UIIN Magazine Special Issue Pays Tribute to the EEE Approach to Entrepreneurship in Education
Entrepreneurship Education Entrepreneurship Teaching Modules Entrepreneurship Teaching Toolkit Regional Alliances

Over the past few decades, the field of Entrepreneurship in Education has found itself a flourishing ground, and has achieved academic legitimacy and maturity expanding its practice across borders, and among learners of all ages and backgrounds. Yet, the interpretation of what entrepreneurship in education is and how it is facilitated varies greatly across institutions and environments. Prepared as a tribute to the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project Embedding Entrepreneurship Education (EEE), this special issue of University Industry Innovation Magazine is dedicated to exploring the diversity of the approaches and practices to embedding entrepreneurship in higher education.

During the past two years, the EEE project consortium has developed a variety of tools and instruments that can be used to promote entrepreneurial thinking and action, establish regional stakeholder networks, and foster setting up state-of-the-art entrepreneurship education curriculum at the university level. We hope that the EEE Teaching Toolkit and its individual modules, the Roadmap for Universities to Create Regional Alliances will enable the replication of these good practices in other regions in Europe.

Apart from highlighting the EEE project approach and the outcomes, this issue of the magazine introduces the work of some of the most prominent European initiatives, WEXHE, EntreAssess, ETEE, and Tomorrow’s Land. Further, the issue brings to your attention the institutional journeys of JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, and Munich Business School, as well as two Australian universities LaTrobe University and The University of Adelaide, in integrating an entrepreneurial culture and curriculum within their institutions.

To explore more of the EEE project outputs and dive into the variety of institutional practices in embedding entrepreneurship in higher education, we encourage you to access the magazine here.

EEE Project Presented at DAAD Transnational Erasmus+ Meeting in Bonn
Entrepreneurship Education Entrepreneurship Teaching Toolkit Erasmus+ Promotion Activities Regional Alliances Univations

From the 16th to 17th of May, the NA-DAAD hosted a Transnational Cooperation Activity (TCA) on dissemination, sustainability and impact in Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships at Wissenschaftszentrum in Bonn. The EEE project has been selected as a good practice example and was given a chance to be introduced to a high-level group of European HEI and Erasmus+ NA representatives.

In his presentation Florian Bratzke – responsible project officer at EEE Project Lead partner Univations GmbH – introduced the participants to the EEE fundamentals and intellectual outputs of the project. Those include EEE Teaching Toolkit and the Roadmap for establishing regional alliances for promoting entrepreneurship education in the region. Furthermore, he emphasized main EEE dissemination achievements such as winning La Trobe University as associated project partner, being selected for the EntreComp Into Action and involved present stakeholders into a vivid discussion on efficient impact and sustainability measures based on the successful experiences made within the EEE project.

The presentation was an integral part of a transversal workshop on entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial learning and labour market issues and was moderated by Mrs. Dijana Stilinovic of AMPEU (NA-Erasmus+ Croatia). Another highlight of the 2-day event on Bonn was the presence of Mrs. Elena Tegovska of the European Commission (DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture) who presented valuable insights on dissemination, sustainability and impact from a European policy perspective. Mrs Tunguska’s contribution as well as all other inputs of the TCA can be downloaded at the NA-DAAD: https://bit.ly/2keJtbX.

 

©all rights to images used in this article belong to DAAD 

 

 

 

EEE Roadmap: Your Guide to Establish a Regional Alliance that Brings Entrepreneurship Education to the Next level
Entrepreneurship Education Regional Alliances Regional Ecosystems

Cultivating entrepreneurial spirit across different layers of the society is a communal act, which requires engagement of various local actors including e.g. academic institutions, entrepreneurs, governmental bodies, and NGOs among others. In the scope of the EEE project, higher education institutions (HEIs) are placed in the centre, to bring together these local stakeholders to raise awareness, and create a joint comprehensive approach to develop, implement and institutionalize entrepreneurship education in the universities. Within the project’s timespan thus far, three alliances have been formed: in Halle/Saale, Germany; in Tyrol region, Austria; and in Szeged, Hungary, in a process led by the major universities of each region. Embedding Entrepreneurship Education Roadmap is the product of these efforts, as a toolkit that records the experiences and the lessons learnt, as well as providing a set of resources to help other regions establish an Entrepreneurship Education Alliance.

