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Abstract

EntreComp: The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework

The development of the entrepreneurial capacity of European citizens and organisations is one of the key policy objectives for the EU and Member States. Ten years ago, the European Commission identified sense of initiative and entrepreneurship as one of the 8 key competences necessary for a knowledge-based society. The EntreComp framework presented in this report proposes a shared definition of entrepreneurship as a competence, with the aim to raise consensus among all stakeholders and to establish a bridge between the worlds of education and work. Developed through a mixed-methods approach, the EntreComp framework is set to become a reference de facto for any initiative aiming to foster entrepreneurial capacity of European citizens. It consists of 3 interrelated and interconnected competence areas: ‘Ideas and opportunities’, ‘Resources’ and ‘Into action’. Each of the areas is made up of 5 competences, which, together, constitute the building blocks of entrepreneurship as a competence. The framework develops the 15 competences along an 8-level progression model and proposes a comprehensive list of 442 learning outcomes. The framework can be used as a basis for the development of curricula and learning activities fostering entrepreneurship as a competence. Also, it can be used for the definition of parameters to assess learners’ and citizens’ entrepreneurial competences.

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JRC101581

EUR 27939 EN

ISBN 978-92-79-63923-4

ISSN 1831-9424

doi:10.2791/29479

© European Union, 2016

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

How to cite: Bacigalupo, M., Kampylis, P., Punie, Y., Van den Brande, G. (2016). EntreComp: The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework. Luxembourg: Publication Office of the European Union; EUR 27939 EN; doi:10.2791/593884

All images © European Union 2016, except: Cover image, f/sco - Fotolia.com

EntreComp: The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework

Foreword

The European Commission has proposed ‘A New Skills Agenda for Europe: Working together to strengthen human capital, employability and competitiveness’ to address the skills challenges that Europe is currently facing. The aim is that everyone should have the key set of competences needed for personal development, social inclusion, active citizenship and employment. These competences include literacy, numeracy, science and foreign languages, as well as more transversal skills such as digital competence, entrepreneurship competence, critical thinking, problem solving or learning to learn.

The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework, also known as EntreComp, offers a tool to improve the entrepreneurial capacity of European citizens and organisations¹. The framework aims to build consensus around a common understanding of entrepreneurship competence by defining 3 competence areas, a list of 15 competences, learning outcomes and proficiency levels, which current and future initiatives can refer to.

EntreComp was developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission on behalf of the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL). The current report is the first publication to be released by the EntreComp project after an intensive process of research and stakeholder consultations.

The origin of this work goes back to 2006 when the European Union proposed 8 key competences for lifelong learning, one of which was a ‘sense of initiative and entrepreneurship’.

DG EMPL is working together with the JRC to strengthen the uptake and use of EntreComp in Europe. The release of this report, coincides with the publication of an update of the 2013 report on the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens, also known as DigComp².

Both tools will enable public authorities and private actors to improve their guidance, training and mentoring services for young people and job seekers, and at the same time further an entrepreneurial mindset among citizens. We believe they can help to address some of the key skills challenges that Europe is currently facing.

Detlef Eckert
Director, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

Acknowledgements

After eighteen months of research work, the list of people who deserve our gratitude has grown noticeably long.

We would like to start by acknowledging the valuable contribution of CARSA team, who has supported us in the initial stage of the project. Thanks to Antonio Collado, Johannes Conrads and Ivana Komarkova, who in the meanwhile has become colleague at the European Institute of Technology, as well as Dimitri Gagliardi (University of Manchester). Our gratitude also goes to Elin McCallum (Bantani Education and Research), who has provided support along all the phases of this work and especially the last one.

