programme
is a public/private initiative to increase the entrepreneurial offer of universities of
Leiden, Delft and Rotterdam.
The Norwegian entrepreneurship programme (Gründerskolen) (as mentioned
in Example 16) is an example of a successful entrepreneurship programme that
involves shadowing and a work placement; students are required to participate in
a three-month internship in a start-up company abroad (see Example 19).

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