PIETE Magazine

Finland has been topping multiple rankings for many years in a row. When it comes to school education, the country attracted a huge interest around its successful results in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2000. It came first among 32 OECD countries in reading, third in science and fourth in maths, and has been hovering around the top countries since then. Here the success can be attributed to many things: timely policy shifts, teaching methodologies, etc. But one success ingredient of the recipe is undeniable – teachers with well-rounded skills and sound knowledge of their subject.

As the European Union sees entrepreneurial skills an integral factor contributing to the creation of welfare, the inclusion of entrepreneurship courses into the Finnish university curriculum for teachers doesn’t seem to be odd. University of Turku (further UT) is one of the first universities in Finland that made entrepreneurship training modules for pre-service teachers compulsory. Up till now, the entrepreneurship modules are offered to teacher students both as obligatory and elective courses. This year, UT offers a renewed 3-ECTS elective Enterprise Education in Basic Education that will allow students to embark on an exciting journey of entrepreneurial self-discovery.

Teaching + entrepreneurship: compatible?

According to Jaana Lepistö, Adjunct Professor at UT whose expertise revolves around Entrepreneurship and Craft Education, with the course Enterprise Education in Basic Education they are trying to achieve three main goals. First, students will unearth possibilities of applying operating methods based on entrepreneurship to teaching in basic education. They will see how entrepreneurial pedagogy can find its way and may be implemented in their teaching work in comprehensive schools. Second, teacher students will be structurally guided through the corpus of national and international research on entrepreneurial education so that they can form a pedagogical idea of how to put it into practice. And third, the elective course will allow students to explore entrepreneurship from different perspectives and see how they can engage in cooperation with various societal stakeholders and make use of them in their teaching.

What’s in the pack?

The elective course Enterprise Education in Basic Education has been modified several times during its existence to stay relevant to the demands of the modern school system as well as address its future challenges. Currently, the course comprises, but is not limited to, the following topics:
– entrepreneurial education terminology;
– basics of entrepreneurial pedagogy;
– methods of operation related to entrepreneurial pedagogy in comprehensive education;
– entrepreneurship as a social phenomenon;
– active participation and inclusion as part of the teaching work;
– school as a community and co-operation;
– development of the school organisation and school activities and societal challenges;
– contacts with parties outside of the school.

Modes of study

As many other courses, this elective includes a variety of lectures delivered by both the responsible course lecturer and external experts from the field. The course also suggests ten hours of group studies, six of which are school visits. During these visits, teacher students observe the implementation of entrepreneurship concepts in the classroom by their more experienced colleagues. However, a fair share of the course is required to be done individually. Like true entrepreneurs, UT teacher students submerge into the exploratory search of their own unique possible application of entrepreneurial skills. So far, this elective has been offered only in the Finnish language.

Though already being a highly prestigious professional field in Finland, teaching occupation keeps evolving into new phases what allows fully-fledged teacher graduates to safely experiment in classrooms with new methodologies.

Coming up with innovative ideas, solving problems creatively, acting independently, convincing others, working in teams, having fun in performance: developing entrepreneurial skills is important for young people and a pre-requisite to get along in todays’ as much as in the future world of work. However, how does one manage to integrate Entrepreneurship Education at schools? How can the power of developing an entrepreneurial mindset become accessible and tangible for pupils?

In fact, most schools in Saxony-Anhalt struggle to provide in-house learning opportunities that allow pupils to gather entrepreneurial experiences. To make up for the latter, a network of distinct entrepreneurship education initiatives in Saxony-Anhalt (namely Unternehmergeist macht Schule) offers schools professional support. Through their educational offers pupils get a chance and support for the development of business models, the production of prototypes as well as the practical implementation of business ideas by establishing real student companies (Schülerfirmen). Additionally, they act as intermediaries between schools and companies from the regional business eco-system to support early career orientation as much as to ensure practical relevance of early start-up efforts. Here is an overview of present initiatives and their operational focus within the state of Saxony-Anhalt:

futurego Sachsen-Anhalt

In the pupil competition futurego Sachsen-Anhalt, pupils develop a business idea right up to the finished business concept and illustrate it with the help of a prototype and video. In workshops and individual coaching the necessary knowledge is imparted. Each competition cycle lasts one school year and can be both – integrated into the lessons at school but also be carried out by pupils during their spare time.

Website: www.futurego.de
Contact: Sandra Bier / Univations GmbH

Junior

For more than 20 years IW JUNIOR gGmbH has been helping pupils to found their own companies. In addition, they offer student-friendly materials, comprehensive advice, supervision and assurance of pupil companies, organize national and international events and provide contacts to schools and companies throughout Europe.

Website: www.junior-programme.de
Contact: Corinna Brandt / IW JUNIOR gGmbH

Junggründerzentrum Sachsen-Anhalt 2.0

The student institute SITI e. V. (registered association) in Havelberg has many years of experience in promoting pupil companies with their own products. The Junggründerzentrum (youth founder centre) makes these experiences available to interested pupil companies in Saxony-Anhalt in central training courses or individual coaching sessions. Thus, the networking of pupil companies of different schools is to be made possible by common products.

Website: www.jgz.siti.de
Contact: Dr.-Ing. Hannes König /Schüler-Institut SITI e.V.

