An enterprising capability for the development of agency in adults: results from a European Erasmus Plus project

Résumé

Entrepreneurship education as a key competence for lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important within a New Skills Agenda for Europe and within the OECD Learning Framework 2030. The development of agency through training is fundamental for the inclusion of adults in both the labour market and the digital society. This proposal illustrates the results of a European Erasmus Plus project, which sought to cultivate an enterprising capability in four European countries through a varied set of teaching methodologies. The first part of the project collected the best practices on entrepreneurship in European countries; the goal here was to prepare for the subsequent empirical element through searching for pedagogies that are specific to entrepreneurship education. These are active and experiential learning, peer learning and project learning. The latter part of the project concerned the actual training of adults based on role-play, storytelling, and the business games, Fever Pitch and the Business Model Canvas. The workshops aimed to promote participants’ self-reflection through the EntreComp Framework, actively involving and engaging them in experiential learning. Results show how these pedagogies, delivered through a capability approach, cultivate an enterprising capability to act effectively in every sphere of life, providing a lifelong and life-wide competence.