Future of young people: own business

Many young people have an entrepreneurial spirit and after qualification they want to work in a business environment. The starting of business by young people is run by their previous work experience and hobby. Money, lack of start-up capital, little knowledge, as well as professional contact are the main reason why young people are afraid to start a business. In general, the most of the young and new companies arise in area of IT and services. Currently, young people are interested in companies focused on fashion, product design and construction. When starting a business it is important not to underestimate obtain sufficient information and there are also specialized portals where is possible to find important informations and advice. While we teach people how to be better employees, we should also invest in their business and thinking of innovative and capabilities. Developing the ability to recognize the opportunity and tools to equip young their use allows them to decide their future in a way that directly connects education and success in real life. Budding entrepreneurs have the opportunity to participate in several competitions and have a chance to get not only money, but especially contacts and experience. The beginnings of the company can be financed by money from the labor office, get them in one of the competitions. Under certain conditions, money canbe also obtained from the bank. Financing business ideas of graduates through banks is not easy. Banks usually require collateral assets or business history. Here are 6 steps how to start a business: 1. Basis is the business idea (eg. solution of a problem) something that can be interesting for consumers on the market . 2 .Evaluate the idea (eg .who will be your potential clients what do you offer compared to the competitors). 3. Get feedback (from people who know the market or have experience running a business in the area you have chosen). 4 .Develop a business plan (description of the company, product, marketing, financial projections and summary). 5 .Secure start-up capital to start a business. 6 .Choose a legal form of your company. Especially those who are innovative and promising business ideas therefore looking for an investor rather than finance from banks. One of the preconditions for a successful business is to be open to new possibilities and believe your business, so you will not miss the success. Initial failure in business is a screen that will allow only those most prepared and determined to be successful. Success in business is so valuable precisely because only a handful of brave gets it, but not because of their talent, luck or skill, but because of their determination to overcome setbacks and anticipate the first. In general rule, the more obstacles in business you climb, the higher profit you will gain.

Entrepreneurship in Translation: from Techno-economic into Educational Context

„In short, people will need to be creative rather than passive, capable of self initiated action, rather than dependent; they will need to know how to learn rather than expect to be taught; they will need to be enterprising in their outlook, and not think or act like an ‘employee’ or ‘client’. The organisations in which they work, communities in which they live, and societies in which they belong will, in turn, also need to possess all these qualities“, ‑ said British OECD delegate Colin Ball at an OECD conference in Paris in 1989.

The concept of entrepreneurship has been known to the modern world for at least three centuries. For an overview and a deeper understanding of the evolutionary processes the entrepreneurship concept has undergone in the last decades, historical, sociological and organisational approach can be applied.

Entrepreneurship as a linguistic term has its origin from the French word entreprendre which means go ahead, initiate, start up, boot, make up something, do something and perform.

Entrepreneurship as a contextual concept within economy has been intertwined with the ability of capital and the risk associated with commercial ventures. In modern and post-modern times, entrepreneurship in the economy has, broadly stated, been heavily influenced by two scientists. The first to recognise entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur in economic theory was the Irish-born financial actor, Richard Cantillon (1680?-1734?). Cantillon’s economic theory, written down in the “Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General”, Cantillion placed entrepreneurs as the most central economic actor of society. The second economic scientist to mention is probably the most known and influential of them all. Almost all modern theories concerning entrepreneurship take their origin from the Slovak/Austrian economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883-1950). He laid the foundation of the modern understanding of the concept, defining entrepreneurship as the creative response of economic development and promoted it as a basic knowledge to explain economic alteration/change. Entrepreneurship for Schumpeter was to do something new, or some things which have been done before – in a new way. According to Schumpeter’s theory, successful innovation requires an act of will, not of intellect. It depends, therefore, on leadership, not intelligence, and it should not be confused with invention.

