Final report - European Commission - Europa

WORKSHOP CONCLUSIONSRapporteur: Hamid Bouchiki, ESSEC Business School, FranceI. PreambleThe participants in this workshop fully acknowledge the crucial role of quality and impact assessment in the diffusionand development of entrepreneurship education. They are nevertheless, aware that mindless measurement systemsand practices can induce counter-productive consequences. A thoughtful approach to measurement ensures that thequestions of what to measure, why, for whom, when and how are adequately answered before setting up an impact andquality measurement system.II.The State of PlayThe design of quality and impact assessment systems is challenged by the high complexity of entrepreneurship educationin Europe.First, entrepreneurship education means different things to different people: enterprise culture, new business start-up,creation of new businesses in established firms or the entrepreneurial mindset.Second, impact and quality assessment and improvement are constrained by poor knowledge of cause-effect relationships.In particular, research has not yet provided satisfactory answers as to what makes people entrepreneurial and howcan formal education contribute to the process. Also, it is still difficult to know whether entrepreneurship programs“merely” attract entrepreneurial people or do indeed contribute to making recipients more entrepreneurial.Third, contrary to advances in other fields of public policy, entrepreneurship, in general, and entrepreneurship education,in particular, still lack an “evaluation culture” that is comparative, independent, multi-stakeholder and time phased.Finally, and corollary to the observations above, entrepreneurship education lacks quality standards and certification.To address these issues, participants in the workshops have put forward twelve recommendations.III. Recommendations1. Take stock of what existsThe EU should undertake systematic data collection about entrepreneurship education in Europe: target groups, programs,resources (teachers, teaching materials, budgets), cost effectiveness, etc. This ground work shall enableEuropean educators and policy makers to better map out the fields and identify good practices.2. Encourage networking and information sharingMember states should encourage the creation of networks of entrepreneurship education stakeholders. To this purpose,they should enable the implementation of common platforms to publicize best practices, services, and results.These platforms must enable information sharing about best practices, obstacles, solutions, evaluation and qualitystandards. Also, they should enable comparison, cooperation, and competition. The participants in the workshop insistthat these platforms are open to cooperation with business.The French Observatory of Pedagogical Practices in Entrepreneurship (OPPE) is a good example of what can be achievedin this area. The Jade network for Junior Enterprises illustrates a decentralized approach to the same objective.Involving small numbers of students on European campuses, the network enables the sharing of experiences betweenits members and sharpens their entrepreneurial mindset.62Entrepreneurship Education in Europe: Fostering Entrepreneurial Mindsets through Education and Learning