In Europe, there are too few new entrepreneurs, and always less people see it as a positive and desirable career to become entrepreneurs. That has to do with a an excessively negative image of entrepreneurs, with inexistent entrepreneurship training, with rules and procedures that are too punitive in case of failure, as well as with the difficulty to start a new business when it comes to risk and starting capital.
No employment without entrepreneurs that employ
The support of start-ups through funded projects of the EU Commission offers a way out of unemployment. This aspect should therefore be given greater consideration in the European funding programs. In general, entrepreneurship should be promoted at all levels, for all social groups, and starting from the schools.
– Entrepreneurship training
…requires entrepreneurs as mentors. Entrepreneurship cannot be trained by non-entrepreneurs. Networks of entrepreneurs should get more tools at hand in order to support their fellows, from new entrepreneurs to experienced ones, helping to scale up and grow, as well as to face new challenges on the market.
Schools should focus more on training critical and creative thinking, project-related work, individual responsibility, and award not only those that repeat well or learn by heart, but also those that are able to lead a group and implement projects with their own creativity.
– A better image of entrepreneurs
The EU should support the aim to improve the image of entrepreneurship in Europe that goes much further than the current EEPA’s: makers fairs, entrepreneurship road-shows, a film fund for video production about positive entrepreneur stories and biographies, etc…. are only a few ideas to show how far one can go.