Entrepreneurship as a mind-set is described in “Green paper – Entrepreneurship in Europe” (EU Commission, 2003, p. 5). This indicates that entrepreneurship is a way of thinking, a formation process in which you have developed your entrepreneurial abilities and aptitude through experience since you were a child. The entrepreneurial mind-set emerges like an inner impetus that strengthens human abilities and qualities such as integrity, humility, intuition, dedication, creative forces, passion, innovativeness, flexibility, courage, will to risk, self-confidence and stamina. Gradually, experiences filled with these mixed strengths provide a person with a strong attitude and make the approach and response time to problems or challenges shorter, both in time and action. Entrepreneurship arises from within the person and not from the business idea. An entrepreneurial mindset is not about what you do, but who you are. An entrepreneurial mindset emerges through being able to wonder, to reflect on experiences, to think independently, showing receptivity and sensitivity and thus by handling the universal drama of life. The entrepreneurial mindset covers an individual’s motivation and capacity, independently or within an organization, by identifying opportunities and pursuing them in order to produce activities giving new experiences, excitements, ideas, added value or economic success.

The rise of entrepreneurship in the educational context

From the first substantial speech about the subject by Colin Ball in Paris in 1989, it took about 14 years before the EU commission gave the entrepreneurship concept its formal political birth, shown in a written strategic document. In January 2003 the EU Commission published the “Green paper Entrepreneurship in Europe” describing the new strategies for job creation, increased competitiveness, to unlock personal potential, and to increase societal interest in entrepreneurship as a first step towards creating an entrepreneurial culture in Europe.

Further on the author analyses two scenarios of entrepreneurship education in Norway: (I) entrepreneurship as a method which came from outside actors and (II) entrepreneurship as a mind-set with a bottom-up strategy. According to scenario I, a play-enterprise is a training method giving pupils or students an opportunity to develop and design an idea: to plan, organise, start up, run, and finally, to shut down a company. Scenario II aims at making pupils fit to meet the challenges of the future by keeping focus on applicable skills and innovative problem-solving attitudes built into education.

If you were an entrepreneurship teacher, which scenario would you apply? What would you like your students to learn?

The post is based on the article of Dag Ofstad, University of Nordland, Norway

Read the full article in NAFOL Yearbook 2012 „Teacher Education Research between national Identity and Global Trends“ © Akademika Publishing, Trondheim 2013, ISBN 978-82-321-0194-8

¿Qué habilidades tengo y cómo las empleo ahora?

Al acabar los estudios, se nos presenta un dilema que hemos de afrontar solos. Mientras permanecemos dentro del sistema educativo nos sentimos cómodos, dejándonos llevar por el camino que nos han trazado para alcanzar nuestra meta formativa.

Pero una vez que llegamos al final y cruzamos la meta, ¿qué nos encontramos? Ahora somos nosotros solos los que hemos de marcar el track en nuestro GPS ¿pero hacia dónde?

En nuestro entorno durante años el trabajo por cuenta ajena ha sido la opción preferida con diferencia por la mayoría de los jóvenes. Es más, el deseo de convertirse en funcionario ha sido siempre muy superior al de convertirse en empresario. Todos ellos, trabajadores por cuenta ajena, funcionarios públicos y empresarios son necesarios para el desarrollo de nuestra economía. Sin embargo la opción empresarial ha sido denostada durante muchos años.

Se trata de equilibrar la balanza y que nuestros jóvenes se planteen, ¿por qué no?, ser empresarios. Para ello, el sistema educativo ha de realizar con ellos un cierto recorrido, sin que quizás sea necesario llegar a asignaturas exclusivas dedicadas al emprendimiento, se puede comenzar por inculcar ciertos aspectos como:

• La pasión por la tarea que nos ocupa. Una de las claves del emprendimiento son la pasión y el entusiasmo puestos.
• Fomentar el espíritu emprendedor. Acercar a los jóvenes lo que supone crear desarrollar y gestionar un negocio.
• Desterrar tópicos sobre la figura del empresario. La imagen distorsionada y manipulada de persona avariciosa, corrupta y explotadora debe ser, por la imagen real de persona trabajadora que se esfuerza cada día para sacar adelante su negocio.
• El trabajo en equipo. la colaboración, la motivación, la iniciativa, la planificación, la búsqueda de la originalidad...son valores y actividades que es necesario desarrollar para emprender, pero que además serán útiles en el plano personal.

Trabajar estos conceptos dentro del aula, ayudaría a resolver la pregunta planteada en el título, haciendo que la respuesta "emprender" surja de manera natural de entre el resto de opciones.

