Trans-national mobility is a fundamental instrument that proved its success in all programmes developed by the European Commission. It helps not only at facilitating the European dimension but also the European integration process itself. There are many mobility schemes that are currently running within the various programmes addressing intra-European issues, however, in most cases they usually consist in bi-directional exchanges as carriers for transfer of knowledge, approaches, methodologies and mentality. Although between the University and Enterprise sectors several mobility schemes exists since long ago (like Leonardo placements etc), within Erasmus there was no mobility scheme at the time of EUE-Net project submission to support flows from the Entrepreneurs towards the University. This was a serious drawback, because the weakness of the Entrepreneurship attitude within the University graduates and academic staff clearly requires in increased presence of Entrepreneurs within the University.
Therefore the objective of work-package 4 was to experiment trans-national mobility of entrepreneurs within the University sector and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of such instrument. A very innovative scheme has been defined, namely "Learning by Teaching" such as the presence of Entrepreneurs within the University to be of mutual benefit for both parties. Within this scheme the Entrepreneurs are invited for short periods in Universities with a very focussed programme including: attending some classes and meeting with the students and teachers, to get integrated within the atmosphere and acquainted with the teaching practice on one hand and delivering some classes on their entrepreneur experience on the other hand. In this way all actors involved (Students, Teachers, Entrepreneurs) will have very rich learning experiences and of a crucial impact for their subsequent activities.
Short after EUE-Net project started, the European Commission DC EAC launched several measures targeting precisely the topic of entrepreneurship mobility, namely:
Outputs
OUTPUT NO.4: Conclusions of the Workshop on "Entrepreneurship mobility"
OUTPUT NO.4: Workshop on "Entrepreneurship mobility" conclus
OUTPUT NO.4: Conclusions of the Workshop on "Entrepreneurship mobility"
OUTPUT NO.4: Workshop on "Entrepreneurship mobility" conclus
Context
- Erasmus for young entrepreneurs - is a programme run by the European Commission's Enterprise Directorate-General that offers exchanges for entrepreneurs
- ERASMUS for enterprises - involving business in higher education - a measure that aims at strengthening the links between academia and business by supporting Student 'mobility' placements, mobility placements for enterprises staff and academic staff in both senses (from academia to business for training and from business to academia for teaching) and Co-operation in various pilot projects
The Entrepreneurship mobility idea was first generated within the EUI-Net project during debates that involved also the JEUNE Association for young entrepreneurs, during which the need for cooperation with micro-enterprises was thoroughly identified and analyzed.
Several very important conclusions have been drawn up:
- Universities tend to work more with large than with small businesses.
- Working with small business is important for economic development and education.
- Nevertheless, working with small business could potentially generate further small business!
- Today's social system doesn't encourage Universities working with small business because the pay back mechanism is very weak.
- Besides being very busy, this context discourage further entrepreneurs to get in contact with Universities
In this context, it has been decided that EUI-Net continuation project (called EUE-Net) will focus more on small enterprises and a scheme of entrepreneurship mobility will be initiated to investigate possible solutions for the problems above and facilitate direct cooperation and exchanges between the entrepreneurs and Universities.
The principle of the proposed scheme was to encourage a trans-national mobility of an entrepreneur who wishes to extend its business in the respective region. Thus, support from the University would be offered by arranging meetings, seminars and courses such as to put the entrepreneur in contact with the local business environment as well as students with entrepreneurial attitude.
If appropriate market opportunities were successfully identified, the mobility scheme could have a second phase a student visit (longer term visit - a student placement) to the micro-enterprise in order to learn about the business and define the future business extension.
The principle of the proposed scheme was to encourage a trans-national mobility of an entrepreneur who wishes to extend its business in the respective region. Thus, support from the University would be offered by arranging meetings, seminars and courses such as to put the entrepreneur in contact with the local business environment as well as students with entrepreneurial attitude.
If appropriate market opportunities were successfully identified, the mobility scheme could have a second phase a student visit (longer term visit - a student placement) to the micro-enterprise in order to learn about the business and define the future business extension.
Such mobility scheme was already initiated in the frame of EUI-Net project in January 2007 (Francesca Ungaro visited University Transilvania of Brasov), with a student placement component follow-up in 2008 in the framework of EUE-Net project.
EUE-Net activities
Within EUE-Net a number of 3 Entrepreneurship mobility flows have been planned during he project life.
Entrepreneurship mobility flow no.1
The first mobility was planned as a follow up of Francesca Ungaro flow at Brasov in early 2007 and involved a Romanian student that undertook a practical placement in the microenterprise run by Francesca Ungaro. Francesca Ungaro is the owner of the micro-company Centaurus that is partner in EUE-Network and also an active member of JEUNE association. One of the goals of the Entrepreneur's visit in Brasov was to explore the possibilities for business expansion in Romania. For this reason, an appropriate program of meetings with students and local business was arranged and as a result a student was identified to undertake a practical placement in the microenterprise with the following objectives:
- become familiar with the business mechanism and the market behavior in Italy
- become familiar with the technology
- become familiar with the management issues of a microenterprise
The student undertook a 3 months placement (split in two distinct periods) in 2008.
