TARGET GROUPS

BACKGROUND: The participating organizations applied for this project to address critical gaps in Entrepreneurship Education(EE), particularly its limited presence in HEIs, especially in non-business faculties. While EE is commonly offered in business schools, its absence in other disciplines hinders students from developing entrepreneurial competences crucial for success in today’s innovation-driven economy. As defined by the EU Commission (2018), entrepreneurial competence is “the capacity to act upon opportunities and ideas and transform them into value for others; no matter if this value is financial, cultural, or social.” This definition underscores the relevance of entrepreneurship to all fields of study. ENTREHUBS aimed to shift EE from a narrow venture-creation focus to a COLLABORATIVE, VALUE-CREATION APPROACH that emphasizes interdisciplinary engagement and societal impact.

NEEDS: ENTREHUBS sought to address the lack of educators equipped to embed EE in their courses, and the limited entrepreneurial opportunities for students in these disciplines. Additionally, the project tackled the insufficient collaboration between academia and business, which is essential for equipping students with practical, real-world skills.

HEI Educators/Lecturers: Through various project activities, HEI educators acquired competencies to integrate the approaches of teaching entrepreneurship into their curricula, so that long-term pedagogical changes would be ensured. They were trained on the existing material so now they can use the entrepreneurial toolkit in class. Overall, educators enriched their wider experience in cooperative work and multidisciplinary, multicultural teams and increased expertise in EU funding initiatives.

Students acquired core entrepreneurial competencies in systems thinking, problem-solving, collaboration skills through taking part in hands-on activities that dealt with real-life entrepreneurial issues, enabling them to be in contact with real business challenges. By participating in the summer school, students have been enabled to work in cross-cultural teams, which widened their horizons and improved team spirit and communication skills.

Higher Education Institutions gained interpleural practices, leading to long-term changes in institutional strategies and curricula. Institutions were encouraged to create collaborative pathways through the cooperation with business partners, enabling students and HEI to address prominent local and national challenges.