The second ‘European Workshop on Enabling Teachers for Entrepreneurship Education – CPD’ took place at the Brdo Estate Conference Centre near Kranj, Slovenia.

The Skills Builder Partnership was represented among the 90 delegates from 24 EU Member States, Pre-Accession Countries and countries participating in the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) who attended the workshop, organised by the European Commission and hosted by the Slovenian Ministry of the Economy and the South East Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (SEECEL).

The conference had a healthy mix of keynote addresses and presentations of good practice examples with group work and participatory methods. As a delegate, it was great to have the chance to hear more about what other countries were up to and what their experiences were of what works or not in providing a more entrepreneurial education.
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The official summary highlighted a number of key themes that emerged from discussions, including;

• Entrepreneurship Education is not just about setting up businesses, it is a general approach to education that teaches important essential skills.
• Entrepreneurship Education needs to be embedded as a ‘way of teaching’ across the curricula, rather than as a separate subject.
• Policy support is needed at local, national and EU level, adapted to different contexts.
• Continuity & long term commitment to continuing learning and putting learning into practice, is crucial.
• Motivation & incentives should be used to encourage both participation and reflection.
• Cooperation, networks and partnerships among practitioners and stakeholder engagement are crucial, policy alone cannot do it.

These are all observations that we can get behind - particularly the idea that skill development cannot simply be achieved in one-off days, but that developing essential skills takes time and focus.

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You can download the full document here:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/promoting-entrepreneurship/files/education/entredu-manual-fv_en.pdf

And see all the documents from the conference here:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/promoting-entrepreneurship/education-training-entrepreneurship/teacher-education-entrepreneurship/index_en.htm