Description

If it is to make a success of the Lisbon strategy for growth and employment, Europe needs to stimulate the entrepreneurial mindsets of young people, encourage innovative business start-ups, and foster a culture that is friendlier to entrepreneurship and to the growth of SMEs. The important role of education in promoting more entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviours has become widely recognised. The benefits of entrepreneurship education are not limited to boosting start-ups, innovative ventures and new jobs. Entrepreneurship is a competence for all, helping young people to be more creative and self-confident in whatever they undertake (“Entrepreneurship in higher education, especially in non-business studies” (EC: 2008).

As we have witnessed an overall failure of free flow of capital, which had been advertised as a source of global prosperity and growth, we believe that not only economical and political powers are moving to the rescue. In fact, in civil society where we find the liveliest collection of dynamic and diverse social innovation projects. As a rule, the majority of these initiatives and projects are independent of the public initiative, and are part of a movement of new civic attitudes toward co-responsibility and the resolution of common problems. The opportunity lies on being aware of these changes, empowering these different groups and people, connecting them, and providing a fertile environment in which to develop and create a lively community of social innovation (SIS: 2011).

The 2006 EU Conference on “Entrepreneurship Education in Europe: Fostering Entrepreneurial Mindsets through Education and Learning” detailed a wide range of possible actions that could be taken by different stakeholders, with the development of entrepreneurship education strategy being at the heart of any set of initiatives. More recently, the EC has incorporated the promotion of entrepreneurship into its Europe 2020 strategy, which recognises entrepreneurship and self-employment as one of the key enablers of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan is “a blue print for decisive joint action to unleash Europe’s entrepreneurial potential, to remove existing obstacles and to revolutionise the culture of entrepreneurship in Europe” (p.5). Entrepreneurial education and training is Action Pillar 1 of the proposed plan.

Europe‘s financial crisis as well as challenges of the new society (environmental sustainability , ageing, social inclusion) have opened doors on socio-economic business model. The slogan “there is no economic growth and jobs creation without social entrepreneurship” launched the Commission’s Social Business Initiative. “The Social Business Initiative” (COM2011) aims to foster an enabling environment for the social economy, acting along three axes by increasing funding and easing access to funding, strengthening the reputation on the social sector, and rationalising the legal environment and cutting red tape. The European strategy also recommends that “Both young and established social entrepreneurs need to build the necessary skills to ensure that their business is well managed and can grow. The Commission therefore wishes to promote cross-fertilisation with innovative entrepreneurs and academic and research fields. This may take place in particular in the context of business incubators (for social start-ups). The few existing examples in these fields deserve to be supported and expanded. Social entrepreneurs should also be able to receive advice and support from other business leaders or bankers.”