Entrepreneurship Competence: An Overview of Existing Concepts, Policies and Initiatives – In-depth case studies report

Entrepreneurship is recognized by the European Union as one of the eight key competences for lifelong learning, and thus necessary for all members of a knowledge-based society. It is also regarded as an enabler for economic recovery, growth, job creation, employment, inclusion, poverty reduction, and also innovation and productivity. As such, it has become a policy priority and measures have been taken to incorporate entrepreneurship into different policy fields, including education. Education and training systems across Europe are indeed taking entrepreneurship progressively into account. This report presents 10 case studies, which address how entrepreneurship as a key competence is taught and learnt in real settings across all levels of education (i.e. primary, secondary, tertiary) and learning contexts (i.e. formal, non-formal and informal) in Europe. The in-depth analysis of the 10 cases was carried out through several rounds of desk research, direct enquiries and face-to-face or telephone interviews, and expert consultation. This comparative analysis highlights similarities and differences in the development of entrepreneurship competence in terms of pedagogical approaches, assessment practices, evaluation strategies, impact, factors of transferability and sustainability. This report is an interim output of the JRC-IPTS funded study 'Entrepreneurship Competence: An overview of existing concepts, policies and initiatives (OvEnt)' conducted by CARSA. The OvEnt study is part of the wider research agenda of JRC-IPTS on 'ICT for Learning and Skills' that aims to provide evidence on how skills and key competences that our digital society needs are acquired, certified and recognised.