Entrepreneurship education in higher education

Entrepreneurship education helps individuals realise their potential and creates change agents who want to build a sustainable future for themselves and others. Adopting an entrepreneurial mindset equips students for the future. Becoming an entrepreneur requires building an entrepreneurial identity and developing business skills.

In higher education, every student encounters entrepreneurship as part of their studies. Entrepreneurship education emphasises the development of students’ broad entrepreneurial skills. It also considers the potential for creating new businesses and commercialising ideas. Students see entrepreneurship as a potential career option.

Find out more about the common objectives and recommendations of the entrepreneurship education model in North Ostrobothnia here.

Development targets

The role of entrepreneurship studies will be strengthened. Entrepreneurship is a part of the studies for every higher education student.
Entrepreneurship studies will take into account the opportunities offered by sustainability, internationalisation and digitalisation.
The development of an entrepreneurial mindset will be supported.
Students learn entrepreneurship in interdisciplinary, authentic entrepreneurship learning environments. Students will be provided with opportunities to engage in business on campus and as part of their studies, developing learning outcomes.
Entrepreneurship career paths and work-life partnerships are a natural part of the curricula of all degree programmes and are an integral part of the training modules. Partners for action can be found through local, national and international networks.

The research-to-business approach is to be applied to all fields of study, through linking entrepreneurship studies more closely to new business development and business innovation processes. Research-based innovation will be pursued by encouraging students, researchers and teaching staff to think in a multidisciplinary way and to collaborate widely.
Students, researchers and staff will be mobilised to identify their own entrepreneurial potential and encouraged to play an active role in generating global and local change. It is important to develop the skills of teaching staff in entrepreneurship education, and that they understand how to put these skills into practice.
Students’ business ideas and entrepreneurial ambitions will be supported and further developed as part of their studies. There will be active multidisciplinary cooperation with the incubator network and the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Building opportunities for the development of growth businesses is key.
Building an entrepreneurial culture throughout the organisation.

Competency targets

Regionally, curriculum-based competency objectives for entrepreneurship education will be implemented by integrating them into different modules and cross-curricular competences.

Developing entrepreneurial work-life skills

Student is aware of and confident in their own abilities.
Student sets him-/herself goals and develops his/her competence identity.
Student shows perseverance in pursuing his/her goals and learns from his/her experiences.
Student tolerates uncertainty and risk in his/her activities.
Student understands the importance of interdisciplinary co-operation.
Student is able to work constuctively and promotes wellbeing in a team
Student acts ethically and professionally in a multicultural environment.

Skills related to business development

Student is able to identify new business opportunities.
Student is able to develop an existing business.
Student demonstrates the ability to anticipate changes in the business environment.
Student has a good understanding of business competences and can identify ways to deliver value to the customer.
Student understands the importance of business networks.
Student can generate and evaluates him/her business ideas.
Student can exploit the opportunities offered by an ecosystem for him/her own ideas.
Student understands the requirements of ecological, social, cultural and economic sustainability for business.
Student is able to exploit the opportunities of internationalisation.
Student is able to use digital solutions, platforms and functionalities in his/her field of study and across disciplanes.
Student understand the importance of key intellectual property rights and the principles of protection.

Higher education