The competitiveness and innovation of the European Economy depends on Entrepreneurship. There is a growing awareness of the potential of young people to launch and develop their own commercial or social ventures thereby becoming innovators in the areas in which they live and work. Hence, developing and promoting entrepreneurship education has been one of the key policy objectives for the EU and Member States for many years. Entrepreneurship Education is expected to support Europe in competing globally, returning to economic growth and creating high levels of employment (Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan), as it is essential not only to shape the mind-sets of young people but also to provide the skills, knowledge and attitudes that are central to developing an entrepreneurial culture. (Eurydice, 2016). Several years ago, the European Commission (2012), highlighted the need to cultivate transversal skills and particularly entrepreneurial skills. The EC recommends to the Member States to enhance entrepreneurial skills through new and creative ways of teaching and learning in primary schools, and generally in education, offering opportunities of business creation as a career destination for the students. However, although entrepreneurship education is recognized as a cross-curricular objective in primary education, it is mainly taught in upper secondary education (Eurydice, 2016). In this context is important to find new and effective approaches to bring entrepreneurship education into children’s lives, either in school or in non-formal or informal learning contexts. Project LittleBigEntrepreneurs proposes the development of a learning computer game that makes use of the Design Thinking process to deliver key entrepreneurial competences and to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in children. This new methodology intends to be engaging and flexible, capable of producing lasting effects. In fact, the use of Design Thinking brings many advantages as it can contribute “for cultivating 21st century competencies in students – skills like civic literacy, global awareness and cross-cultural skills, critical and inventive thinking, and information and communication skills” (MOE, 2010), in line with is usually identified as entrepreneurial skills. The use of learning games, on the other hand, contributes to the engagement, flexibility, ease of use and widespread of a new tool for entrepreneurship education. Additionally, project LittleBigEntrepreneurs will also deliver a: • Implementation Guide, with guidelines for the use of the learning game to assist teachers and educators in general • Pilot Training, involving training of teachers/trainers and testing with students • Website and a Facebook page giving access to project outcomes and information on entrepreneurship education • Project presentations for target groups to disseminate the project • Video to promote the game • Contest/Challenge aiming to engage children and educators in the project and to raise awareness towards the Entrepreneurship Education topic • Sustainability Strategy that will present the guidelines for the future exploitation of results and to ensure the future impact of the project This initiative gathers 6 partners from 4 different countries – Slovenia, Portugal, Estonia and Greece -, including an Higher Education Institution, an Education Authority, 2 schools and 2 private companies active in education, training and development of learning resources.
The modern concept of entrepreneurship is not only associated with the idea of developing and managing a business, but its meaning has become broader, and we also associate it with the promotion of creativity, innovation and adaptability. Entrepreneurship education aims to develop 'entrepreneurial' competencies among the entire population of pupils and students, including adults. That is why entrepreneurship must be promoted already among primary school students. With the LittleBigEntrepreneurs (LBE) project we intended to create an innovative digital game-based learning methodology for formal, non-formal and informal education settings, that applies Design Thinking to develop an Entrepreneurial culture in children, while empowering teachers in the field of entrepreneurship education and in the use of the proposed methodology. This methodology would allow the participating schools and other partners to improve/implement more effective entrepreneurship education strategies.
Entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship learning play a key role among young people: they encourage students to look for different opportunities, solve problems and conflicts creatively, take responsibility and risky decisions and take the initiative. The EC recommends to the Member States to enhance entrepreneurial skills from early age. Although entrepreneurship education is recognized as a cross-curricular objective in primary education, it is mainly taught in upper secondary education. In this context is important to find new and effective approaches to bring entrepreneurship education into children’s lives, either in school or in non-formal or informal learning contexts. Project partnership decided to focus on promotion of entrepreneurship through a digital game using a design thinking approach, as an effective pedagogical tool to learn entrepreneurship at an early age. Game-based learning is inductive (discovery) learning. Students are trained to frame problems, find ways to solve them and reflect on what they have learned from the process.