Lapland’s Entrepreneural Education Strategy & Method Handbook
About this good practice
The aim of the project was to strengthen methodological expertise in entrepreneurship education to better include entrepreneurship in early childhood education, pre-primary and basic education, second level, higher education and liberal adult education in Lapland.
The project was implemented through a partnership, in cooperation of the University of Lapland, Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Lapland Education Centre REDU, and Vocational College Lappia. Also, a joint vision for entrepreneur education in Lapland was created.
The municipalities and business sectors of Lapland were also included in the strategy work. The project team toured all the 21 municipalities of Lapland. Workshops were organized where all Lappish municipalities and representatives of entrepreneurs were consulted. The mentor network group on Facebook was introduced to teachers of the municipalities.
The operating environment was analyzed also from a gender perspective and gender equality was taken into consideration in every step of the project and in all strategy plans, aims and results. Selected vision, goals and the tasks of the methods section are gender neutral.
The project produced a 15-credit entrepreneurship education programme and a regional entrepreneurship strategy for Lapland, a Method Handbook and Lapland’s teacher mentor network. The strategy was sent to the municipalities of Lapland and a podcast series was published about the strategy.
Resources needed
The project was funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) from the North Ostrobothnia ELY Center with a total budget of 300 000€.
Evidence of success
The project was awarded with the 2023 Entrepreneurship Education Recognition and has been recognized as one of the best developers of entrepreneurship education in 2023 in Finland (Finland’s YES Agent 2023 -award).
The recognition was based of the innovative approach to unite the
whole Lapland region in every educational level to work together. It also provides the key strategical steps for the municipalities to make decisions on entrepreneurship in their curricula.
Potential for learning or transfer
Encouraging entrepreneurship for all genders and many educational levels would benefit many other European regions.
All levels of education, municipalities, entrepreneurs and company representatives participated in the strategy process, creating a strong foundation also for the implementation of the strategy – a way of operating that could be utilized elsewhere as well. In addition, a joint vision for entrepreneur education in Lapland was created, paving the way for further development.
The work was also conducted in an innovative way, for example creating a podcast series to ensure the transformation on knowledge and enabling different approaches to learn from the topic but also providing a section of the Strategy in English for the use of international education and teaching staff.