Final report - European Commission - Europa

CLOSING SPEECHMaruja Gutierrez, Head of Unit, European Commission - Directorate General for Educationand CultureIn her closing speech, Mrs. Gutiérrez-Diaz, Head of Unit in the Directorate General for Education and Training, thankedthe Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Oslo Schoolof Management for their hospitality and for sharing their expertise in this important subject.She congratulated the various stakeholders, who had successfully worked together supporting the quest thatEntrepreneurship education can and must be a key subject for education and training.She underlined that promoting an entrepreneurial culture is a shared vision within the Commission policy areas in orderto meet the Lisbon objectives and in order to foster innovation and to maintain economic growth and competitiveness.The conclusions she drew from the conference were the following:Entrepreneurship education needs to start from early on.Closer links between education and business are needed.Entrepreneurship education needs a more prominent place in the school curricula.Learning entrepreneurship asks for practical approaches and hands-on experience.'Fostering Entrepreneurial Mindsets' needs to be promoted at all levels of education.A coherent framework of teaching of entrepreneurship in schools and universities is needed.Schools need to be supported with tools and materials and incentives for the teachers are needed to encouragethe take-up of entrepreneurship activities and programmes.Entrepreneurship is one of the eight key competences defined in the Draft Recommendation on KeyCompetences for Lifelong Learning which was adopted by the Commission in November 2005. This underlinesthe importance of entrepreneurship as being a prerequisite to meeting the challenges of an increasingly globalsociety.Universities need to promote the spirit of enterprise and create a favourable climate for the emergence of entrepreneurshipalso by placing more emphasis on supporting students’ business ideas.Finally, highlighting some of the concrete examples discussed during the conference, Mrs. Gutiérrez-Diaz emphasizedthat a large number of 'good practice' examples can be found in Europe, but that the challenge was to disseminate informationabout these positive examples.Referring to the new Lifelong Learning Programme, she invited Member States and encouraged stakeholders to set upprojects, to help promote creativity, competitiveness, employability and the growth of an entrepreneurial spirit.81Entrepreneurship Education in Europe: Fostering Entrepreneurial Mindsets through Education and Learning