By implementing this project, we aimed to transform entrepreneurship education into an engaging, practical and inclusive experience that equips young people with essential entrepreneurial skills and mindsets. Our goal was to move beyond traditional, theory-based approaches and instead focus on experiential learning, empowering students to identify opportunities, solve real-world challenges while creating value in their communities. We wanted to bridge the gap between policy expectations for entrepreneurial education and the readiness of educators to deliver it effectively. This included providing youth educators with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to teach entrepreneurship in informal and non-formal settings, making it accessible to learners with diverse backgrounds and learning styles. Ultimately, we sought to foster entrepreneurial competences among young people, such as creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork, while enhancing their employability and sense of active citizenship. By achieving these objectives, we envisioned creating a lasting impact on both educators and students, inspiring them to apply entrepreneurial thinking in meaningful and transformative ways.
We applied for this project to make entrepreneurship education more practical, engaging and inclusive for young people from diverse backgrounds. To illustrate, at Fagskolen Rogaland, traditional approaches to entrepreneurship felt irrelevant to students in technical fields like maritime and engineering. This served to highlight the need for hands-on, problem-solving methodologies aligned with their studies. Our partners faced similar challenges, with educators lacking tools to teach entrepreneurship effectively in informal and non-formal settings. The partnership felt that existing resources were too theory-heavy and didn’t account for diverse learning styles or the expansive vision of entrepreneurship outlined in frameworks like EntreComp. Thus, this project endeavoured to address these gaps by creating tools like the Experiential Entrepreneurship Labs and the Starter Kit, which would ultimatley enable educators to inspire students through real-world, practical learning experiences. These resources are meant to empower young people with entrepreneurial skills, foster innovation, employability, and promote active citizenship.