The project Peer-Learning Activities in Entrepreneurship Education and in Women’s Entrepreneurship, implemented 2018 to 2021, now published its final reports. The project, coordinated by empirica, organised six highly interactive workshops with experts from all over Europe. Three workshops focused on EE, three on WE. Altogether, the project involved over 300 experts. The recommendations are derived from the workshops as well as related online communities and surveys of participants. Literature reviews complemented personal experience with empirical insights. One of the project’s key recommendations is to train the trainers: teachers at schools and educators at higher education institutions – in entrepreneurship. The experts recommend the following key actions to foster EE and WE in Europe. Entrepreneurship education:
Develop EE competence of leaders and teachers in education institutions. Encourage cooperation of EE stakeholders about policies and curricula. Communicate what EE is and what benefits it brings. Measure and compare EE practice and impact in pan-European research. Share EE knowledge and experience to enhance teaching and learning.
Women’s entrepreneurship:
Raise acknowledgement and awareness about the importance of WE. Improve access to finance for female entrepreneurs. Ensure life-long entrepreneurial learning especially for women. Build a pan-European umbrella organisation and network for WE. Collect and analyse data about women’s entrepreneurship.
Moreover, mechanisms such as the European Semester, the Next Generation EU Recovery fund, and European funding instruments can support EE and WE take-up. An overarching finding of this project was: driving entrepreneurship education requires concerted actions of different stakeholders: Governments, educational institutions, civil society actors, enterprises, and their associations: on local, regional, national and European level. The EE-WE project deliberately targeted entrepreneurship education and women’s entrepreneurship. Both have in common that they do not yet gain the attention they de-serve: and should be further developed to tap into the full potential of creativity and innovativeness in Europe. The final publications are available at the following links: A guide for fostering entrepreneurship education – Publications Office of the EU (europa.eu) A guide for fostering women’s entrepreneurship – Publications Office of the EU (europa.eu) Executive Summary: Peer-learning in entrepreneurship education and in women’s entrepreneurship – Publications Office of the EU (europa.eu) More information, including videos from the workshops, are available at http://www.ee-we.eu.