Entrepreneurship Education Forum

Policy Development, Support Materials, some training of trainers

Policymakers, Teachers, Administrators, Primary focus: primary and secondary school

The role of the Forum do Empreendedorismo at the institutional level is to facilitate development of entrepreneurship education in Portugal through “soft coordination”. It aims to save its participating members and other entities from the duplication of efforts and resources (methodologies, knowledge transfer/training, funding, etc.) for teachers and organizations at all stages of the educational system with preliminary strategy focused on primary and secondary education.

One model that the Forum project used was the Consortium of Entrepreneurship Education a US based organization that provides: Advocacy, Leadership, Networking, Technical Assistance, and Resources nationally across all levels and disciplines of education, promoting Quality Practices and Programs. Website: http://www.entre-ed.org/

Development began in November, 2006 and is ongoing - working primarily with the Ministry of Education until 2008 and now the Ministry of Social Security and Work.

Strategy papers, research on area, roundtable discussions.

"e Forum do Empreendedorismo" is a working group whose goal is to develop entrepreneurship education in Portugal. Although numerous initiatives on entrepreneurship education were under way in 2006 they were not always part of a coherent framework. The Forum wants to develop a more systematic strategy for entrepreneurship education in Portugal. This growth can be facilitated by using best practices from abroad and adapting them to the Portuguese reality.

The Forum initiative is supported by the leaders of the Luso-American and Gulbenkian Foundations, and the business associations Empresários pela Inclusão Social and COTEC, together with the Ministry of Education within the Agenda of Plano Tecnológico.

The Forum research and development partnership aims to support curricular reforms to advance entrepreneurship education at the primary and secondary school levels, as well as assist in the development of entrepreneurship education at universities in Portugal.

According the European Commission in 2002, Portugal was the only country in the EU not to have any initiatives in entrepreneurship education in primary and secondary school. Research shows that the first programs started in 2005. The ultimate goal is to develop a national strategy for entrepreneurship education but this is yet to attract strong political backing from the government.