Also, we are grateful to the large group of experts who have challenged us along the way, commenting and validating each step of the development of reference framework, from the identification of the competence areas to the validation of every single learning outcome. The list is long and we mean no offence by mentioning them by their first name, namely: Rob Aalders, Euregio Entrepreneurial Experience; Luisa Alemany, Esade Entrepreneurship Institute; Mirela Andoni, Ministry of Education and Science, Institute for Educational Development, Albania; Javier Aretxederreta, Tknika; Carlos Azevedo, Social Business School; Martina Bacigalupi, fundraiser; Ania Bourgeois, EC-EACEA-Eurydice; Olena Bekh, ETF; Catherine Brentnall, Ready Unlimited; Ben Bruyndoncx, SYNTRA Flanders; Massimiliano Cereda, Atelier Descartes; Brian Cookson, NASUWT; Cristina Crisan, SIMULIMPRESA; Nigel Culkin, Institute of Small Business & Entrepreneurship at the University of Hertfordshire; Luisa De Amicis, EUCLID NETWORK; Vincent De Coninck, BENISI European Network of Incubators for Social Innovation; Ivan Diego, Valnalon; Anusca Ferrari, European Schoolnet; Jaime Gastalver, RES Espacio de resiliencia creativa; Jan Gejel, Catalunia in Europe; Marianna Georgalis, Youth Forum; Clara Giardina, Freelance designer; Anthony Gribben, ETF; Przemyslaw Grzywa, YES – European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs; Efka Heder, SEECEL; Frank Hennessey; Andreas Huck, Climate-KIC Education; Lukas Hula, NUOV; Bianca Isaincu, Child and Youth Finance International; Karin Jaanson, Ministry of Education and Research, Estonia; Caroline Jenner, JA Europe; Magnus Klofsten, Linköping University; Gerard Krauss, Université de Rennes; Martin Lackeus, Chalmers University of Technology; Jose Manuel Leceta, Insight Foresight Institute; Francisco Liñán, University of Seville; Fiorenza Lipparini, PlusValue; Maja Ljubic, SEECEL; Carlos Lora Calvo, RES Espacio de resiliencia creativa; Vera Martinho, JA Europe; Elizabeth McSkeane; Kaare Moberg, The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship–Young Enterprise (FFE-YE); Veronica Mobilio, JA Europe; Manuel Montoya, Seville Chamber of Commerce; Maurizio Mosca, EIGE; Fiorina Mugione, UNCTAD; Helle Munkholm Davidsen, University College Lillebaelt; Haïfa Naffakhi-Charfeddine, Universite de Caen; Breda Naughton, Ministry of Education and Skills, Ireland; Nadine Nerguisian, Ministry of Education, France; Antonella Noya, OECD; Loredana Orhei, LeadersTM; Annemarie Østergaard, Aalborg University; Alice Pedretti, CSR EUROPE; Andy Penaluna, University of Wales Trinity Saint David; Jared Penner, Child and Youth Finance International; Timo Pihkala, Lappeenranta University of Technology; Slava Prm, Cedefop; Vesna Puratic, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Mari Räkköläinen, Finnish Education Evaluation Centre; Randi Heneide, Ministry of Education & Research, Norway; Anders Rasmussen, FFE-YE; Dana Redford, Portugal Entrepreneurship Education Platform; David Rosendo Ramos, Junta de Andalucia; Daniela Runchi, JADE; Elena Ruskovaara, Lappeenranta University of Technology; Jesus Sabariego, Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra; Slavica Singer, Strossmayer University in Croatia; Lucia Sell-Trujillo, University of Seville and Storing Our World research group; Friederike Sözen, Austrian Federal Economic Chamber; Raúl Tabarés Gutiérrez, Tecnalia; Josef Tixier, OECD; Austeja Tinkunaite, ECDL; Roberta Trovarelli, Lega Coop; Andreas Tsiakkiros, Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus; Luc Van Acker, Flemish Office of Catholic Education; Ernesto Villalba-Garcia, Cedefop; Zoica Vladut, Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports, Romania; Lilian Weikert, RES Espacio de resiliencia creativa; Petra Wieninger, Ministry of Finance and Economics Baden-Württemberg, Germany; Håkan Ylinenpää, Luleå University of Technology; Radovan Zivkovic, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Serbia.

We are grateful to the members of Education and Training 2020 Working Group on Transversal Skills (ET2020 TSWG), and those of the Expert Group on Social Entrepreneurship (GECES) of the European Commission.

We wish to thank our colleagues at DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion for a working relation that that went far beyond contractual obligations, inter-institutional cooperation and professional duty. In them, we found intelligent readers, critical reviewers, informed and committed professionals. Among those who supported this piece of work we are very grateful to Ana Carla Pereira, DG EMPL E2 Head of Unit, who has invested trust and resources in our work; to Karin van der Sanden, for helping us out in defining the progression model; to Guy Lejeune, Maria Nyberg and Risto Raivio for their contribution to the relevance of the framework across domains.

