A conference on entrepreneurship education was held on 27 June in Limassol, on the island of Cyprus, which was also attended by Leandro Bitetti, head of the SUPSI Master of Science in Business Administration with a Major in Innovation Management.
The conference, hosted by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth of the Republic of Cyprus, was organised in cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and SERI, which represents Switzerland on the UNECE Steering Committee for Education for Sustainable Development.
The conference explored how education for sustainable development can influence the teaching of entrepreneurship, with a view to having a positive environmental, social and economic impact for a sustainable future.
Entrepreneurship education plays a central role in the acquisition of a range of skills – creativity, ability to solve problems, the aptitude for risk-taking – all of which are necessary for positive change. In turn, ESD fosters critical thinking, promotes global citizenship and deepens the understanding of economic, environmental, cultural and social issues. Integrating ESD into entrepreneurship education is essential for empowering youth to build a more sustainable and equitable future.
Three experts brought their Swiss expertise to the conference.
Georg Berger, director of the vocational education and training centre in Olten (BBZ Olten) and chairman of the scETA, gave a presentation on the centre and its activities. He outlined the way in which entrepreneurship should be introduced into the teaching of general culture as part of initial vocational training.
Susan Müller, vice president of the scETA and professor of entrepreneurship at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, emphasised the importance of applying critical thinking to all stages of the entrepreneurial process.
Finally, Leandro Bitetti emphasised the urgent need to develop new tools for the teaching of entrepreneurship, which should be based on sustainability pinciples in order to enable companies and individuals to achieve a high environmental, social and governance impact. Indeed, in a rapidly changing entrepreneurial and business landscape, new challenges cannot be fully met with existing, generic tools and methods.
In a session he moderated, he also spoke about the transformation of learning spaces: traditional classrooms, , which are designed for lecture-based teaching, should be transformed into environments that encourage challenge-based and experiential learning. A change, this, that requires continuous learning on the part of educators to adapt to the cultural evolution in education.
More information on the conference is available on SERI's website.