According to data from the 2016 GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) study, the level of entrepreneurial activity in Catalonia was 6.99%: 1.76 points above that of Spain (5.23%), but still 1% below the average for Europe (8.09%).
The current European, national and autonomous community framework recognises entrepreneurial spirit as a key competence which needs to be integrated into the curriculum in order to be assimilated by the end of compulsory and post-compulsory education, and then maintained and reinforced throughout life.
This framework is largely described by:
The strategic objectives of the EU for 2020
The European Social Fund Operational Programme 2014-2020, which highlights the need to promote self-employment, the entrepreneurial spirit and the creation of new companies.
Organic Law 2/2006, of 3rd May, on education.
Law 12/2009, of 10th July, on education in Catalonia (LEC)
The Europe 2020 strategy, which was adopted by the European Council on 17th June 2010, established three priorities:
- Smart growth, based on empowerment through knowledge and innovation.
- Sustainable growth, focusing on the promotion of an economy that makes a more efficient use of resources, is respectful of the natural environment, and achieves excellence through competitiveness.
- Integrating growth, which promotes an economy with a high level of employment and with both social and territorial cohesion.
One of the six strategic areas of action in order to achieve economic reactivation and an economy with a high level of competitiveness is to promote measures that foster entrepreneurial spirit.
Along these same lines, The European Charter for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises states that education and training are key to promoting entrepreneurship. It is therefore essential to introduce the culture of business creativity into the different levels of training, society, and public opinion in order to promote the entrepreneurial spirit that must help to increase the desire to create new businesses.
The objective of working on entrepreneurship in the classroom is to promote and provide young people with the competences, values and attitudes, such as autonomy, personal initiative, creativity, planning, organisation, decision making and team work, which will instil in them an attitude to life based on the constant pursuit of personal improvement.
To work on entrepreneurship, it is necessary for students to focus on:
The development of personal competences related to autonomy and decisionmaking, reflection and accepting the consequences of their own actions.
The promotion of creativity, with proposals that encourage exchanges of points of view, the generation of new products and the development and transformation of ideas into actions.
The curricular content from the perspective of the values of entrepreneurship, planning and managing life projects in order to bring about change and innovation in any environment.
- Learn how to think, plan and implement projects.
- Acquire the necessary knowledge to be able to take their own decisions.
- Develop the capacity for personal initiative and autonomy: taking decisions and foreseeing their consequences, and also knowing how to choose and decide for themselves, with confidence.
- Solve problems and control situations in an innovative, original and creative way.
- Adapt to new situations and contexts while maintaining a constructive attitude.
- Show a will to continually improve their work and, when faced with difficulties, to overcome the frustration associated with certain delayed outcomes, to maintain a positive and proactive attitude, and to carry out the required work and learning.
- Trust in their own ability and possibilities for development, identifying personal abilities and promoting and building upon their strengths.
- Discover their own interests.
- Perceive and understand the needs and feelings of others, in order to then act in consequence.
- Work with others, as part of a team, in an atmosphere of trust and collaboration.
- Affirm their own rights in a firm but respectful way, without submitting to the temptation to manipulate others (assertiveness).
- Anticipate, face up to and resolve interpersonal conflicts from the position of respect and to obtain satisfactory results.
- Perceive, listen and transmit information effectively.
- Understand existing relationships between different social actors within the immediate environment (family, community, city…).
Following this logic, since the 2014-2015 course, GLOBALleida has been working on all of these key considerations. It has done this through the E2 Entrepreneur School Programme, working in collaboration with the Department of Education of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
This involves the provision of training which is structured through activities that target the students and teaching staff engaged in the pre-school, primary school, ESO, Batxillerat and medium and higher level Vocational Training cycles, at educational centres in Lleida province. It is organised into four blocks:
SESSIONS FOR PROMOTING AWARENESS
THEMATIC WORKSHOPS
ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING STAFF
PARTICIPATIVE AND FREE ACCESS ACTIVITIES
In the 2014-2015 course, there were 43 activities aimed at students and teachers, at 17 centres in the Lands of Lleida, with the participation of 1,477 students and 14 teachers.
In the 2015-2016 course, there were 49 activities aimed at students and teachers, at 20 centres in the Lands of Lleida, with the participation of 1,460 students and 26 teachers.
In the 2016-2017 course, there were 84 activities, in which 29 centres participated, with the involvement of 2,649 students and 54 teachers.
In the 2017-2018 course, there have been 102 activities, in which 36 centres have participated, with the involvement of 3,093 students and 38 teachers.