European Entrepreneurship Education - your skills for the future!

The aim of the project was to develop a concept of international student mini companies in the European economic surroundings as a new and innovative pedagogical method. This way, students of all partner schools were supported to develop their own leadership skills with an additional focus on CSR. The experiences they gained during the project were supplemented by the great opportunity to get to know people from other countries and cultures in Europe. They cooperated by working on common topics towards common goals. Based on the quotation mentioned in the project summary at application time (see above), we have been working on implementing an international entrepreneurial spirit in all our schools with the aid of innovative teaching and learning methods for students aged 16-19, who not only had been taught entrepreneurship in their business subjects previously but had also claimed a strong will to participate in the mobilities by submitting letters of motivation and undergoing interviews with a jury.The objectives of the project were to further develop students' leadership skills: i.e. skills in public speaking, leading a team, collaborating with partners from different cultural backgrounds, increasing students' awareness about the common European business environment; promoting the development, testing and/or implementation of innovative practices in the field of education, training and youth, improving ICT skills in the professional environment; improving foreign language skills through content integrated language learning (CLIL) in entrepreneurial issues; developing a sustainable new school network with many cooperation possibilities in the future, strengthening the cooperation between organisations with a view to establishing exchanges of good practices.The content-based activities of the project “European Entrepreneurship Education - your skills for the future” have enabled our students to experience the process of starting a new business from scratch and creating a European student mini company by fostering their entrepreneurial skills. This involved the sequences from the initial stage of generating an innovative business idea to managing its implementation and the development of all the enterprise functional areas (marketing, international business law, business ethics, finance).The most relevant project activities for exchanging knowledge and sharing ideas were the transnational student business meetings, business area reports, the participation in international students’ mini company trading fairs, meetings with experts in different business-related fields, the use of 21st century skills and new business models especially based on sustainability, the preparation of entrepreneurial teaching material, and dissemination of information and results of the project via Internet platforms such as E-Twinning and EwB.In the past, all partners had gained different experiences in the practical training with mini companies in their countries, because all schools have a specialization in teaching entrepreneurship. Moreover, the five Economics teachers involved in this schools partnership are registered at the European network of EWB (Enterprises without borders by Young Enterprises - Junior Achievement) and three of them have already had the opportunity to work in former international projects together. Thus, it could be stated that all the schools involved in the project have either a lot of experience managing international projects and working with long-term international partners, or are open to new ideas and tend to look for innovative ways of teaching.The long-term benefits of the project we expect are the continuing of our school partnerships enabling a reliable network for sharing innovative approaches to teaching and using participatory approaches and ICT-based methodologies. This should result in a more modern, dynamic, committed, and professional environment inside the organizations and thus, provide more attractive education and training programs. That involves being ready to integrate good practices and new methods in teaching routines; showing interest in synergies with organizations active in different fields or in other socio-economic sectors; improving management competences and planning strategic internationalisation; increasing the capacity and professionalism to work at EU/international level; reinforcing cooperation with partners from other countries, other fields of education, training and youth and/or other socio-economic sectors.