Development of successful entrepreneurial education initiatives enabled by EU funded projects - The case of FH JOANNEUM - Economicus

by. Bojan JOVANOVSKI, Rupert BEINHAUER, Elizabeta VALENTIC, Doris KIENDL.

Abstract

This paper presents the lessons learned from different formal and non-formal entrepreneurial education initiatives at the University of Applied Sciences FH JOANNEUM in Graz, Austria, conducted in the period 2016-2019. Four projects funded through the European Commission provided the opportunity to explore a variety of teaching and learning methods to develop the “sense of initiative and entrepreneurship” as one of the key competencies for life-long learning set by the European Union. While the target groups were different and the objectives were manifold, all of these projects aimed at fostering this key competence for students to effectively develop and implement creative and market-oriented ideas. Different entrepreneurial education methodologies have been developed and customised for the requirements of the target group and setting. This paper analyses them using the “Learning by sharing model” by Thijssen & Gijselaers. The analysed teaching methods and approaches have different efficiency for alternative target groups or objectives. The Business Case Challenge allows to involve intercultural student groups in intensive casework with real live cases. A blended approach which combines a MOOC, face-to-face teaching, presentations and mentoring by a role model has proven to successfully provide entrepreneurial competencies to athletes. A moderated MOOC for entrepreneurship, including interactive teamwork and professional moderation to keep participants to be consciously active, resulting in high completion rate on an offline level. Finally, action learning sets and the development of business models for case studies through e-communication are presented as alternative learning model for international teams. Based on the in-depth analysis of these cases, the authors have proposed four factors which may serve as a frame for the development of successful entrepreneurial education initiatives in various education and training environments. The frame offers an additional fifth factor, student career development, which is specifically significant for formal education institutions.

How to cite: Jovanovski, B., Beinhauer , R., Valentic, E., & Kiendl, D. (2020). Development of successful entrepreneurial education initiatives enabled by EU-funded projects – the case of FH Joanneum. Economicus, 19(2), 32–48.

https://doi.org/10.58944/sget2362