Private enterprise education is currently in all universities

All universities in the Netherlands now offer entrepreneurship training and from next year it will be mandatory in professional colleges, said senior researcher Dr. Petra Gibbous. But the content varies considerably between institutions and departments - and it took too long to integrate entrepreneurship education into the curricula.

Gibbous is a researcher for Panties, a Dutch company with 150 employees that provides support for decision-makers and conducts research in the field of economic, social and transport fields of national and international clients. Headquartered in the Netherlands, in Zoetermeer, Panties has offices in Belgium, Turkey, China and Kazakhstan.

It is presented in the Eighth Annual International Conference of the African Technology Network South 2015 on "training in entrepreneurship for economic renewal", held in the Science Park of the Vaal University of Technology October 19 to 21.

Entrepreneurship is desirable

According to Euros tat said Gibbous, across Europe have low proportions of young people aged 15 to 19 years who are self-employed in terms of total employment, with young Italians most entrepreneurial or necessity or nature.

In 2014 in Italy, 15% of young people in this age group were self-employed versus 8% in Europe and the Netherlands - where the share has been slowly increasing over the last decade - and only 3% in Germany.

There seems to be considerably younger people who considered a career as an entrepreneur to be desirable, that are self-employed.

Again drawing on Euros tat data, in 2012 in Europe, 49% of people between 15 and 34 years old consider being an entrepreneur is desirable, compared with 63% in Italy, 31% in the Netherlands and 24% in Germany.

Some research results

Gibbous report numerous research projects Panties on entrepreneurship education between 2009 and 2015, mostly for the Dutch ministries, but also for the European Commission and others, including evaluation of initiatives and impacts entrepreneurship centers ".

Among other things, the study found that Dutch higher education is more and more institutions offering entrepreneurship training, and greater integration of entrepreneurship education in the curricula.

But it became clear, Gibbous told the conference that "there is much work to be done."

"We see that entrepreneurship education is integrated into school curricula, as well as strategies and admissions to universities and other institutions."

"There are some difficulties because the curricula are very different each institution and teachers. Some offer entrepreneurship education such as courses, others offer minors, others available as extra-curricular activities and some offer it in summer schools and master classes, or are entrepreneurs give speeches to students.

"I did not notice that it is important to teach the teachers. Teachers are role models - it is the entrepreneurs who are models role - so if you want to transfer entrepreneurial skills of students, then teachers should be bold .

"I also noticed that some universities in our country choose teachers based on their entrepreneurial skills. So that's another way of thinking that has become important in the last two or three years."

It had taken a long time to integrate entrepreneurship education into the curricula, due to budget constraints and the reluctance of academics to change or cooperate with each other in different disciplines. Institutions are still struggling with this, in the Netherlands and probably elsewhere, said Gibbous.

There were more and more students are involved in entrepreneurship training. Currently, 5 percent of all students in higher education in the Netherlands are somehow involved in entrepreneurship training. There was also a greater emphasis is placed on entrepreneurial skills - not only for entrepreneurship becomes your home - "it's also a change in our country."