A key concept of the SENSES project is the one of ENTREPRENEURSHIP. But how can it be defined? What place does it find within the school and, above all, within the development and growth programs drawn up by primary education teachers?
Surely it is a difficult concept to define, which finds space within the modifications in today’s society, which requires a change of course also in the educational and training fields. Guiding and accompanying students on their growth course requires, today more than ever, the ability to give them tools rather than concepts. Attitudes, clarity of ideas, knowledge of “know how”, ambition, creativity, risk propensity become fundamental. These are characteristics that partly concern the cognitive sphere, partly that of the character.
However, entrepreneurship is not a subject in the strict sense, so it does not have to do with the transmission of notions, it is rather a method. Therefore, the key element becomes the individual, the set of his soft skills, abilities.
So, a school’s goal becomes to ensure students, during their course of study, to develop skills and competences to think in new ways, discover opportunities and translate their ideas into value.
Being entrepreneurial means more than just being ready to start your own business. It means being able to promote change, face challenges, create added value and improve the world we live in. It means, at school, encouraging students to think in an unconventional way and to approach problems by analyzing them from different perspectives.
Empower students, make them study and cooperate in new ways, will allow them to become independent adults, able to build their own future. Identifying opportunities means listening to the needs of others, looking at the world around us and creating links between different ideas.
To do this, it is important that the pupils experience in a direct, active way, that they act, collaborate, have the opportunity to take initiative, plan, organize and manage situations.
It is in this framework and with these aims that SENSES partners work: create ideas and opportunities, develop resources to promote entrepreneurial behaviors and skills.