Together with the project partners from Cyprus, Turkey and Greece, Karlshochschule International University organized the closing event of the 2-years Erasmus+ project about Entrepreneurship Education. Under the title: “Social impact & Sustainability in Entrepreneurship Education – match or clash?” Karlshochschule invited a diverse mix of stakeholders from Higher Education Institutions, entrepreneurship organizations, student associations, entrepreneurs and academic staff to disseminate the project results and to further examine how social impact and sustainability in entrepreneurship education can drive innovation within companies. Over 100 participants joined the hybrid conference both online and on site, following several presentations and two workshops.
The opening speech were hold by Prof. Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, head of the research group “Next Education”, who introduced several entrepreneurship education frameworks (e.g. EntreComp, Changemarker and theinnovate). Furthermore, he discussed the significance of micro-credentials in developing entrepreneurial skills and pointed out that entrepreneurship education is a lifelong learning journey.
Prof. Dr. Robert Lepenies from Karlshochschule presented the ENTREHUBS project results. He emphasized that the project team reflected on a more holistic approach to entrepreneurship education, encompassing not only business-specific knowledge but also personal development, social and ethical dimensions. He explained the educational approach of ENTREHUBS project, which focuses on co-creating educational materials and fostering value creation. Based on this approach, the partnership collaboratively developed new training materials for educators as well as an Online Summer Course for students. Notably, Karlshochschule issued ECTS points for students from the University of Cyprus.
During the parallel workshops, participants could either 1. dive into the topic of “Bildung” (education) and “Transversity” with Prof. Dr. Wendelin Küpers from Karlshochschule and discover the Future Skills Online Compass Tool with Laura Eigbrecht from Duale Hochschule Baden Württemberg Karlsruhe or 2. develop their own startup ideas by spotting opportunities to become a social entrepreneur with Maria Lavithi Howard from Cyprus University.
The conference concluded with a keynote by Manouchehr Shamsrizi, Social Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of “gamelab.berlin”. He began by unpacking his title, “As if an ordered mind were speaking to us,” a quote from Heinrich von Kleist: Manouchehr explained that technology is often perceived as an “ordered mind”, largely because many people struggle to understand the technological innovations that shape our lives. As a result, we may begin to believe that there is some sort of magic behind these advancements. He emphasized that technology has the potential to stimulate our imagination and foster creative thinking. Manouchehr argued that entrepreneurship education should embrace a more playful approach to encourage imagination and innovative thinking by using technology.
During the discussion with participants, he explored the potential for transforming EE by incorporating non-EU-centric methodologies and perspectives.
All in all, the final event encouraged new discussions about how entrepreneurship education should be shaped to foster more sustainable innovations, and which tools, frameworks and concepts are most suitable to cultivate a critical entrepreneurship mindset.
We thank all participants for their critical questions, contributions and inspiring discussions.
Read the press release about the event.
