According to the study of the EU (2012) <Building Entrepreneurial Mindsets (EM) & skills in the EU * evidence suggests that developing Entrepreneurial mindset is a key ingredient of endogenous growth & a must for sustainable local & regional development & social cohesion. * the role of education in promoting entrepreneurial attitudes & behaviors is widely recognized today. Transversal competences like creativity, sense of initiative & entrepreneurship will help young people to develop their capacity to think creatively & to innovate, to develop pro-activity, flexibility, autonomy, the capacity to manage a project & to achieve results. * there is a broad consensus between Member States on the aims & objectives of entrepreneurship education: it should develop both GENERAL COMPETENCES e.g. self-confidence, adaptability, creativity, & SPECIFIC BUSINESS SKILLS. * Currently, entrepreneurship education within school systems tends to take place as an ‘add-on’ to the general curriculum at levels up to & including lower secondary . Indeed, moving entrepreneurship education from being an extra-curricular ‘add-on’ with a ‘traditional’ focus on business practice to being an intrinsic part of the curriculum including a broad range of entrepreneurial capabilities & skills mean paradigm shift in the education system. Critical at all stages is an element of experiential learning & not just ‘traditional’ teaching methods. *As noted in primary & general lower secondary education entrepreneurship education is typically an extra-curricular activity, often involving visits to businesses or by employers into schools. General entrepreneurial competences are missing (self confidence, adaptability, creativity). Generally speaking, entrepreneurship education is least prominent in the primary phase. * Teachers need to be motivated to take these changes EnterSchoolMind works towards the recommendations of the Commission. ΕEnterSchoolMinds aims to cultivate the entrepreneurial mind set in elementary schools through a systematic approach that provides interventions both to students & teachers while at the same time supported by parents. The project aims at the FIRST LEVEL to develop the entrepreneurial mindset (EM) of teachers taking into consideration the key competences that have been identified by the commission, but after validating those & identifying the most important in the setting of primary school education. It is expected that in the case of primary schools we will focus more on general competences. Teachers' motivation is an integral part of this project, therefore all the training they will receive is ISO certified & through an assessment, their qualification is also certificated. In other words, participating in the project means at the same time that they upgrade their own profile with a certificate that is internationally recognised. At a SECOND LEVEL the project develops tools for the teachers in order to cultivate the entrepreneurial mind sets of their pupils. These tools include: 1. An online innovative assessment tool to be used before & after the implementation of cultivation activities 2. A set of non traditional activities that will cultivate the entrepreneurial mind set of the pupils. Activities take into consideration the age of the pupils, have an experiential nature & some of them will be designed to be implemented as online activities. At a THIRD LEVEL parents participate in this effort through extracurricular activities also developed by the project. The main target groups of the project are: 1. Pupils of elementary schools that need to develop their entrepreneurial mind set 2. Their teachers (that will also develop their EM & they need to be motivated & engaged to change their approach so that entrepreneurship integrates in the school curricula) 3. Their parents (they will receive a board game to develop EM at home . The main results of the project are: 1. ISO certified curricula and training materials for the workshop <Development of Entrepreneurial Mindset for teachers> 2. Teachers Entrepreneurial Assessment tool (certified with ISO17024) 3. Assessment tool for the assessment of the entrepreneurial mindset of pupils in the school 4. A set of activities (toolkit) to be used by teachers in schools for the development of the entrepreneurial mindsets of pupils 5. A board game for the entrepreneurial competences to be used by parents. The desired impact of the project is the following: At the local/regional level, the schools participating in the project to continue to use the intellectual outputs developed by the project and to multiply their use. At the national level, policy makers to realise the importance of the entrepreneurial competences in elementary education and to promote the intellectual outputs of the project. At the European level to promote the qualification of entrepreneurial mindset for teachers as well as the assessment tools and activity toolkit for pupils.
