Problem addressed

Research has shown that employees who are encouraged to think and act like an entrepreneur while still fulfilling the normal job requirements, bring benefits to the employer, as well as provide motivation, encouragement, and a sense of achievement to themselves. Despite the widely accepted narrow view that entrepreneurship is related to new businesses, many researchers argue that entrepreneurship is a competence for life for all citizens.

Employees are encouraged to be entrepreneurs, not only in the corporate but also in the public sector. The increasing demands of the population for better and faster services strengthens the case for an entrepreneurial public sector employee. They need to be trained and coached in adopting an entrepreneurial approach to their usual routines and seek opportunities to add value for the citizens. The emergence of GovTech for the modernization of the public sector, makes the need for digital upskilling of public employees imperative.

CEDEFOP stresses that “entrepreneurship, defined as a key competence which applies to all spheres of life. The study seeks to explore entrepreneurship competence not only as business creation, but also from a life-wide and life-deep perspective”. (ref. “Background paper for the workshop Entrepreneurship competence in VET”). Accordingly, VET providers consider the topic as a need to be addressed in training provision. Targeting public servants aims at covering a target which has been neglect up to now.

Regarding project countries, in Belgium the concept of developing an entrepreneurial mindset for public service employees is absent, though there are substantial programmes for digital skills. Inclusive entrepreneurship policies have been developed in the past years in formal and non-formal education targeted to self-employment but not mindset shifting, especially with regards to the public sector. Unified provisions in CVET are not present due to the variety of actors in play and the scattered distribution of competences.

In Italy less than 10% of VET providers know how to nurture entrepreneurship competence in their programmes. Concerning CVET, there are no guidelines on how to promote entrepreneurship competence at policy level.

In Greece, the Digital Transformation in the public sector is lagging behind the EU average with there are considerable obstacles for learning opportunities on entrepreneurial and digital skills for public sector.

In Romania, entrepreneurial behaviour in the public sector has been regarded as either non-existent or aberrant.

In Cyprus, on the topic of entrepreneurship for public entities, very isolated experiences can be reported. The need of engaging public authorities, and their staff, in developing an entrepreneurial mindset remains both a challenge and a need.

In Slovakia, non-formal education focuses on obtaining knowledge of the updated laws and standards in the public sector, whereas digital skills of public employees are still low level and entrepreneurial skills can be seen as newness.

Innovative solution

ENTREPUBL assumes that being entrepreneurial is not a linear process, instead is a way of thinking, being and doing in everyday work-life and it is something that can be learned. By debunking myths that entrepreneurship education is only addressed to people who wish to start their own business, public employees will be empowered to alter their attitude towards entrepreneurial thinking and learn how to employ entrepreneurial actions to improve services offered to the citizens but also to advance their professional development.

ENTREPUBL offers an innovative methodology and curriculum that will empower public servants to change attitude towards entrepreneurship, develop key capabilities and create value both for the institution they work and the general public. The digital-based path will promote digital education among public employees and public institutions. Individuals - public employees, and VET trainers - will benefit by improving digital skills and entrepreneurial competences, whereas institutions, VET and public, will increase their capability and readiness to provide new digital learning solutions. VET trainers will also get the opportunity to get accredited, as the project foresees a certification process to recognise and validate the skills and competences acquired at EU level.

In addition, policy makers and directors of local/regional public institutions will be guided on strategies and suggestions on how to facilitate and strengthen processes that will allow public employees to develop their entrepreneurial thinking and adopt the use of new digital solutions to improve internal processes but also public services.

The Partnership will gain fruitful insights during implementation, improving their organisational capacity and adopting best practices in their operations. The collaboration with associated partners, VET organisations and trainers as well as policy makers will result in reinforcement and expansion of partners’ networks up to policy level.

Key results and benefits

ENTREPUBL project seeks to:

1) Develop a training path on digital and entrepreneurial skills for public employees at local/regional level.

2) Support VET institutions and partners with upskilling opportunities for their staff

3) Empower VET trainers to apply entrepreneurial thinking using a digital approach

4) Promote the use of flexible online training by VET trainers

5) Strengthen the public sector to deliver modern services and adopt digital practices

6)Design a certification scheme for VET trainers

Deliverables:

• Development of ENTREPUBL program on digital & entrepreneurial skills, an innovative VET product tailor-made for public employees at local/regional level validated by focus groups - 30 VET trainers, 30 public servants

• The ENTREPUBL path for e-/blended learning, tested with 660 beneficiaries

• The ENTREPUBL virtual community of practice

• A policy paper on upskilling the public sector workforce, engaging min. 30 policy makers

• A certification scheme for VET trainers who complete ENTREPUBL training

Potential for mainstreaming

The aim to improve digital skills and entrepreneurial competences for the public sector can be seen as an ambitious goal but undoubtedly necessary and essential in national and European context. Laying the foundations necessary to achieve and implement this objective in an effective way certainly requires the involvement and collaboration of different organizations with different experiences, knowledge and backgrounds, able to guarantee the acquisition of an operational vision at EU level starting from local, regional or national realities. In this context, it is clear how the project must be shared and implemented by a plurality of stakeholders from different EU countries to be able to fully respond to the identified needs.

Therefore, the aim of the project can only be treated transnationally as all the aforesaid affect the ability of the EU as a whole to foster digital literacy as well as a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship as life skill, and to become more inclusive by enhancing digital learning and further strengthening key competencies in CVET and the public sector.

ENTREPUBL involves 8 partners from 6 EU countries (BE, IT, GR, RO, CY, SK). The consortium is composed of 2 non profit training organisations and 1 multi-stakeholder partnership with connections at policy level, 2 public entities, 2 training companies with experience working with public servants and a certification body, to ensure exchange of know-how, best practices and industry insights that will permit the effective implementation of the project. All partners have extended networks in VET and public sectors and have identified strong and relevant associated partners in order to achieve solid dissemination and sustainability of results. Last but not least, the use of the ENTRECOMP community platform will permit the creation of the ENTREPUBL community of practice, bringing together VET professionals, public institutions and policy makers having a long lasting multiplier effect at EU level.