Gain Creators / Outcomes

For anyone interested in understanding entrepreneurship as a competence, this framework offers a clear definition of what it is and the different elements it is made up of:

• Policy makers benefit from a shared definition of entrepreneurship as a competence, to both design targeted interventions and to help develop a common understanding of entrepreneurship as competence in communication and interaction with other stakeholders
• Curricula designers find a reference tool that helps them translate the entrepreneurship competence into learning outcomes according to an eight-level progression model
• Teachers and educators can refer to a shared understanding of what learners are expected to know or be able to do through entrepreneurial learning
• Employment support services as well as employers can use the framework to map the competences of jobseekers and employees following a definition of what it means to be entrepreneurial that also applies to work settings.
• Learners can use the framework as a self-reflection tool, to appraise their strengths and weaknesses in the three areas which make up entrepreneurship as a competence

Gains / Needs

• Policy makers benefit from a framework that can support common understanding across stakeholders and provide operational leverage to implement entrepreneurship education
• Players in the Education and Training (E&T) field need a shared understanding of what is meant by entrepreneurship as a competence, so as to be able to foster it and assess it in a systematic way across levels of education and learning contexts
• Employers, employment services and job seekers need to be have a common understanding of key competences, including entrepreneurship, to ensure optimal skill and job matching
• Learners need to develop key competences and transversal skills to cope with the fast changing demands of today's society and labour market. To do this, they first need to know what these are, map their gaps and then devise effective ways to fill them.

Target Group

Primarily policy makers and those interested in promoting the acquisition of entrepreneurship as competence in the public, private or third sector, followed by educators and learners.

Implementation Method

The Commission will disseminate the EntreComp framework and promote it to relevant actors including national and regional education authorities, private sector, third sector organisations and relevant networks.
Further, the Commission will develop a self-assessment tool for young people to reflect on their entrepreneurial competences, providing a tangible tool to support the operationalisation of the framework.
However, interested parties should take up the EntreComp framework and adapt it to their specific needs.

The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework

The EntreComp framework proposes a shared definition of entrepreneurship as a competence. It aims to promote and support consensus among all stakeholders in the field of entrepreneurship education and to establish a bridge between the worlds of education and work.

Developed through a mixed-methods approach, the EntreComp framework consists of 3 interrelated and interconnected competence areas: ‘Ideas and opportunities’, ‘Resources’ and ‘Into action’. Each area is made up of 5 competences, comprising 15 in total. These 15 competence areas together constitute the building blocks of entrepreneurship as a competence.

An overview table presents a simplified version of the progression model for the 15 competence, which can be useful as an introduction for stakeholders to understand what is meant by the entrepreneurship competence.

The full framework develops the 15 competences along an eight-level progression model and proposes a comprehensive list of 442 learning outcomes. This work can be used as a basis for the development of curricula and learning activities fostering entrepreneurship as a competence. It can also be used to define parameters to assess learners’ and citizens’ entrepreneurial competences.

Activities

To drive forward the development of entrepreneurship as a competence, a series of actions shall be taken, including:

• The definition of a governance model that involves stakeholders and establishes bridges between the worlds of education and work
• The outreach, take up and experimentation of the EntreComp framework in in real settings
• The collection of data and the establishment of  feedback loops to improve the framework
• The development of methods and tool for the assessment and self-assessment of entrepreneurship as competence across different target groups

Resources

The following are among the key resources needed to broaden the take-up of the framework:

• The support of the international entrepreneurship education community of practice aimed at magnifying relevant stakeholders' awareness and interest
• The sharing of practices among early adopters and other players, through peer learning experiences
• The availability of translations of the framework in local languages to promote implementation
• The training of educators to ensure their ability to design entrepreneurial learning activities that help shaping the entrepreneurship competence of the learners

Pain Relievers / Solutions

The EntreComp proposes:

• A shared definition of entrepreneurship as a competence
• A conceptual framework made by 3 competence areas and 15 competences
• A progression model that translates entrepreneurship competences form a basic to an expert level along eight levels of proficiency
• An overview table that depicts the 3 areas and all the 15 competences, but develops them only along the levels of proficiency that apply to all citizens
• 442 learning outcomes that make up an operational reference tool for those actors interested in bringing entrepreneurship competence to life

Pains / Challenges

Policy makers and those interested in promoting the acquisition of  entrepreneurship as competence in the public, private or third sector currently have difficulties

• to promote entrepreneurship as a competence, due to the lack of a common understanding of what it means to be entrepreneurial
• to engage educators in entrepreneurial teaching due to the lack of clear learning outcomes and effective pedagogical strategies 
• to build a coherent image of the European landscape of entrepreneurship education since entrepreneurship as a competence is generally understood in different ways
• to effectively compare and contrast initiatives aimed at fostering entrepreneurial learning because a common reference is missing
• to promote the (self-)assessment of one's entrepreneurship competence, since robust survey tools are missing