EnterSchoolMind worked towards the recommendations of the Commission in terms of the cultivation of the entrepreneurial mindset (EM) in school. According to the EU study (2012) “Building entrepreneurial mindsets & skills in the EU”, it is evidenced that developing EM is a key ingredient of endogenous growth & a must for sustainable development & social cohesion. The role of education in promoting EM is widely recognized, while there is broad consensus among Member States that entrepreneurship education should contribute to the development of both GENERAL COMPETENCES (e.g. self-confidence, creativity) & SPECIFIC BUSINESS SKILLS. EnterSchoolMind used as a starting point the EntreComp (EC), the European reference framework devised to support a shared, comprehensive understanding of entrepreneurship as a competence. OBJECTIVES ΕnterSchoolMind’s aim was to cultivate the EM in elementary school through a systematic approach targeting students & teachers, but also involving parents. 1. The project aimed at a 1ST LEVEL TO SUPPORT & ENCOURAGE TEACHERS TO DEVELOP EM through developing certain competences selected from the EnterComp–adapted to suit the school environment. For this purpose, ISO certified training curricula & materials were devised for the development of the teachers’ entrepreneurial competences & were used in the implementation of training workshops for teachers in the countries of the consortium. The ISO certification of the curricula & training materials as well as the development of assessments tools leading to the attainment of the qualification of the Certified Educator on EM EQF Level 6 aimed both to motivate teachers further to receive training on entrepreneurial competences (thus upgrading their teaching profile) as well as to guarantee the quality of the materials. 2. At a 2ND LEVEL, the project aimed to motivate & support teachers to integrate entrepreneurial education into the school curricula by equipping them with innovative tools they can use in the classroom with pupils. For this purpose, creative stories & experiential activities were developed to help pupils develop entrepreneurial competences. In addition, assessment tools by which teachers could assess their pupils’ standing as far as their entrepreneurial competences are concerned were created. These have the form of electronic stories in which pupils are asked to make choices. 3. At a 3RD LEVEL, the project aimed to involve parents in their children’s EM education through extracurricular activities. This was achieved through the creation of the board game, that was first pilot tested in the schools of the consortium NUMBER & TYPE/PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS The main project participants were teachers & pupils in partner organisations within the consortium but also outside the consortium (but in the countries of the consortium). Another type of participants was parents in the countries of the consortium. In total 157 teachers participated in workshops on the entrepreneurial competences. Additionally there were 106 participants in teachers’ assessments. As far as the pupils are concerned, 69 used the assessment tools (stories) for pupils & 109 participated in the activities. DESCRIPTION OF UNDERTAKEN ACTIVITIES The main activities of the project include: development of curricula, materials & assessment tools for teachers, development of assessment tools & activities for pupils, development of a board game, pilot testing of all the above. The project adopted a strong quality assurance strategy & many different evaluations took place. RESULTS & IMPACT ATTAINED 1. A report (IO1) validating the EntreComp in the elementary school setting by identifying the 8 EM competences (expressed in learning outcomes) that are most relevant in school 2. Two certification schemes (IO2 & IO3) for the ISO certification of training materials & curricula & for the ISO certification of teachers wishing to acquire the qualification of the Certified Educator in EM at EQF level 6 4. Curricula & training materials (IO4&IO5) for the development of the EM of teachers (1 set for each competence) 5. A series of assessment tools (IO6) for the assessment of teachers’ EM leading to the certification of individual competences & the attainment of the qualification of the Certified Educator in EM at EQF Level 6 5. A series of tools (IO8) that teachers can use to support pupils to develop EM competences 6. Assessment tools in the form of electronic stories (IO7) for the assessment of pupils’ standing as far as their entrepreneurial competences are concerned 7. A board game (IO9) that can be used by pupils & parents as an extra-curricular activity contributing to the development of the EM of pupils LONGER-TERM BENEFITS All materials will be maintained & used. VET providers will be providing the ISO17024 qualification for teachers. Activities targeting pupils will be disseminated to more schools. The consortium aims to convert the board game into an online game.