Embedding Entrepreneurship Education Roadmap offers a 10-step guideline on how to design, implement and coordinate joint educational and promotional entrepreneurial programmes. From the practical tips on establishing a coordinating body of the alliance, to the specific ways of monitoring the execution and sustainability of the whole programme, this toolkit explains in detail how to potentially organize a long-term interaction between higher education institutions, entrepreneurs and other actors, who are passionate about the growth of regional entrepreneurship.

The Roadmap illustrates how business and academic sectors can cooperate to achieve a connected approach to teach and promote entrepreneurship via practical examples based on three well-realized Regional Alliances. Thus, despite its primary focus on HEIs, the Roadmap can serve other academic, business or government actors engaged in entrepreneurship education. These good practices have utilized a variation of techniques and processes in their establishment and operation. The University of Szeged, Hungary exemplifies how an alliance can be built around the faculty, Univations GmbH, Germany shows how an alliance can form around an affiliated institute, and Management Center Innsbruck, Austria demonstrates how a new alliance can be developed around an existing one. Certainly, there is no single right path or a practice that can be directly replicated. Yet, with the given tools and examples, the Embedding Entrepreneurship Education Roadmap aims to foster implementation of the model in other European regions, reinterpreted within their own contexts.

Startup Festival and ‘Innopun(s)ch’ Workshop in Innsbruck welcomed EEE Project and its First Outputs
Events Management Center Innsbruck Promotion Activities Regional Alliances

Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) successfully introduced EEE project and the first project outputs to the regional entrepreneurial community and wider public at the Innsbruck Startup Festival and the innovation workshop.   

For a day, the old city of Innsbruck transformed itself from a historic neighbourhood to a modern entrepreneurial hub together with The Startup Festival, organized by Startup.Euregio. On 24 November, 2017, the pop-up start-up focal point ‘BASE EINS’ united more than 200 students, investors, start-ups, experts and other individuals passionate about fostering entrepreneurship in Tyrol, South Tyrol and Trentino. As an active participant, Management Center Innsbruck showcased its activities and recent outcomes, which have been well received by the visitors.

‘Innopun(s)ch’ workshop

A week after, on 1 December, 2017, EEE project was highlighted at yet another engaging event – ‘Innopun(s)ch’ workshop by MCI and Werkstaette Wattens. 20 participants from different backgrounds came together to discuss latest topics in the field of innovation management. A special focus has been laid on interactivity and practice to not only understand, but ‘feel’ and ‘touch’ innovation. Modules from the Entrepreneurship Teaching Toolkit have been employed in order to enrich the workshop and enhance the experience of its participants.

The 6th EEE Regional Alliance Meeting in Germany Successfully Introduces Entrepreneurship Teaching Toolkit
Entrepreneurship Education Events Regional Alliances Univations

On November 30, 2017 Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences opened its doors for the 6th stakeholder meeting of the EEE regional alliance in Halle/Saale, Germany. In addition to discussing further strategies for strengthening the co-operation within the alliance, the regional EEE project’s stakeholders were introduced to the latest version of the Entrepreneurship Teaching Toolkit – a compilation of effective methodological and functional approaches to embed entrepreneurship in the academic curriculum design. 

The Entrepreneurship Teaching Toolkit offers a variety of possibilities to improve students’ entrepreneurial skills and allows for academics’ creativity in curriculum design through its modular structure. The developed modules – hence tools – focus on fostering students’ individual entrepreneurial competences to support innovative thinking and start-up creation both in theory and practice. Moreover, the toolkit includes course materials and case studies that can be customized for student-business and social entrepreneurship courses. The Entrepreneurship Teaching Toolkit also promotes external engagement and involvement of the business sector in educational programs at higher education institutions.  The online version of the toolkit can be accessed here.

