Promoting Regional Development Through a Collaborative Project in Entrepreneurship Education: Lessons from a Regional Experiment to Develop Entrepreneurial Competencies in Children and Youngsters

Abstract

The chapter focuses on the reflection around the relationship between entrepreneurial empowerment and regional development, based on the assumptions, methodology and results of a self-sustained supramunicipal project in entrepreneurship education, promoted by a wide network of partners representing all the municipalities of Baixo Alentejo, Portugal, and coordinated by the Polytechnic Institute of Beja (IPBeja). The project Promoting Entrepreneurship Education at the Schools of Baixo Alentejo (PEEBA) was carried out in collaboration with Elementary Schools (1st to 2nd Ciclos) and kindergartens of Baixo Alentejo with the objective to nurture entrepreneurial competencies in children and youngsters aged 3-12 through practical and experiential entrepreneurship education. It provided them with entrepreneurial skills and attitudes that will increase their opportunities, by helping them face their lives with more initiative and confidence and/or be more proactive at work, or even start their own business in a near future, in the hope that this may eventually contribute to reduce the brain drain in Baixo Alentejo.With the motto the socioeconomic future of our region will be shaped by the students we are educating now, the PEEBA is innovative and unique, since it consists in a platform that brings together all the key stakeholders in the field of entrepreneurship education within all the municipalities of a NUTS, in this particular case Baixo Alentejo, who show an interest in working collaboratively for a common goal: to create a shared ecosystem favourable to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial capacity.

NUTS III as Decision-Making Vehicles for Diffusion and Implementation of Education for Entrepreneurship Programmes in the European Union: Some Lessons from the Portuguese Case

“…The transfer of competencies to municipal bodies and inter-municipal entities has allowed the deepening of the territorialisation of education policies was crucial to encourage the participation and influence of local actors in the field of education. Recent research on the Portuguese region of Baixo Alentejo (concerning the relationship between entrepreneurial empowerment and regional development) also suggests that intermunicipal communities play a major role in political processes and the implementation of public policies [39]. In harmony with other examples presented, such as Chile and Spain, and in-line with findings that somehow suggest a similar situation in Portugal [39], we have seen that, in the current context, local governance is the ideal level at which to develop and implement EE programmes in compulsory school.…”