Three teachers from the Šolski center Nova Gorica took part in a Job-shadowing in Palma de Mallorca at Education InProgress SPAIN.
During their stay (30th October – 6th November 2022), one of the topics dealt with was the ENTOS project (Entrepreneurship Through Sport) an approved KA202 Strategic Partnership for Innovation.
"Entrepreneurship education is essential not only to shape the mindset of young people but also to provide the skills, knowledge, and attitudes essential to the development of an entrepreneurial culture." Cit. Entrepreneurship education in schools in Europe (Eurydice report)
During the Job-Shadowing, the teachers had the opportunity to get a wide explanation of the EntreComp Framework and ENTOS methodology by Karin Callipo discovering that ENTOS has been highlighted as a best practice in Europe by NIVAM, the Slovakian National Agency for the ERASMUS Program.
The Training Course is addressed to Physical Activity teachers with the aim to develop their Entrepreneurial Mindset and at the same time to train VET students aged (15-19) to develop their Entrepreneurial Mindset.
Vanja Spačal, a Slavist, analyzed in detail MODULE 1 related to “Learning Through Experience”. This competence requires the individual to reflect on what went right and where it went wrong. In the next step, it is necessary to understand why the error occurred and to be aware of it. Therefore this reflection requires the individual to ask questions, experiment, be creative and look for logical connections (conceptualize). In this way, we learn faster.
Vanja declares: “At this point, professors of the country's official language play an important role, teaching students proper communication and interaction with others when they have to articulate their experiences. This element must not be absent from the process of learning through experience, because it is with the help of language that we develop a reflection on experience.”
Tanja Ušaj Hvalič, an economist, analyzed in detail MODULE 3 related to “Creativity”.
Regarding ENTOS methodology, she says “I teach entrepreneurship and how to set up a virtual company. For doing that, my students need to develop creativity in several ways: finding a business idea, determining which activity the company will engage in, choosing a company name, creating a suitable logo, making a product prototype, designing attractive offers, cataloging,...As the mother of a professional football player, I am aware of the importance of sports for the development of entrepreneurial qualities, but I haven't ever practiced the cross-curricular connections between teaching business and physical education. Eureka! For me, this is a new approach that I will be happy to implement in my teaching to support my students' learning process in an innovative way. ”
Neva Reščič, a Slavist as well, analyzed in detail MODULE 5 related to “Self-Awareness and Self-Efficacy”. It is important for this module to focus on personal development. Self-aware people make conscious decisions to improve their lives. It is an application of the well-known SWOT analysis from the field of entrepreneurship to the field of personal growth. Self-awareness requires understanding one's own values, emotions, and feelings. The student must do a critical self-examination of these, they must understand that everyone's values are different. They realize that their abilities are a resource for achieving goals. These skills can be acquired through experience, practice, and education.
Neva asks: “Knowledge or information is needed to develop self-awareness and skills. How to get information? ” and she finds the answer by saying: “In the official language of the students, we can teach the use of language manuals to help him choose the appropriate expressions to form the text. It is important to understand the vocabulary and the expressions with which the students know how to convey their feelings and wishes. By reading, they acquire new expressions, expand their vocabulary, and recognize the nuances of the meanings of new words. If they do not understand the words, it does not mean that they are not capable of achieving the goal. They learn new concepts step by step and know how to use them. All this requires more time, so we have to explain to them that this is learning for life. ”
To summarize and according to our experience, ENTOS methodology can be taught by Entrepreneur teachers together with Physical Education teachers creating like that a team of teachers to reach the objective to develop in students, not only the KNOWLEDGE about Entrepreneurial topics but also and especially the ATTITUDE that ENTOS allows by proposing interesting activities addressed to train SKILLS.
Language teachers can actively support this pool of teachers by preparing adequately on the use of the language essential to be capable to express themselves in a more aware way for the required situation because students at this age are in the cognitive phase to process their thinking about abstract thoughts. The language component is also expressed in critical thinking that ENTOS methodology promotes, i.e. when students analyze their achievements and compare them with their peers. In this way, others help them understand their results and encourage them to find solutions.
Therefore communication abilities have a very large impact on their life and work: thinking about causes and consequences, becoming more able to express their feelings in relation to it and feelings, highlighting important information, etc.
By looking at ENTOS methodology a new idea came up, that is the possibility to propose writing exercises based on engaging activities, i.e. gaming, to prepare our students to carry on ENTOS methodology activities in a more successful way.
Our school is very enthusiastic about applying the ENTOS methodology and it would be a great impact of our Job-Shadowing activity is to invite EiP’s staff to come to Slovenia in order to teach the method to our teachers and to test it immediately with our students.
A great follow-up of the ENTOS Project and our ERASMUS Mobility experience is also to apply for a specific Project that can propose useful tools and methodology to develop our students’ communication skills.