Entrepreneurship in European higher education is widely taught in economics departments, but only a few schools have implemented curricula to shape entrepreneurial attitudes in technical and scientific departments. On the other hand, the most innovative companies are technological companies. Therefore, following the example of American universities, there is an urgent need to improve the entrepreneurial skills of students in the fields of science and engineering at European universities. The project is an answer to an educational problem which is lack of effective tools that could be used to increase social and professional activity of young generation entering the labour market in order to make full use of their potential for the development of economy. The main project objective is to prepare a comprehensive and coherent educational product which introduces the entrepreneurial-skills oriented courses to the curricula of the Institutions that, up to now, have had no or small experience with entrepreneurship teaching. The project will as well be a good platform for the exchange of practices between the institutions with a big experience in that area. The Entrepreneurship course will shape hard business skills such as recognizing the market, preparing a business plan, attracting investors or protecting intellectual property. But it is also very important that the course will shape soft skills necessary for every entrepreneurial graduate, namely: cooperation in multi-disciplinary teams, leadership, product design and services based on customer strategy development. The project will involve two kinds of partners: two faculties with no experience in entrepreneurship teaching (BEGINNERS) and three faculties that have already developed and introduced such courses but still want to make those more attractive (ADVANCED). A big advantage of the ADVANCED group is its multidisciplinary: Bialystok University of Technology (BUT) – Faculty of Computer Science, University of Leipzig (ULE) – Small Enterprise Promotion and Training, University of the Aegean (UTA) - Department of Shipping, Trade and Transport. The group of BEGINNERS consists of: University of Aveiro (UDA) and Maritime University of Szczecin (MUS). Those universities would like to introduce an entrepreneurial, skills-oriented course into their curricula. In the first stage of the project the course programmes of each ADVANCED institution will be compared, their best parts will be chosen to create a new course programme, which will be introduced both at ADVANCED and BEGINNER faculties. Next, the new course programme will be tested twice on a group of students and teachers from partner universities. The first test will be carried out by teachers of ADVANCED partners during the first summer school and the other by teachers of BEGINNER partners during the second summer school. Conclusions and lessons learned in the testing phase will be used to develop comprehensive teaching materials in the form of an e-book. The new Entrepreneurship course will be a result of work of a multidisciplinary team of teachers of all partner universities. The final results of the project will be disseminated during academic seminars and workshops summaring the project. The main results of the projects are: 1. Development of Entrepreneurship course programme for a multidisciplinary group of students and e-guidebook to promote it, 2. Improvement of student business skills and positive attitudes towards launching their own company, 3. Exchange of good practices and ideas among teachers of partner universities, 4. Transfer of entrepreneurship knowledge and experience, between universities (project partners), founders/entrepreneurs and (local) business community, 5. Promotion of entrepreneurship course programme among European HEIs and at regional and national levels, 6. Establishing contacts with new partners. MELES contributes to the modernisation of Europe's higher educational systems as outlined in the 2011 EU Modernisation Agenda in the following priority directions of reforms: 1. improving the quality of education and adaptation of curricula to individual needs and requirements of the labour market and future careers; 2. promoting international cooperation in order to improve performance in education; 3. strengthening the links between education, research and business for innovation and achieving outstanding results; MELES follows the objectives of Strategic Partnership: 1. developing key competencies, including entrepreneurship, knowledge of languages, knowledge of information technology, 2. customizing the education and skills to labour market needs, 3. entrepreneurship education, active citizenship, better opportunities in the labour market. MELES also follows the objectives of Europa 2020: 1. enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training, 2. the development of generic and horizontal skills, in particular related to entrepreneurship, ICT, multilingualism.
More entrepreneurial life at European schools (MELES) project has been created as an answer to an educational challenge, which is lack of effective tools that could be used to increase the social and professional activity of young generation entering the labour market in order to make full use of their potential for the development of the economy. This challenge created an urgent need to improve the entrepreneurial skills of students in the fields of science and engineering at European universities. The main project objective was to prepare a comprehensive and coherent educational product which introduces the entrepreneurial-skills oriented courses to the curricula of the Institutions that, up to now, had no or small experience with entrepreneurship teaching. The MELES project allowed both students and teachers to develop skills that have so far been neglected in the curriculum. It also fostered cooperation between higher education institutions, representing different fields of study as well as introduced unconventional and innovative methods of teaching, displacing the traditional approach to the teaching process. The Entrepreneurship course shaped hard business skills such as recognizing the market, preparing a business model, product design, and services based on customer strategy development, attracting investors or protecting intellectual property. But it also shaped soft skills necessary for every entrepreneurial graduate, namely: cooperation in multi-disciplinary teams, leadership and presentation techniques. The curricula have been tested at each of the participating institutions during two summer schools organized within the project. In particular, the latter led to intensive work with students representing all the partner universities and from more than a dozen countries around the world. Conclusions and lessons learned in the testing phase were used to develop comprehensive teaching materials in the form of an e-book. The project was funded under Key Action 2 Strategic Partnerships. It focused on sharing, developing and transferring innovative practices between participating countries. By working together, involved organizations developed new approaches to youth work and encouraged cooperation over longer periods. Young people benefitting from the project learned about social entrepreneurship and were encouraged to take a more active role in their local economy and society. MELES followed the objectives of the Strategic Partnerships by 1. Developing key competences including entrepreneurship, knowledge of languages, knowledge of information technology, 2. Customizing the education and skills to labour market needs, 3. Entrepreneurship education, active citizenship, better opportunities in the labour market. The project involved two types of partners: those which started with no experience in entrepreneurship teaching (BEGINNER Partners – Maritime University of Szczecin – consortium leader and University of Aveiro) and three faculties that have had already developed and introduced such courses but still wanted to make them more attractive (ADVANCED Partners – Białystok University of Technology, Leipzig University and University of the Aegean). Project description MELES was the first project organized by the consortium and the first project in ERASMUS+ Programme for the partners. During the project, the institutions not only had a chance to create the Entrepreneurship course but also to know better each other, share their best experience and practices, show how they cooperate with their business environment. To find out more about activities carried out during the transnational project meetings please visit the project website http://meles-project.eu/index.php Project phases: The project was divided into three phases, which were implemented in the following academic years: • Phase one – 2014/2015 – Preparation of Entrepreneurship course for the multidisciplinary group of students; • Phase two – 2015/2016 – Implementation of the Entrepreneurship course for the multidisciplinary group of students; • Phase three – 2016/2017 – Dissemination of the project results. The course developed in the project, which was implemented at all partners universities, was earlier tested during Summer Schools. The numbers describing them are impressive. More than 60 participants (six of them as volunteers) from 13 countries (Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Mozambique, Palestine, Portugal and Poland). More than 10 teachers from the partner universities and two visiting teachers (from University of Szczecin). More than 100 hours of classes, a lot of fun, a lot of work, 12 developed projects during more than 20 days. Among them, Welcome day, Team Building day, Leadership day, Creativity day, Value Proposition day, Business Model Canvas day, Learning from Entrepreneurs day, Presentation day, Coaching day and Final Pitches day.