The toolkit has received positive feedback from EEE project regional stakeholders. In fact, Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences currently aims to revisit curricular content to incorporate entrepreneurship education course modules and related learning outcomes into selected programmes. In this respect, EEE project has noticeably promoted the awareness and motivation to incorporate entrepreneurial education in academic curricula for this specific institution. The next step will be an establishment of the constructive dialogue among the internal university stakeholders on potential integration of EEE project resources into the teaching activities of the university. The EEE team of Univations GmbH has agreed to support this dialogue by further promoting the toolkit and explaining its underlying methodology to relevant stakeholders.

Szeged holds its second alliance meeting
Entrepreneurship Education Regional Alliances

University of Szeged recently held its second alliance meeting with the participation of representatives from local businesses and entrepreneurs. The meeting fostered strengthening the ties among the alliance members, marked by an action plan signed by the USZ EEE Project management and the attendees. 

During the first meeting, USZ offered several opportunities for the stakeholders, mostly local entrepreneurs, to take part in the EEE Entrepreneurship semester course that will run from September to December.

After the first meeting, attendants of the meeting were sent out a needs assessment questionnaire, as well the participants who could not attend but express their interest, in which they were able to indicate their expressions of interest and the form of involvement.

Based on the feedback from this assessment questionnaire, USZ finalised the program of the course by defining:

  • List of persons involved
  • Tasks undertaken by involved parties
  • Offered educational program elements, e.g. topic of lectures, tasks of students and call for competition.

During the second alliance meeting, together with the participating entrepreneurs, University of Szeged confirmed this program and signed an Action Plan that demonstrated the mutual commitment from all the parties involved in the project. The discussions lead to collaborative efforts among the business leaders and entrepreneurs to form bonds that will potentially live beyond the project.

The next step – the third alliance meeting – will take place in early September, when all the practical details will be finalised about the involvement of the stakeholders, and the EEE entrepreneurship semester course can be launched.

Halle Wraps up an Eventful Month
Events Management Regional Alliances

Univations participates in DAAD Workshop to bring EEE dissemination to the next level

On 27.04.2017 Mr. Florian  Bratzke, European Project Officer at EEE Partner Univations GmbH, joined an one day PR workshop organised by German Academic Exchange Service DAAD in Bonn. During the workshop, innovative techniques for dissemination of project progress and results have been introduced to German Erasmus+ consortium leaders and partners. Going along with the high internal quality standards set to guarantee the project’s success, EEE partners agreed to intensify their efforts to disseminate project related outcomes. The insights from the DAAD workshop will support EEE partner to life up to this goal.

 

Univations prepares for German National Launch of EEE

On May 5th, Daniel Worch, CEO of EEE Partner Univations GmbH, has met with representatives from Saxony-Anhalt EU-Service-Agency to discuss the German EEE national launch which will take the 21st of November 2017 in Halle. During this high-level one-day-conference, participants from HEIs, VETs, Business and the political scene will be introduced to the main outcomes of EEE asked for productive feedback to improve the open educational resources. As the event will be organised in conjunction with Saxony-Anhalt EU-Service-Agency, EEE related subjects will be also part of the agenda and presented by guest speakers. One of the main speakers will be Mr. David Fenners, Policy Officer for Research & Innovation, State Aid & Procurement and Regional Policy at the Representation of the State of Saxony-Anhalt to the EU. Univations will host the event at the heart of Technology Parc Weinberg Campus.

 

Successful 3rd stakeholder meeting of EEE Regional Alliance in Halle

The German branch of the EEE consortium has met for the 3rd Regional Alliance Stakeholder Meeting on 18.05.2017 in Magdeburg, capital city of Saxony-Anhalt. After a short introductory note from Univations CEO Daniel Worch, Stakeholders were introduced to the latest developments within EEE and informed about the German EEE National Launch taking place 21.11.2017 at Technology Parc Weinberg Campus in Halle. One part of the event the was also dedicated to Prof. Dr. Graham Hortons Founders Playbook, which has the potential to ideally complement the EEE Teaching Toolkit when it comes to the point where students actually want to start-up a company. Prof. Horten explicitly asked participants to contribute their expertise to the Playbook, a process the EEE consortium has started as well with the pilot testing of the first module from the EEE teaching toolkit during the MLU Gründerservice Entrepreneurship week in May. As a matter of fact, stakeholders of the 3rd EEE alliance meeting agreed to intensify cooperation in the next months in order to draft a set of joint actions for improving entrepreneurship education in the region.