Jugend gründet

The aim of the nationwide online competition “Jugend gründet” (Youth founds) is to inspire pupils and apprentices for the topics of innovation and start-up. The task is to develop an innovative business idea, to complete an online business plan and to prove in a high-quality business simulation through sustainable entrepreneurial activity in the ups and downs of the economy.

Website: www.jugend-gruendet.de
Contact: Marius Kunkis / Steinbeis-Innovationszentrum Unternehmensentwicklung an der Hochschule Pforzheim (SIZUE)

Ego. Sommerakademie

The “ego.- on tour” initiative addresses secondary school pupils who want to learn more about starting a business and entrepreneurship in general. This is done through one-day workshops at schools. At the end of the workshop day, participants get the chance to qualify ego.- Summer Academy at Harz University of Applied Sciences where specific entrepreneurial knowledge is deepened through the co-creational workshop formats and planning games in 3 consecutive days.

Website: ego.hs-harz.de
Contact: Benedikt Kisser / Hochschule Harz

Gründerkids

The project GRÜNDERKIDS (founder kids) advises and qualifies pupils and teachers from Saxony-Anhalt on their way to launch a (pupil-)company. Also, the Gründerkids team supports running pupil-companies with (business) training, company meetings, individual guidance in corporate governance issues. Moreover, Gründerkids strengthens country-wide networking among pupil companies as well as with stakeholders from the regional economy.

Website: www.gründerkids.de
Contact: Claudia Köhler / Gemeinnützige Deutsche Kinder- und Jugendstiftung GmbH

By collaborating in the joint network “Unternehmergeist macht Schule”, the activity range and distinct features of each of the available entrepreneurship education initiatives in the state can be well coordinated. What is more, the catalogue of existing offers can be well assessed by teachers, principals and pupils, as the networks online presence presents fundamental information about each initiative. Operationally, the participating initiatives exploit the network to regularly discuss how entrepreneurship education offers, incl. continuous professional development for teachers, can be improved for schools. After all, the dynamic environment educational institutions are exposed to in today’s rapidly changing world also need to be considered in the entrepreneurship education offers of any external provider.

In Poland, entrepreneurship education is part of secondary school syllabus. In many cases, due to the fact that there are not many hours devoted to it, this subject is taught by teachers who teach other subjects on a regular basis and who not always have sufficient knowledge concerning entrepreneurship-related issues. They, of course, need to attend some courses, but many of them feel it is not enough to make them understand what entrepreneurship competence is about and how to teach it. A few years ago, the National Bank of Poland in cooperation with four universities, undertook a curious initiative. Each of the four universities (University of Economics in Katowice, University of Economics in Poznań, SGH Warsaw School of Economics and the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin) offered very cheap post-graduate studies for up to 50 in-service and pre-service teachers. At University of Economics 47 people enrolled and all of them graduated from the studies. The studies were in 88% financed by the National Bank of Poland (12% – by the students). The four higher education institutions formed a consortium and jointly prepared the study programme built on their experience with relation to general knowledge referring to entrepreneurship-related issues and methodology of teaching it. The nearly free opportunity and the study programme prepared by experts were obvious advantages over other programmes of similar studies. Thanks to the project, that was part of economic education programme, 180 teachers of other subject areas were given an opportunity to become entrepreneurship teachers as well.

About the studies

The studies comprised three semesters (300 contact hours) and the following topics were covered: company organisation, the role of state in the economy, planning one’s career and shaping pro-entrepreneurial attitudes of people, methodology of entrepreneurship teaching, etc. As it can be seen, the aspects elaborated during the studies concerned broad contemporary understanding of entrepreneurship competence. Furthermore, teaching methodology, the very subject of entrepreneurship education, was also taught and the students then had to test their newly gained knowledge in practice, during their internship.
After graduation, newly trained and re-trained teachers were eligible to teach a secondary school subject: basics of entrepreneurship. What is more, the mindset of many of them changed as they started understanding the notion of entrepreneurship in broader terms. This way, not only while entrepreneurship teaching, bit also while teaching their first subject, they transfer some pro-active attitudes to younger generations. After the free edition of studies finished, some of the involved universities decided to offer commercial studies based on the programme that still gives the same opportunity for new teachers.

Dr. Bartłomiej J. Gabryś as entrepreneurship education promoter

At University of Economics in Katowice, prof. Wojciech Dyduch and dr. Bartłomiej J. Gabryś were the initiators of the studies. Dr. Bartłomiej J. Gabryś was a co-author of the programme in the consortium. He works at Entrepreneurship Department, participated in domestic and global scientific projects (i.e. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project) and presents his research at prestigious conferences in Europe, Asia and America. He supports business people with his knowledge, especially with relation to developing their own business, organising it and motivating employees. The most important area of his activities in view of the objectives of PIETE project is, however, spreading entrepreneurship-related knowledge among youngsters. He organises workshops for young people at university and he also visits schools in the Silesian region where he talks about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial and pro-active life attitudes. He co-organises Entrepreneurship Education Contest that is a big event focusing attention of several thousands of young people every year and he is a member of the Association of Children’s Economic Universities where he encourages the economic development of children from early years. Dr. Gabryś is also a politician interested in developing the Silesian region and local business environment.