HEInnovate - A new online tool for universities to measure how entrepreneurial they are

"Entrepreneurial skills and mind-sets are more important than ever in today's global markets. That applies as much to universities as enterprises. I am confident that this new initiative will encourage European higher education institutions to become more entrepreneurial and open to opportunities," said Androulla Vassilliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth in the occasion of the launch of HEInnovate, a new online self-assessment tool for universities to measure how entrepreneurial they are.

The website, which is free and user-friendly, has been created by the the European Commission, together with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and inaugurated in November 2013.

HEInnovate enables institutions to assess their performance in seven areas: leadership and governance, organisational capacity, teaching and learning, pathways for entrepreneurs, university-business exchange, the internationalised institution, and impact measurement.

The website then generates results for the institution, highlighting areas of strength and weakness. It also helps the institution improve its performance by providing links to customised examples of good practice.

In 2014, the Commission and the OECD will be holding workshops and events across Europe on how to get the most out of the website.

Source: European Commission

Cross-over of ENTANGLE modules: wide use and applicability

The ENTANGLE approach evolves around the Business Model Canvas. This approach now turns out helpful for other schools in other Leonardo da Vinci projects as well. Even if they are not dealing directly with entrepreneurship in the first place.

BDF's incubator is involved in the SUPREME project. This project addresses student drop-out by providing them a mentor programme. Mentors are drafted from the business world and some are senior students. The Supreme Mentoring Programme adopts the direct mentoring approach of the Dutch MentorProgramma Friesland. The SUPREME project further improves and applies this approach across Europe in close collaboration with Inqubator Leeuwarden. Supreme will develop a practical handbook that describes the mentor program and how to run it, how to find & bind world of work mentors and how to implement it in long-term strategy.The bèta version of the Supreme Mentoring Programme Manual is now available in online viewer format on www.supreme-mentoring.eu.

The project partners of SUPREME adopted the Business Model Canvas to determine their strategy how to secure optimal implementation of the mentoring program in 2014 and how to make it last.

All schools were very happy to receive the English draft ENTANGLE modules from BDF/Inqubator Leeuwarden as they were unfamiliar with the Business Model Canvas use up till now. They intend to use it for both their own benefit and in addition to their programmes on Entrepreneurship.

TEACHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE TEACHERS’ ROLE

What knowledge does a teacher need to teach entrepreneurship in the XXI century?

During the twentieth century Pedagogy considered teacher was the only valid source of knowledge and only needed to be an expert in the topic in order to develop his task. As result of this approach, teachers became the main character of the teaching-learning process.

Internet has caused a revolution in many aspects including the education. Internet has changed the pedagogical model and the way teachers teach.

The approach outlined in the previous paragraphs also applies to vocational training teachers trying to encourage entrepreneurship among students. That is why, in this first article on the pedagogy of entrepreneurship, we will focus the knowledge and skills needed by Entrepreneurship VET teachers.

 According with the European Commission for enterprise and industry reports TEACHER EDUCATION FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP FINAL REPORT and ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION: ENABLING TEACHERS AS A CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR, VET teachers need three types of skills in order to teach entrepreneurship.

According to the former reports, these skills are classified in three types:

• Content management skills: teachers require the skills to support students throughout the process of starting a business. This includes planning and preparing the project. In our ENTANGLE project, this knowledge is referenced to the CANVAS METHODOLOGY and to a set of knowledge management. In the lower picture in this same page, we refer content management skills as project management skills. 

• Pedagogical skills: to be successful it is necessary to put the stress in the pedagogies that encourage the process of learning: by doing, by exchange, by creative problems solving, etc. In our proposal, we use pedagogies based on exploring and researching the offered resources by Internet. This pedagogy is called PEDAGOGY OF DISCOVER. 

• Personal skills: much of the success of the process depends on the teachers’ communication skills. These skills are: active listening, the ability to negotiate, the ability to work in teams with others work mates and, the most important, the ability of creating a suitable learning environment in which the student can feel confident and secure. Only when teachers are aware of the importance of these skills they can teach entrepreneurship properly.

Form ENTANGLE Consortium we have developed a training program that takes into account this approach. We put the training program in the intersection of the three types of skills. We call this cross ENTANGLE UP.

Image 2: Entangle Up. Source: own elaboration.

This is, certainly, a novel approach on how to teach entrepreneurship 

Miguel Delgado

CETEI-Fundació Joan XXIII.

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