Empowering Teacher Competence to Promote Social Entrepreneurship in European School (ETCO)

‟Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship can be broadly defined as the capacity to turn ideas into action, ideas that generate value for someone other than oneself. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship is a transversal key competence, which every citizen needs for personal fulfilment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment in the knowledge society.” (Entrepreneurship Competence Framework, 2016).

In the European reference framework ‟sense of initiative and entrepreneurship” is one of eight key competences for lifelong learning which citizens require for their personal fulfilment, social inclusion, active citizenship and employability in a knowledge-based society. All students should have access to entrepreneurship education, which should be offered in all types and at all levels of education. Teachers and schools are key agents: an individual’s chances of receiving good quality entrepreneurship education has depended mainly on the enthusiasm of teaching staff and their ability to secure the right resources.

Teachers have a critical role to play in the development of entrepreneurship education. In this respect, with this project we aim to build a system that ultimately enables all students to receive high quality entrepreneurship education that they can use at every stage of the educational process to develop social entrepreneurship competencies. To realize this aim to train 32 students through 2 blended mobility of school learners and 115 teachers in 4 joint staff trainings embedded with MOOCs with 4 secondary schools and four non profit organisations from Hungary, Turkey, Greece and Slovenia in 24 months. In the long run, the project is expected to:

• • stimulate innovative and entrepreneurial mindsets among students by introducing entrepreneurship as a key competence in school curricula, particularly in general secondary education and ensure that it is correctly reflected in teaching material;
  • ensure that the importance of entrepreneurship is correctly reflected in education systems design and develop a new model of entrepreneurship education boosting social innovation and social entrepreneurial skills in young people within the school education system in Europe.
  • Enhance the ability to develop own teaching competencies by updating their professional know-how and by recognising the future trends and developments in the employment sector.
  • The project is expected to have a significant impact on individual educators and their organisations across Europe, largely related to the developed entrepreneurship resources as a means of providing a new and innovative approach to promoting sustainability and developing related skills in schools.
  • It is anticipated that the resources developed during the project will complement and expand existing training initiatives at various educational levels across Europe and expand traditional teaching and learning practices to include new technologies.

The project is expected to offer opportunities for the exchange of ideas and good practices with peers from across Europe through the proposed multiplier event, training sessions and the online platform.

Duration of the project: 36 months (1st September, 2020 – 31st August, 2023)