Innovation and entrepreneurship skills are key competencies in post-industrial societies. Consequently, students from all disciplinary areas need to learn how to think and act in an entrepreneurial and innovative way. Yet how to create a learning environment for entrepreneurship?
To answer this question, the WEXHE Project invited 23 academics and managers from different backgrounds to the FH Münster for a four-day workshop (13th to 16th May), where they were introduced to multiple strategies and techniques that can help setting-up their academic activities in a more entrepreneurial way.
The programme flow
The first day was all about inspiration. In the morning, Prof. Todd Davey, from the Institut Mines-Télécom Business School in Paris, introduced participants to the evolution of entrepreneurship education, its context, why is it relevant and, more importantly, how to teach it. In the afternoon, five successful entrepreneurship education cases were presented by the persons who did it, creating great opportunities for questions and answers.
The second day was hands-on. In the morning, participants were introduced to a series of creative thinking tools and techniques, put into practice through engaging group activities facilitated by expert Hanna de Bruin from The Hague University of Applied Sciences. In the afternoon they were given the chance to exercise their creativity by proposing solutions to complex entrepreneurship learning obstacles they faced in their home institutions.
On day-three participants took part on a tour to the FH Munster transfer agency (TAFH) facilities in Steinfurt Campus, where Sally Friedrich introduced the TAFH entrepreneurship support activities. In the afternoon the topic was women and entrepreneurship. Within the framework of the FH Munster Project “Discover the entrepreneur in you” and the EU Project coordinated by the S2B “Women Entrepreneurs in STEM”, Dr Sue Rossano, Claudia Umanzor and Friederike von Hagen introduced participants to the importance of engaging highly educated women in entrepreneurship.
Emphasis on Social Entrepreneurship
In the last day, participants were presented to the importance of social entrepreneurship. Dr Michele Gerbrands and PhD candidate Heleen van Ravenswaaij, from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, showcased the ‘Co-Challange’, a successful example of a social entrepreneurial project conducted by bachelor and master students from the University of Utrecht in connection with the Municipality of Utrecht.
Please stay tuned for more event announcements and news from the WEXHE project!
Image credits: S2B Marketing Research Center
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