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.