In the Practice Future project undergraduates from several higher education institutions within the Barents Region worked in teams to find innovative solutions to business cases presented by local stakeholders.

Young people, who benefit from entrepreneurial learning, develop business knowledge, essential skills and attitudes including creativity, initiative, tenacity, teamwork, understanding of risk and a sense of responsibility. This kind of entrepreneurial mind-set helps students as future entrepreneurs to transform their ideas into action.

At the same time, investing in entrepreneurial education can also significantly increase employability.

According to the European Commission’s Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan (2013, 5), investing in entrepreneurship education is one of  he highest return investments Europe can make. In order to support productivity and growth in Europe, investing in education and training seems to be a key factor as there is a constant need for creative and innovative entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurial competency and skills can be built only through hands-on, real-life learning experiences and therefore it is valuable to
create innovative cooperation environments for students of all disciplines.

It is important to differentiate theory and practice in entrepreneurial education; books offer merely theoretical knowledge, whereas practical real-life learning experiences can build an entrepreneurial mind-set and innovative skills.

This publication introduces to the reader an overall view of the Practice Future project implementation. Emphasis is laid on the practical execution of the project’s core activity, Business Innovation Workshops, and, of course, on the students’ feedback and experiences.

 

Teresa Chen, Minttu Merivirta & Galina Smirnova (eds.)
Practice Future – A platform for international cooperation and cross-border entrepreneurship learning
ISBN 978-952-316-034-7 (Stitched) • ISBN 978-952-316-035-4 (pdf)

The publication is available free of charge on Theseus. For a printed publication please contact the editors.