Final report - European Commission - Europa

KEY NOTE SPEECH, MR. ØYSTEIN DJUPEDALS,MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH OF NORWAYWe are, as you have noticed, two ministers present here today. This is because we find the topic of this conferenceimportant, and our two ministries work together with these issues. My colleague Mr Dag Terje Andersen has alreadymentioned the most important perspectives within entrepreneurship in education. That is why I choose to try out mycreative and innovative skills within the area of opening speeches, and give you a glimpse of four young enterpriseshere in Norway. Before I go to this part of the speech, I want to present three perspectives stressing the importanceof entrepreneurship in education for Norway.The question being asked is: Why entrepreneurship in education?First of all the human capital in the form of competence and workforce makes out the main part of Norway’s nationalfortune. It is the pupils and students of today who are supposed to create the values and the workplaces of thefuture. It is of major importance to develop knowledge, not only to understand, but also to change and further developour society.Secondly we have the regional and the local perspective. Through young enterprises a foundation is laid for futureentrepreneurship, innovation and productive work in the whole country. We want to motivate and inspire training institutions,municipalities and county municipalities to plan and anchor entrepreneurship as an educational tool.Stimulating entrepreneurship is a central dimension in the development of business and industry in our society.Newly established workplaces can contribute to strengthening the local labour market because these new workplacesare often situated where the entrepreneurs are living. New workplaces offer young people a greater possibilityof choice with regard to where to settle down.Thirdly we find that the education system has a role to play in stimulating attitudes and behaviour which promotethe capability to be creative. This must take place through long term work with good progression. Young people mustbe given a strong belief in their own creative forces and the ability to see and apply local resources as a basis forcreative values. With this belief in themselves, young people can be productive, develop workplaces and takeresponsibility in their local community.We all know that there are even more perspectives on what we gain from entrepreneurship in education. I have noteven mentioned what young people learn about democracy, about how they learn to cooperate or even understandthe complexity in a modern society through entrepreneurship and innovation.Today we launch a new strategy on entrepreneurship in education. This strategy is intended to serve as an instrumentfor the strengthening of entrepreneurship education. The strategy covers the entire education sector and hasconcrete objectives that are measurable. One of these objectives is the strengthening of international cooperation atall levels of education. This conference is a concrete example of our intentions put into practice. I believe this conferencecan be an arena for the initiation of new cooperation projects at European level. The Directorate for Educationand Training will give a more detailed presentation of the strategy in the next session.I could continue on the “why”, but I would rather show you a glimpse of some of the creative young people of Norway.I also know that you will discuss these issues amongst you these two days, so let me tell you about:1. “Den levende skogen”, or “The living forrest”.They organized their Kids Business as a theatre play about theirlocal municipality. They invited parents and friends to discuss environment and how important the forest is,and they will give the pupils in their school and the community a better insight to the place they live.2. If we move a little up in age, the mini company “HotSolution” represents an innovative idea, where they suggesta solution to a problem many parents have seen:12Entrepreneurship Education in Europe: Fostering Entrepreneurial Mindsets through Education and Learning