education helped them develop
entrepreneurial competences
the percentage in agreement increasing by almost 30 percentage points. UK has seen the largest drop (10 percentage points), bringing it further below the EU average.
Figure 5.6. Percentage of individuals 15 years+ agreeing that their school education has helped them to develop a sense of initiative/sort of entrepreneurial attitude
Source: 2012 Flash Eurobarometer (354) Entrepreneurship in the EU and beyond.
There are marked differences between Member States. In 2012, the percentage agreeing that their school education helped them to develop a sense of initiative and a sort of entrepreneurial attitude ranged from 75% in PT to 35% in UK. Except for RO, all the countries that have a value above the EU average on the entrepreneurial attitude/sense of initiative indicator also have a higher percentage than the EU average stating that they have taken part, at school or university, in any course or activity concerning entrepreneurship (defined as turning ideas into action, developing your own project).One should, however, be cautious about drawing firm conclusions on the impact of entrepreneurship education based on this Eurobarometer data.
In general, most available data has a strong focus on the business start-up dimension of entrepreneurship and is not clearly linked to the impact of the education environment. There is therefore a need to further strengthen the availability of internationally comparable indicators on entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship as a key competence137. This need is underlined in the forthcoming Commission Staff working document on entrepreneurship in education.
Nevertheless, studies, both at EU and Member State level complement the existing EU-wide indicators, and point to a positive link between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial competence and activity. A 2012 study on Effects and Impact of Entrepreneurship Programmes in Higher Education138 covering nine institutions across Europe found that it seemed easier for entrepreneurship alumni to find a position in paid employment immediately after graduation (78% versus 59% for the control group). Furthermore, the study found that entrepreneurship alumni had a higher propensity to be running their own business (8% versus 3% for the control group) or to have been involved in initiatives to start non-commercial projects (49% versus 38% for the control group).
Findings at national level in countries with well-developed monitoring structures for entrepreneurship education also illustrate the benefits of entrepreneurship education. Denmark is an example in point, and recent short-term findings from an on-going Danish longitudinal study139 on the impact of secondary and university level entrepreneurship education showed that entrepreneurship as a method140 has a positive effect on lower secondary pupils' school engagement. At university level, the study found that during their education, entrepreneurship
137 For a useful overview of indicators and data sources for entrepreneurship education in 10 Member States see
http://ec.europa.eu/education/more-information/doc/2011/entrepreneurship_en.pdf.
138 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/_getdocument.cfm?doc_id=7428.
139 The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship/Young Enterprise Danmark (2013), Impact of Entrepreneurship
Education in Denmark.
140 Entrepreneurship as a method is in the Danish study distinguished from more business start-up oriented
entrepreneurship education and includes the pupils being taught innovative thinking, developing and turning ideas into action and creating new activities.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 2012 2009
The evidence-base
on
entrepreneurship
education needs to
be strengthened
students strengthen their entrepreneurial attitude and creative skills considerably more than otherwise comparable students who have not participated in entrepreneurship education, and that such education also leads to more students starting their own business.
Policy lessons
The employment rate of recent graduates with at least upper secondary education stands at 75.7%, down from 82% in 2008. There is still a premium of tertiary education attainment over upper secondary education attainment but there is evidence of skills bottlenecks and mismatches, with 21% of people with tertiary qualifications active in jobs that are below their qualifications. This calls for a better alignment of the supply and demand of skills and a higher labour market relevance of education and training systems.
The transition from school to work is a particular issue for students from upper secondary programmes in BG, IE, EL, ES, HR, IT, LV and RO – with employment rates below 60%. Students from vocational education and training programmes experience a better transition from education to work in Member States with developed work-based learning (e.g. DK, DE, NL and AT). Work-based learning helps bring together the worlds of work and education.
Efforts to develop entrepreneurial skills are needed to support new business creation, employee innovation within existing companies, to improve employability levels of the young and increase business creation. Only half of the EU population aged 15 years and above agree that their school education helped them to develop a sense of initiative and a sort of entrepreneurial attitude. Improvements in the availability of internationally comparable data are needed to provide broader information on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the impact of entrepreneurship education.
6. Upgrading skills through lifelong learning
6.1. Taking a closer look at the Survey of Adult Skills
In highlighting the challenge of skills supply, the 2012 Rethinking Education Communication141 recalled that "European education and training systems continue to fall short in providing the right skills for employability […]". Until now, evidence on the actual levels of key skills of the workforce has been rather limited but the recent OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC)142, which was carried out with support from the European Commission, serves to close this gap. It provides comprehensive evidence on the levels of proficiency in 17 EU Member States143, plus other OECD and partner countries, in the three key information processing skills of literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments.