Comparative Analysis of Eight National Strategies on Entrepreneurship Education

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This document contains a comparative analysis of eight countries’ national strategies or initiatives for entrepreneurship education. The work was carried out in collaboration between members of the ‘National Strategies Cluster’ in the Innovation Cluster for Entrepreneurship Education (ICEE) project from June 2015 to July 2016. The working group had the purpose to share information about national plans supporting entrepreneurship education; analyse systemic issues that drive or hinder the success of a plan, come up with suggestions on how to develop and implement a strategy, and how to review and improve it on a regular basis. The countries involved are Belgium (Flanders), Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, and Norway. Information from other countries and/or information at the European level are included across the document.

The countries represented in the cluster are at different stages of development and implementation of a national strategy for entrepreneurship education. The analysis seeks to bring out similarities as well as differences between the countries and to identify what the success factors are when it comes to set and scale up national initiatives supporting entrepreneurship education. The analysis and comparison is made by using as an analytical tool the “Progression Model for Entrepreneurship Education Ecosystems in Europe” – which provides a framework for a systematic development in the area, with the ultimate goal of entrepreneurship education being available at every school and for every student in the Member States.

By taking into account the key components described in this framework, the following dimensions have been identified by the ICEE cluster on National Strategies as being important in any country’s efforts to move ahead with entrepreneurship education in a structural and efficient way:

  • Provide a broad policy platform for the work; a cross-ministerial collaboration, with the Ministry of Education in a leading role and with actors from as many policy domains as possible.
  • Agree on a joint and broad vision of entrepreneurship as key competence for all learners as well as on the role and purpose of entrepreneurship education which supports personal development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employability, rather than only being associated with business.
  • Have strong involvement from the education and business sector and seek intensive engagement from organisations such as employers’ organisations, unions and other national organisations that can support and strengthen dimensions in entrepreneurship education.
  • Maintain strong stakeholder relations; create win-win situations, involve stakeholders in designing, planning, implementing and evaluating policy and activity.
  • Understand and recognise the key role NGOs such as Junior Achievement can play as entities responsible for implementation and national support.
  • Respect the autonomy of educational institutions as long as they comply with national qualification framework or steering documents.
  • Work from top to bottom (macro) as well as from bottom up (micro), and remember the level in-between (meso), constituted by such stakeholders as school principals and school management.
  • Implement initiatives at all education levels and in all educational fields through a progression model.
  • Acknowledge the teachers’ role to function as facilitators.
  • Cover entrepreneurship in initial teacher training as well as in continuous professional development.
  • Map the spread and measure the impact of entrepreneurship education.
  • Build in measures to evaluate and monitor the strategy initiatives. Link the strategy to an evaluation plan.
  • Create visibility and raise awareness about entrepreneurship education.
  • Ensure career guidance for young people who want to realise their entrepreneurial ideas/make start-ups during and after their education.

Based on the experiences from the eight countries involved in the analysis, the development and implementation of national strategies on entrepreneurship education is often a long and slow process. Several challenges lie in their design and implementation but a deeper understanding about success factors and key elements to consider may help new countries moving into this area.

After an introduction about the ICEE project and its cluster on National Strategies (Chapter 1), this document provides an overview of the analysis (Chapter 2) with details about countries achievements (Chapter 3) and offers detailed information about success factors and key topics that should always be covered in a national strategy on entrepreneurship education (Chapter 4). An overview of the good practices identified by the cluster closes the document (Annex 3).

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