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

a focus on entrepreneurship. In one institution a project was established between
students on fashion and woodwork courses. The ultimate aim was to stage a
fashion show with fashion students responsible for making the clothes and the
woodwork students building the catwalk. This project aimed to bring together
different ideas and perspectives to develop enterprising capacities.
Some vocational schools have made connections with local primary schools
as a way of extending entrepreneurial guidance to students who have not yet
started their upper secondary level studies. In Northern Ireland, some students
are able to sample opportunities for self-employment through a ‘taste and see’
programme with local vocational colleges. The programme enables pupils aged
12-13 to attend a taster day of different vocational sectors including bricklaying,
media and catering. The hope is that students will gain a more practical idea of
the opportunities that different routes of education and self-employment can
provide, above and beyond what can be gained through theoretical studies.
Some of the guidance-oriented entrepreneurship initiatives target specific
groups of students. Different academic studies have shown that girls have lower
self-esteem than boys (e.g. Eccles et al., 1993) and this, together with a range of
other factors such as horizontal segregation in education, lack of role models and
difficulties in reconciliation of family and work life, has led to there being fewer
women than men in leadership positions in both public and private employment.
As shown in Chapter 2.2, there are also fewer female entrepreneurs.
Consequently, Young Enterprise Norway is piloting a special leadership
programme for girls who have performed particularly well in other enterprise
schemes run by the organisation (see Example 7). The aim is that girls will
increase their self-awareness and confidence, thereby allowing them to reflect on
themselves as potential future leaders.

Example 7. Promoting girl leaders, Norway

Girls and leadership is a two-day coaching programme operated as part of the wider young enterprise
scheme run by Young Enterprise Norway. The scheme focuses entirely on girls who are involved in
young enterprise and aims to provide girls with the confidence to become entrepreneurs or other
leaders following the completion of their studies.
Through the programme, girls attend lectures, group discussions and practical exercises in varying
entrepreneurial guises including leadership, awareness, networks and communication. They also have
a chance to meet successful female leaders. Looking forward, the scheme may be rolled out nationwide
depending on the success of the initial project.

Finally, several studies (e.g. Volkmann, 2009) have showed that interactive,
experiential forms of teaching and learning can be particularly appealing for
students who do not perform well in academic studies. Some IVET institutions
have tried to prevent early school leaving among at-risk groups by connecting the

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