As a result of this first entrepreneurial mobility the student worked 3 months in Brescia at Centaurus and gathered the necessary practical skills and business knowledge to allow expansion of the activity in Romania. Centaurus company developed a plan for opening a branch in Romania. Nevertheless, meanwhile the economic crisis stroke Europe and these plans are currently delayed.
The economic crisis stroked the microenterprises in the first place. As a result, it was more difficult to identify within EUE-Net plans for business expansion within the microenterprises. In this context the remaining 2 mobility flows organized within EUE-Net for business expansion didn't succeed to involve a student follow up since no specific business expansion was identified.
As a result of this first entrepreneurial mobility the student worked 3 months in Brescia at Centaurus and gathered the necessary practical skills and business knowledge to allow expansion of the activity in Romania. Centaurus company developed a plan for opening a branch in Romania. Nevertheless, meanwhile the economic crisis stroke Europe and these plans are currently delayed.
The economic crisis stroked the microenterprises in the first place. As a result, it was more difficult to identify within EUE-Net plans for business expansion within the microenterprises. In this context the remaining 2 mobility flows organized within EUE-Net for business expansion didn't succeed to involve a student follow up since no specific business expansion was identified.
Entrepreneurship mobility flow no.2
The second mobility flow was organized by JEUNE Association in cooperation with the University of Business Economics in Vienna. The visit was undertaken by an entrepreneur member of JEUNE - Mr Florin Jianu, who is also the president of the Romanian young entrepreneurs association. Mr Jianu undertook within EUE-Net an entrepreneurship mobility of 3 days in Vienna. The host was University of Business Economics in Vienna, contact person Ms Ursula Axmann.
The main objectives of the visit were formulated both from the curriculum and entrepreneurial perspectives.
The main objectives of the visit were formulated both from the curriculum and entrepreneurial perspectives.
- Objectives from curriculum perspective:
- to build a common methods and methodology concerning cooperation between the business sector and educational system in order to create a strong and competitive partnership;
- to develop common agreements concerning cooperation in entrepreneurial sector - future project and programs development, between Romania and Austria.
- Objectives from business (entrepreneurial) perspective:
- to understand the relation between the university and the entrepreneurs in Vienna and Austria;
- to develop new ideas of joint projects;
- to develop a partnership with the university for further possible common projects.
- to develop a common program (Romanian - Austrian) in order to integrate young students or young entrepreneurs in short internship. Romanian people within the WU to get familiarized with the current training environment of the high qualified workforce in the relevant business area and for Austrian young students or young entrepreneurs within Romanian business enterprises in order to get familiar with Romanian business environment and Romanian managerial concept;
- to build an agreement between the Romanian business sector and other Austrian SME's concerning the new instruments of the Informational Technologies and new concepts which are applied in media and marketing industry;
- to evaluate the opportunities and prepare the creation of a commercial structure, concerning cooperation into the business sector, especially into the young entrepreneurial sector, which could be based in Romania, and could be the future in reinforcing the business sector, both in Romania and Austria.
Entrepreneurship mobility no.3
The third mobility flow was organized also by JEUNE Association but in cooperation with the University of Ilmenau, in Germany, contact person Dr. Frank March, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. The entrepreneurship mobility was performed by Mr. Abraham Tsoukalidis, a young entrepreneur from Greece, acting in the field of renewable energy.
The main objectives of the visit were:
The main objectives of the visit were:
- learning from the experience of others - different countries and mentalities;
- presentation of practical solutions on the field of renewable energies and the importance of such technologies;
- the solutions embedded in the presentation of positive energy interested the enterprise Sinusstrom from Ilmenau;
- organizing a seminar as an opportunity to bring young and experienced people together to cooperate and to share experience;
- identifying cooperation opportunities in mobility programmes of the EU for students, young graduates and staff;
- widen the radius of activities and network of young entrepreneurs;
- the export of good practice and solutions to demonstrate renewable energies and practical applications can be a good mean of technology and knowledge transfer between experts and academia in this field.
Conclusions of the Entrepreneurship mobility flows:
During the final EUE-Net meeting in Istambul 9-11 September 2010, an Workshop took place on The mobility of young entrepreneurs in universities. Experience and further actions for EUE-NET. During the workshop the EUE-Net coordinator Prof. Doru Talaba presented the EUE-Net Entrepreneurship mobility activities and one of the Entrepreneurs that undertook the visits (Mr Florin Jianu) presented his report.
Following the debates, the following conclusions have been retained:
Following the debates, the following conclusions have been retained:
- Universities tend to work more with large than with small businesses.
- Working with small business is important for economic development and education
- Nevertheless, working with small business could potentially generate further small business!
- Today's social system doesn't encourage Universities working with small business because the pay back mechanism is very weak.
- Besides being very busy, this context discourage further entrepreneurs to get in contact with Universities
- The present situation is characterized by lack of up to data research about entrepreneurship, lack of education and training in entrepreneurship, lack of internationalization.
- Effectiveness must be the principle behind any tool that is used.
- Entrepreneurs must engage in students training and universities must find ways to make micro-enterprises interesting for the students as entrepreneurs have no guaranty that students that work with them have the transversal competencies and the necessary attitude they are looking for.
- the entrepreneur point of view is very important and universities must try to forecast what entrepreneurs want and to improve their courses as a consequences.
- In a similar manner, SME's must be more attractive also for the students.