Page 66 - guidance-supporting-europe-s-aspiring-entrepreneurs-policy-and-practice-to-harness-future-potential

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

the delivery of entrepreneurship education in Central and Eastern Europe in
recent years. In Latvia, for example, efforts have been made to include
entrepreneurship education in the curricula of all universities and polytechnics.
The Latvian government has set a target of integrating an entrepreneurship
module (96 hours of learning) into all its study programmes, including those of
humanities, social and natural sciences.
Similar improvements are also under way in other East European countries
(Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia). However, in other new Member
States (Malta and Romania) less progress has been made towards the inclusion
of entrepreneurship in the curricula of HEIs.
Within this context, HEIs have a particularly important role in promoting high-
growth entrepreneurship, as high growth entrepreneurs are better educated than
other entrepreneurs and the general population (Volkmann et al., 2009).
Research carried out in Germany has shown that enterprises started by
individuals with university degrees tend to grow faster than enterprises founded
by non-academics (Volkmann et al., 2009).
Finally, several studies identify that there is limited supply of well qualified
entrepreneurship teachers and entrepreneurs who can act as role models for
students (European Commission, 2008a; Potter, 2008). This is one of the key
barriers to further development of entrepreneurial learning in HE.

2.6. Summary

Since the Lisbon Council in 2000, entrepreneurship is increasingly recognised as
a competence that should be valued and nurtured within an education and
training context. It sits at the heart of the education and training 2020 strategic
framework, which cites innovation and creativity, including entrepreneurship, as
one of its strategic objectives. A sense of initiative and entrepreneurship is also
one of the eight key competences for lifelong learning. However, while there is
widespread recognition of the importance of guidance in supporting lifelong
learning, European policies rarely refer to the role of guidance in
entrepreneurship learning or the development of entrepreneurs’ career
management skills.
Entrepreneurship learning supported by guidance, has a role to play in
developing entrepreneurial skills; exposure to such support can act as a catalyst
in developing an entrepreneurial mindset, irrespective of whether individuals go
on to become entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship education exists within Europe,
though is not necessarily available for all: it is ad hoc and comprises ‘pockets of

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