Why teach the entrepreneurial skill in education?

The Entrepreneurial Culture Programs of the Regional Government of Extremadura (Spain) combine the will of different areas of administration management; Education and Employment, Business, and Youth, design actions in a transversal way, making explicit the vision that our government has about entrepreneurship and its development in Extremadura society: working on entrepreneurial skills with today’s young people means ensuring entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Entrepreneurship is more than generating business ideas, it involves developing personal skills that attend to the integral growth of young people that allows them to face their daily work with more resources.

Since 2005 in Extremadura these programs have been developed in the different educational stages. In each of them, with specific objectives and depending on the level at which we find ourselves, the different entrepreneurial skills will be promoted, developed or strengthened, such as those established in the curriculum of Primary Education, ESO, and higher teachings: autonomy, initiative, teamwork, confidence in oneself, critical sense, solidarity, and creativity. The latter, understood as a major axis in all work programs and proposals, can be considered key to building many of these skills and attitudes; it nurtures self-esteem, communication, and socialization, and it is also essential to find solutions to the challenges that arise every day.

All the guides, of the different  Entrepreneurial Culture Programs, propose an active pedagogical model, in which students take center stage, the Project-Based Learning Methodology. With this methodology, reality reaches the students with the realization of a meaningful project for them, being a set of learning experiences through which the students develop their capacities, abilities, attitudes, and values; where they have to apply the knowledge acquired, in the development of a project that offers services or products aimed at satisfying a social need, which encourages their commitment to the environment.

As it is active and participatory and experiential learning, it becomes more resistant to forgetting and more extrapolated to other contexts of its reality and environment. The students become the protagonists of their learning, through this methodology: they analyze; make decisions; organize; manage teamwork and communicate their ideas.

On the other hand, the teacher adopts a facilitator role that guides the personal potential of the students and the development of the project, working, in turn, on the motivation of the group. Carrying out the project around a real problem makes it easier for different areas to be involved, thus giving it a transversal character.

This project-based learning methodology encourages collaboration between students, teaching staff, families, and people involved in the environment, with the aim, among others, of sharing knowledge among the educational community.

In general, we could affirm that the different Entrepreneurial Culture Programs have some common general objectives:

• Develop entrepreneurial skills in students.
• Disseminate a broad and inclusive perspective of entrepreneurship.
• Raise awareness and bring active methodologies to the classroom to work on entrepreneurial competence.
• Support the teacher-facilitator in the application of active methodologies in the classroom.
• Promote a rapprochement between students, teachers, and educational centers with their entrepreneurial environment.