The Nordic Council of Ministers KEN FORUM 2013, Cape Town

The Nordic Council of Ministers

KEN FORUM 2013, Cape Town

Nordic Council of Ministers 2

Agenda

1. The Nordic co-operation – an overview 2. The Nordic agenda3. Entrepreneurship Education– What is Entrepreneurship Education?–

4. Next step

Nordic Co-operation 3Nordic Council of Ministers Nordic Council

Co-operation

• Nordic co-operation is one of the oldest and most comprehensive regional partnerships in the world

• Based on common history and values. And the will to generate dynamic development

• The room for Nordic co-operation lies between the national and the global...


The Countries

• Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and the autonomous territories: the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland

• Approx. 25 million people

• 8 official languages


Co-operation

• Official Nordic co-operation is the remit of:

– The Nordic Council – the inter-parliamentary forum

– The Nordic Council of Ministers – the inter-governmental body


The Nordic Council of Minsters

• Established in 1971 as the organ of inter-governmental co-operation

• The prime ministers have overall responsibility for the co-operation

• In practice, it is delegated to the Ministers for Nordic Co-operation and the Nordic Committee for Co-operation (NSK)


The Nordic Council(s) of Minsters

• Nordic Council of Ministers for Labour • Nordic Council of Ministers for Business, Energy & Regional Policy • Nordic Council of Ministers for Fisheries and Aquaculture,

Agriculture, Food and Forestry • Nordic Council of Ministers for Gender Equality • Nordic Council of Ministers for Culture • Nordic Council of Ministers for Legislative Affairs • Nordic Council of Ministers for the Environment • Nordic Council of Ministers for Health and Social Affairs• Nordic Council of Ministers for Education and Research• Nordic Council of Ministers for Finance

8Nordic Council of Ministers

Current issues and strategic priorities

• Our region: One region of knowledge, learning, innovation & research. Be attractive and competitive

• Mobility & co-operation: students , qualifications, researchers, teachers. Networks & partnerships

• Define and renew our Nordic Welfare Model: renew, attract and retain

• Education & training for the Nordic welfare state: we do have a special way of teaching and learning


Entrepreneurship Education

• Everyone talks about Entrepreneurship Education these days. But– what is entrepreneurship education all

about? – Is it in fact useful? – And is entrepreneurial skills something

we can learn in school?



• A broad definition of entrepreneurship education:

• “All activities aiming to foster entrepreneurial mindsets, attitudes and skills and covering a range of aspects such as idea generation, start-up, growth and innovation”



• Entrepreneurship education is to improve students skills, competencies and mindset to think creative innovative, see solutions and to transfer ideas into action.

• That concerns

– Ways of thinking (possibility)

– Approaches to learning (usability)

– Transfering knowledge to action (transferability)


The Nordic study• Nordic Council of Ministers has in 2013 launched a study of

implementing entrepreneurship education strategies in the Nordic countries. “Entrepreneurship education in the Nordic countries –strategy implementation and good practices”.

• The aim was

– To enumerate the initiatives, measures, development and achievement of implementing the entrepreneurship education strategies in the Nordic countries

– to reveal obstacles and common characteristics

– to bring up good practices for reference and discussion.


Current practice• Entrepreneurship tends to be offered in stand alone

courses rather than being integrated across the curriculum.

• Entrepreneurship remains primarily elective• Lecture is the most used teaching method while the

active pedagogies appear as being the most efficient to teach entrepreneurship.

• Heavy focus on start-ups.• A greater critical mass of entrepreneurship faculty,

research and pedagogical material is needed.


Entrepreneurship education – An evolution

Traditional teaching methods

Entrepreneur-ship as stand alone activity

Entrepreneur-ship as active pedagogies

Entrepreneurship as a mindset


The Nordic Model• In general, the Nordic countries have advanced well in implementing their

entrepreneurship education strategies.

The Nordic countries, through years of developing, have established a distinguished ‘Nordic model in entrepreneurship education’. The model includes the following common features:– Key role of Junior Achievement – Young Enterprise organizations– Cross ministerial cooperation– Full autonomy of implementing entrepreneurship education by educational

institutions as long as they comply with National Qualification Framework or steering documents

– Intensive business engagement– Entrepreneurship education embedded at all levels and types of education– Teachers’ role to function as facilitators.


The combined features of the ‘Nordic Model’

Teachers as facilitators

Key role of JA-YE

Cross ministerial cooperation

Full autonomy

Business engagement

EE embedded at all levels


Best practice in the Nordic Region

Institutional support and funding from governmental or private actors

Intensive collaboration with business sector Networks with external stakeholders High level of international cooperation and media exposure Focus on experiential learning The ability to cope and manage with the scarce human

resources and funding.


The Nordic challenges The Nordic countries are also struggling with common

challenges: – Teachers’ motivation and engagement in entrepreneurship

education– Lack of sufficient funding and human resources– Entrepreneurship education perspective not incorporated in the

current examination system– Insufficient interaction between the policy makers and

practitioners– Lack of national platforms for good practices– A need for curriculum and tool development


Next step Need to integrate entrepreneurhip education at primary and

secondary levels - It starts in the early stages! Need to improve teachers skills in entrepreneurship teaching at

primary and secondary levels including Vocational Education and Training – it is not (solely) an academic discipline!

Mapping good practices in primary and secondary schools highlighting different approaches to EE – it is not a top-down exercise!

The Nordic countries share some common features that enable us to build up a Nordic platform for sharing and updating good practices.

Documents

The Nordic Council of Ministers KEN FORUM 2013, Cape Town