Game-Changer IO2 In-service Training Programme

Module 3: The European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework (EntreComp) The European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework (EntreComp) was developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. EntreComp is a flexible reference framework that can be adapted to support the understanding and development of entrepreneurial competences in any educational setting. It was developed as a reference framework to explain what constitutes an entrepreneurial mindset. EntreComp offers a comprehensive description of the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are required to be entrepreneurial in order to create financial, cultural or social value for your community and wider society. Let us begin by defining the key concepts of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial mindset. What is Entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurship can be a difficult concept to define. The modern day definition of entrepreneurship is, “the process of creating a new enterprise and bearing any of its risks, with the view of making a profit” (Oxford Dictionary) . This definition outlines the practicalities of entrepreneurship but somehow misses the essence of what it really means. Longtime Harvard Business School Professor and expert on the topic of entrepreneurship, Howard Stevenson, simplified the definition to, “the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled” (Harvard Business Review, 2013). In this definition the entrepreneur is anyone who identifies an opportunity and decides to pursue it regardless of the resources currently available to them. In other words, they identify what ‘could be’ and then find a way to ‘make it reality’ , even if they do not have access to all of the necessary resources at that time. EntreComp builds on these definitions by stating that, “Entrepreneurship is when you act upon opportunities and ideas and transform them into value for others. The value that is created can be financial, cultural, or social” (FFE-YE, 2012) . At the core of the concept, entrepreneurship is about value creation and attempting to transform the world by solving problems. This could include bringing about social change or creating an innovative product that challenges the current way in which we live our lives on a daily basis. It is therefore, a key competence for career development, lifelong learning and societal progress.