ENTREPRENEURSHIP
You won’t get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it. – John Lennon
The economic and financial crisis of 2008 is still perceptible today. Unemployment explodes, last figures of Eurostat tells us that the youth unemployment rate for the EU27 last December was almost 24%. Last months the Belgian economy faced different large enterprises that closed their doors, Ford Genk, Bekaert, Caterpillar, Philips, … delocalization was the buzz word. But can we do something to counter this trend? Yes. All economist are agree to say that our future is less large global companies, but more small innovative enterprises.
Also the velocity of the changes in our world is increasing exponentially. Not only technological changes, but also cultural changes. Global thinking, working together in a network of different companies is the new paradigm of the next decades. To transform these threats in opportunities, the new entrepreneurs will not only be creative, but also very flexible to meet all expectations of the global customer, who’s needs are changing almost daily.
This means that we need more creative and flexible entrepreneurs, creating the jobs of tomorrow. Two economic agents can play an important role in motivating young people to “imagine” that world of tomorrow. Governments and certainly the EU can boost the creation of new enterprises in our countries, by stimulating start-ups with subsidies. But the most important motivator is education. Our universities and college universities has to learn and motivate young people the merits, joy and happiness of starting his own business.
This IP is focused on developing of these entrepreneurship skills within the European context. A practice oriented and interactive program which involves a cooperation with some local business representatives in a newly industrialized country like Turkey will be part of the highlights. This aspect will be supported by providing lecture on "making business in/with Turkey and being an entrepreneur in Turkey". This will emphasize on the global aspect of our new young entrepreneur.During the IP, students will work in a cross-cultural and trans-disciplinary teams. Cross-cultural, because in the future they will work with companies all over the world and that this demands some adaptation skills. Experience of the participating partners shows that organizing intensive (short term) international projects is very important to stimulate Erasmus student mobility for study and placement. Students will also learn to work with peers with a different cultural background, using a language that is not their mother tongue. Therefore they will gain the self-confidence needed to do a longer term Erasmus experience afterwards.
The participating institutions will work closely together, as well during the preparation as during the implementation of the IP. Both during the preparation and implementation of the IP, the participating institutions will exchange experiences and approaches of the team. Hence, taking part in an IP is very ideal for peer learning between the institutions and for European benchmarking, especially in terms of analysing the supporting conditions for entrepreneurs and small business initiatives. The quality of future exchanges of students and teachers between the different partner institutions can only benefit from this intensive and close cooperation.