A conference on entrepreneurship education recommends the integration of entrepreneurs and professionals into higher-education curricula design and delivery.

The relaunched Lisbon agenda (February 2005) stresses the importance of promoting a more entrepreneurial culture and creating a supportive environment for SMEs to deliver stronger growth and more and better jobs. Indeed, research suggests that there is a positive correlation between entrepreneurship and economic growth, in particular in high-income countries.

The Commission published, in February 2006, a Communication

(http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2006/com2006_0033en01.pdf) outlining a set of recommendations to foster entrepreneurship education in Europe. Implementing the Community Lisbon Programme: Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets through education and learning states that "if Europe wants to successfully maintain its social model, it needs more economic growth, more new firms, more entrepreneurs willing to embark in innovative ventures, and more high-growth SMEs".

Promoting entrepreneurship among young people is also a key element of the European Youth Pact (http://europa.eu/youth/news/index_1794_en.html) adopted by the European Council in March 2004.

A conference entitled "Entrepreneurship education in Europe - fostering entrepreneurial mindsets through education and learning" took place in Oslo on 26-27 October 2006 (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/entrepreneurship/support_measures/training_education/oslo.htm . The conference, jointly organised by the Commission and the Norwegian government, gathered relevant stakeholders to discuss the related policies and practices at all levels of education.

Policymakers and representatives from different public departments, business associations, representatives from schools and universities, experts and researchers shared good practice and discussed, in a number of workshops, entrepreneurship in kindergarten, primary, secondary and higher education.

Each workshop elaborated concrete initiatives on how to put the recommendations of the recent Commission Communication (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2006/com2006_0033en01.pdf ) into practice. Among the recommendations put forward are creation of a better platform of projects and teaching materials, better transfer of the processes of best practice projects and more public-private-partnership-projects.

The conference also recommended embedding entrepreneurship within secondary school curricula but did not say whether this should be voluntary or mandatory. The role of teachers and educators and their appropriate training was highlighted as crucial at all levels of education.

The workshop on entrepreneurship in higher education recommended integration of entrepreneurs and professionals in curricula design and delivery and highlighted the need to clarify the outcomes we seek from higher education.

(EurActiv)