 

Halle pilot teaches EEE Courses
Entrepreneurship Teaching Modules Regional Alliances

Univations strengthens ties with their major alliance partner Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) on the pilot teaching of the EEE entrepreneurship course modules. On behalf of their 2nd regional alliance meeting on 30.03.2017 at MLU, Univations discussed EEE goals and strategies with Prof. Dr. Claudia Becker – Dean of the Economics and Law Faculty.

At the meeting held with Prof. Dr. Claudia Becker, Dean of the Economics and Law Faculty, the project team was assured to receive the faculties support in helping the EEE consortium to pilot test the learning resources that will be developed throughout the course of the project. Furthermore, Prof. Becker agreed to become an active member in the EEE Halle Alliance, emphasizing her will to assist Univations to carry EEE initiatives into MLU. During the meeting it was further agreed to work closely together with the Start-Up Service of MLU and to intensify efforts to extend the EEE stakeholder network of the regional alliance in the next months. Due to her expertise, experience and position as Dean, Prof. Becker will be a key figure for identifying and recruiting high potential MLU staff and students, who are able to positively contribute to the EEE mission.

 

Szeged secures support of regional business leaders
Entrepreneurship Education Regional Alliances

The second alliance event in the line after Halle, Szeged Regional Alliance meeting has brought together higher education professionals and the representatives of regional firms to identify possible methods of cooperation and plan the upcoming steps in the EEE entrepreneurship course development and implementation.

Szeged Regional Alliance kick-off meeting successfully took place on 9 March 2017 in the premises of University of Szeged (USZ) in the leadership of the project team Dr. Norbert Buzás, Dr. Szabolcs Prónay, and Sándor Huszár. The event hosted more than 20 business partners who are interested in investing in their experience and knowledge in the EEE Project entrepreneurship course development, implementation, and the promotion activities in cooperation with the USZ teaching staff.

The meeting has identified the following steps regarding the involvement of the business representatives and student selection as (i) registering the exact role and contribution of the external partners, i.e. holding a lecture, mentoring a team, offering a business problem in the entrepreneurship courses, a discussion that will be finalized in late March and (ii) carrying out a well-defined recruitment process that will target the right group of students who will benefit from the teaching program the most, particularly those who are enthusiastic about the topic to put in practice what they have learned.

The next alliance meeting is agreed to take place in the month of June.

 

The First Halle Regional Alliance Meeting: Insights
Entrepreneurship Education Regional Alliances

Halle Regional Alliance meeting facilitated introduction of the EEE Project to the entrepreneurship program management at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), as well as calling for support for the promotion and teaching of the EEE entrepreneurship courses at different platforms in the university.

The first Halle Regional Alliance meeting took place on 23 February with the participation of the representatives from Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Univations EEE Project team. The meeting served the project team to introduce the EEE Project to the entrepreneurship education program coordinators at MLU, as well as calling for support from the university leadership in the teaching of the EEE entrepreneurship courses. The participants defined the preliminary steps as the generation of a sound strategy on how to promote entrepreneurship teaching among the MLU academic staff and identify suitable platforms to pilot-teach the entrepreneurship course modules to MLU students.

Suggestions for the possible teaching platforms included ‘MLU Startup Week 2017’, an entrepreneurship campaign supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy as part of the nationwide initiative called ‘Gründerwoche Deutschland’, Startup Week Germany. The event that will take place from 8th – 13th May 2017 this year is expected to bring together students, scientists and entrepreneurs in the region within a program that will include excursions, trainings, workshops, informative lectures and networking events.

The project team has scheduled in the next days a follow-up meeting with the MLU Faculty of Economy and Law to discuss the concrete steps to be taken in the promotion and teaching of the entrepreneurship courses.