Mid Sweden University

Many researchers, and policy makers, across Europe emphasise entrepreneurship education as the way to a future new welfare society. Why? The aim of this article is to discuss critically entrepreneurship education, starting in contemporary European research on entrepreneurship. Earlier research defines entrepreneurship as a temporary process of innovation, only possible in capitalistic societies. In more recent research entrepreneurship is located within the entrepreneur, to a limited number of traits typical for the entrepreneurial personality despite its surroundings. Environmental or cultural factors are treated as either to promote or inhibit entrepreneurial behaviour/personality. The locus to specific traits of the individual is the logic behind the, normative and quite naïve, favouring of entrepreneurship education. Entrepreneurship education, characterised by learning by doing, practice-orientation, and so on, is viewed as the way to foster the right kind of individuals; individuals with the specific traits who form a kind of inner resources that can be profitable on the global market. In this perspective, entrepreneurship education seems to be a part of the ongoing neo liberal oriented restructuring process, which is sweeping through Europe, and the writings on entrepreneurship education can be understood as a specific political/ideological activity. I

Denna studie är en del i ett större forskningsprojekt som sedan hösten 2002 bedrivits vid Institutionen för utbildningsvetenskap, Mittuniversitet. Detta kapitel är en beskrivning av entreprenörskapsaktiviteter i några av Länets skolor som innehåller tre delar. I den inledande delen ges en kort teoretisk bakgrund till entreprenörskap och dess relation till utbildning. Den andra delen beskriver hur utbildningen ter sig i ett urval av gymnasieutbildningar samt i en grundskola. Den tredje delen innehåller sammanfattande diskussioner och slutsatser.

This paper aims to outline findings from a research project that has investigated an initiative to stimulate youths tobecome more entrepreneurial. The concept of summer entrepreneur has been developed in the last decade in aSwedish county. It was developed out of the idea that youths should have a possibility to run their own companiesas alternative to traditional summer vacation employments. The study of the summer entrepreneur activity wasconducted as a case study. The main findings showed that the concept developed as a project now needs anorganization that can take the development further. It also shows that the participating youths express that they havearchived the expected abilities from the activity, but any long time effects of changed attitudes towardsentrepreneurship is hard to establish.