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

6.2. Formal and non-formal guidance in IVET and HE

The research conducted to prepare this report has shown that a range of
guidance-based approaches are being implemented in European countries to
develop aspirations among young people towards starting a business as a career
option. Guidance is also increasingly being embedded in the entrepreneurship
learning processes. The high level of interactivity in entrepreneurship education
and the focus on solving real-life challenges faced by companies and
entrepreneurs allow students to explore entrepreneurialism as a career option.
Learners have access to a range of different guidance and learning experiences:
they can establish how their personality, skills and core attributes match
entrepreneur profiles and participate in practical assignments, exposing them to
the demands and rewards associated with entrepreneurship.
Guidance for an entrepreneurial career is seen to play an even greater role
in today’s society, where young people can no longer expect to find a job-for-life
but instead spend shorter periods of employment at one company/organisation.
They must undertake different career pathways and make occupational choices
at varying points in their lifetime. While it can still be argued that a career as an
entrepreneur continues to be less secure than a career as an employee, careers
services are already preparing young people for a working life which is
characterised by much greater uncertainty than before. Within this context, VET
and HE institutions that help to equip young people to develop entrepreneurial
attitudes (e.g. creativity, flexibility and responsibility) and skills (e.g. identification
of opportunities, team work, networking, etc.), serve a broader purpose in that
they help young people to learn to cope with the uncertainty of today’s labour
market. Schools, colleges and universities need to be entrepreneurial in their
approach to preparing individuals for the future; this is an idea also promoted by
the Oslo Agenda for Entrepreneurship Education.
To date HE institutions and their formal career guidance services are much
more active than IVET establishments in supporting entrepreneurship learning,
even though fewer than half of HE students are exposed to entrepreneurship
learning opportunities. Guidance often focuses on general employment
opportunities rather than self-employment per se. Guidance for entrepreneurship
education is also more common in Western European countries than East and
South East Europe. While the situation has improved, the financial crisis means
that more people are turning to entrepreneurship out of necessity rather than
choice.
Recent EU policies on VET and HE have emphasised the importance of
career guidance but there appears to be a gap between formal careers guidance

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