The international project Erasmus+ called “Pilot project: Entrepreneurship education for University students” was implemented by the Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlín in the years 2016 – 2018. The project was focused on the issue of entrepreneurship of university students with the aim to prepare an appropriate methodology of how to deal with doing business while still studying. The methodology was made using long-term experience of the faculty specialists and of entrepreneurs who consequently mentored and were in charge of courses for future entrepreneurs (students at that time). A part of the project was also preparation of an evaluation tool for applicants’ self-testing and their business preconditions at the beginning of the course as well as at the end of it when the students presented their final business plans for starting their own business. Based on the results, participants of the course obtained an internationally recognized certificate confirming completion of the course.
The project has successfully completed 2 semesters of courses when the students worked on their business plans using the methodology called lean canvas, drew the conclusions and defined their business models in order to start with their own business. Within the project, 12 business plans of a high quality were presented and their potential could also be seen in the competition “My First Million”, which is organized by the Technology Innovation Centre in Zlín in cooperation with significant entrepreneurs of the region who were also teaching in the course. During the course itself, the students got feedback from these important people from practice so that they could finalize their ideas successfully. The methodology used was prepared following the needs of starting entrepreneurs and their study duties at university with the aim to help both the teachers and the students.
The project is of great importance having an international impact and the partners across the EU took part in it. One of the goals stated is to introduce a system change in the approach to entrepreneurship of students while still studying at universities. The findings and experience are to be disseminated among the project partners as well as other key participants abroad, mainly in the EU.
The main outcomes of the project are, as mentioned above, the methodology, self-evaluation tool Octoskills, the case study focusing on seeing the ideas of entrepreneurship in practice and the Barcamp as a place for meetings of various groups as well as for sharing ideas and experience.
Ing. Michaela Šojdrová, a member of the European Parliament, was a strategic partner to this project with the aim to support entrepreneurship ideas and starting doing business by students of universities while still studying.
The main coordinator of the project was Tomas Bata University in Zlín (TBU) which is a dynamically developing university providing a wide range of study opportunities. The people interested in studying can choose from various degree programmes that the university offers at six faculties: Faculty of Technology (FT), Faculty of Management and Economics (FaME), Faculty of Multimedia Communications (FMC), Faculty of Applied Informatics (FAI), Faculty of Humanities (FHS), Faculty of Logistics and Crisis Management (FLCM). The university is the centre of top science and research on national as well as global scale.
TBU follows a long-term tradition of the Faculty of Technology which has been in Zlín since 1969 and has prepared hundreds of university-educated specialists. It is named after a legendary founder of shoe industry in Zlín and a well-known entrepreneur worldwide, Tomáš Baťa (1876-1932). Therefore, it strives to go on with this tradition at present and form a business university that would educate new entrepreneurs.
JA Czech is an international non-profit educational organization. Its role is to provide practical economic education for young people, to extend their knowledge and skills, to inspire and support them in the active approach to life in order to be ready and successful in the labour market. Junior Achievement is the oldest and largest educational non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1919 in the US. At present, the organization is active in more than 120 countries of the world. 10 million children and students of the age 6 to 22 take part in its programmes every year. The Czech branch of Junior Achievement was established by Mr Tomáš J. Baťa in 1992. More than 300 thousand children and students have completed the JA educational programmes in the Czech Republic since then.
JA Europe is the most important European provider of educational programmes in the field of education, preparedness for work and financial literacy. It covers 3.5 million students in 39 countries. The organization was established in 2001 by connecting Young Enterprise Europe and Junior Achievement International Europe. JA works with educational communities, business communities and governmental authorities for the purpose of providing experience supporting development of skills and competencies in order to be successful in today’s globalized world. This is primarily aimed at students from primary schools to universities. JA Europe is a European regional operational centre of JA Worldwide®. Its activities were evaluated by the European Commission as the ones providing best practices.
The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship is a national knowledge centre for development in the field of entrepreneurship. The aim of the Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship is to reflect innovative abilities as the basics for educational activities from primary schools to universities. The innovativeness and entrepreneurship must be well-integrated into the educational system and well-established in educational institutions.
The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship provides financial support for development of education focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship at all levels within the educational system. The foundation also improves and publishes its own educational materials, provides consultancy when implementing business thoughts in the educational system. It also supports cooperation and networking in the entrepreneurship education.
The foundation, as a knowledge centre, is responsible for dissemination and popularization of the research results from the area of entrepreneurship education. Via questionnaires and analyses, it also helps generate new knowledge concerning dissemination as well as the impact of entrepreneurship education in Denmark.
The case study, as one of the international project outcomes, focuses on significant moments in the course of the project itself and it defines the points that were important to pay attention to. The case study is also understood as a summary of moments which were significant for the project and which had to be solved.
Another project output is a self-evaluation tool for students that focuses on university students’ competences and prerequisites for business. The output is in the form of “OctoSkills” application which you can download from App Store or Google Play.
For more details about the international certificate which is described in methodology, please contact the person below stated.
