Taskforce welcomes new European initiatives

The Taskforce welcomes two recent European level developments in education- employer engagement.

European Entrepreneurship Education report unveiled

The final report and evaluation of the pilot High Level Reflection Panels on Entrepreneurship Education has been published at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/promoting-entrepreneurship/education-training-entrepreneurship/reflection-panels/files/entr_education_panel_en.pdf

This pilot was launched by the European Commission to facilitate the exchange of experiences between national policy makers and to increase coordination on ways to develop systematic strategies for entrepreneurship education, from primary school to university. Policy makers from 26 countries participated to this exchange, together with business associations, representatives of teachers and NGOs. The final report includes:

  • Findings on the current state of play in entrepreneurship education, especially in relation to the development of entrepreneurship education strategies and their implementation.
  • A framework for mapping the area of entrepreneurship education, building strategy, priority setting and action, using a progression model developed from the discussions of the Panels.
  • A ‘cook book’ of good practices which show how to address key areas within the progression model.

EU Thematic Forum on School-Business Cooperation

The March 2010 Forum in Brussels brought together policy officials and practitioners from across the EU to highlight and explore and share best practice in school-business partnership across Europe, and “to identify ways in which the EU can support the development of high-quality school-business initiatives in the future.” The event highlighted a strong growing interest in the European Commission and across the European Union countries in activity to promote closer engagement of employers with schools and colleges. Delegates heard of EU interest in identifying means of supporting activity within member countries and policy announcements may well be made over the next six months.