EDISON (Educational Diversity and Innovative Skills ON Entrepreneurship)
The European Commission Staff Working Document ‘Vocational education and training for better skills, growth and jobs’ accompanying the Communication from the Commission ‘Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes’ gave strong emphasis to excellence in VET achieved through actions which give weight to creativity and innovation. The document indicated that quality in VET can only be realised through a multilevel approach.
The European Communication ‘New Skills for New Jobs’ states that one of the areas where teacher training should be focusing on is entrepreneurship.
Edison Programme
ETBI has become involved in a new (2013-2015) EU-funded transfer-of-innovation partnership called EDISON (Educational Diversity and Innovate Skills ON Entrepreneurship) which aims to transfer successful experiences and strategies in teaching entrepreneurship from Austria, Spain and Italy to the national VET Associations in the Netherlands, Ireland and UK, all three being well positioned to develop a VET ‘Entrepreneurial learning pathway’ on a national scale, to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit and capabilities of a certain group of students and to meet the requirements of the current labour market.
Newsletter 02
Newsletter 01
For these objectives, elements from the VET Entrepreneurs programme ‘Urratsbad’ in Spain and from a Europe Skills Prize-winning entrepreneurship programme in Austria, with strong links to the Chambers and profound cooperation with employers, will be used as a source of inspiration and learning. Special attention will be paid to the language needs of the modern labour market by supporting language learning in the workplace through the methodology of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) delivered by Italy.
The project aims to have a strong impact on the ability of teachers and trainers to understand and teach entrepreneurship and, through a wide dissemination and valorisation campaign, both policy and decision makers will be involved in introducing an entrepreneurial dimension in the curriculum and enterprising teaching in core subjects. Among the projected outcomes are:
- The establishment of a trans-national and trans-sectoral network on entrepreneurship education
- The development of a flexible Edison learning programme based on blended learning
- The development of a transnational Edison ‘Train the Trainer Programme’ for entrepreneurship conducted through an innovative pedagogy in a blended learning environment.
The aims of the project are to be achieved through trans-national partners’ meetings, online discussions, regional and national seminars, development of and piloting of a teacher training course with customised pedagogical and didactical instruments, and the integration of feedback and evaluation.