We also wish to thank Simone Baldassarri at DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, as his commitment made it possible to deliver a clearer and more comprehensive framework than would have been possible otherwise.

Our gratitude extends to Hannah Grainger Clemson and Maria Podlasek Ziegler, at DG Education and Culture, for helping us ensuring that entrepreneurship as a competence can be applied and nurtured at school as well as in the field of youth work.

At JRC, we would like to thank Alexander Coad, Elisabetta Marinelli and Esperanza Vera-Toscano for their critical reviews and for expanding our network of experts. Also, we thank Funda Celikel Esser for her continuous support. Thanks also go to Patricia Farrer for proofreading the final version of this report. Finally, we are grateful to Ioannis Maghiros, DG JRC J3 Head of Unit, who has provided invaluable support in reaching out to the entrepreneurial learning community.

The interested reader will find all documents related to the project on the JRC EntreComp website: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/entrecomp.

For further queries, please contact Yves Punie [yves.punie@ec.europa.eu]

Executive summary

Policy context

The development of the entrepreneurial capacity of European citizens and organisations has been one of the key policy objectives for the EU and Member States for many years. There is a growing awareness that entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and attitudes can be learned and in turn lead to the widespread development of entrepreneurial mind-sets and culture, which benefit individuals and society as a whole.

The European Commission first referred to the importance of entrepreneurship education in 2003, in the European Green Paper on Entrepreneurship in Europe. By 2006, the European Commission had identified a ‘sense of initiative and entrepreneurship’ as one of the eight key competences necessary for all members of a knowledge-based society. The 2008 Small Business Act for Europe, the 2012 Communication on Rethinking Education, the 2013 Entrepreneurship Action Plan 2020, and more recently the New Skills Agenda for Europe, have kept the need to promote entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial learning under the spotlight. This has led to a wealth of initiatives across Europe.

Despite the vibrant interest in entrepreneurial capacity building, almost a decade after the 2006 Recommendation on ‘Key competences for lifelong learning’, there is still no consensus on what the distinctive elements of entrepreneurship as a competence are. As highlighted in the 2016 edition of the Eurydice Report on ‘Entrepreneurship Education at School’, about half the countries in Europe make use of the European Key Competence definition of entrepreneurship. A third of the countries use their own national definition and almost 10 countries have no commonly agreed definition at national level. Furthermore, the lack of comprehensive learning outcomes for entrepreneurship education is identified by Eurydice as one of the main hindrances to the development of entrepreneurial learning in Europe.

As a result, there is a clear need to define and describe entrepreneurship as a competence; to develop the reference framework describing its components in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes; and to provide European citizens with the appropriate tools to assess and effectively develop this key competence.

In this context, the Entrepreneurship Competence study (EntreComp) was launched by the JRC on behalf of the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL) in January 2015. One of the key objectives of EntreComp was to develop a common conceptual approach, which could support the development of entrepreneurship competence at European level.

Key conclusions

This report presents the EntreComp Framework. By producing a common definition of what entrepreneurship as a competence is, the framework aims to establish a bridge between the worlds of education and work and to be taken as a reference de facto by any initiative which aims to foster entrepreneurial learning. The framework is a flexible source of inspiration, to be used or adapted to support different contexts. For instance, EntreComp could inspire the reform of curricula in the formal education and training sector, the design of practical entrepreneurial experiences in non-formal learning contexts, or the development of tools for citizens to self-assess their entrepreneurial proficiency.

The EntreComp Framework is made up of 3 competence areas: ‘Ideas and opportunities’, ‘Resources’ and ‘Into action’. Each area includes 5 competences, which, together, are the building blocks of entrepreneurship as a competence. The framework develops the 15 competences along an 8-level progression model. Also, it provides a comprehensive list of 442 learning outcomes, which offers inspiration and insight for those designing interventions from different educational contexts and domains of application.

Main findings

EntreComp defines entrepreneurship as a transversal competence, which applies to all spheres of life: from nurturing personal development, to actively participating in society, to (re)entering the job market as an employee or as a self-employed person, and also to starting up ventures (cultural, social or commercial).

It builds upon a broad definition of entrepreneurship that hinges on the creation of cultural, social or economic value. It thus embraces different types of entrepreneurship, including intrapreneurship, social entrepreneurship, green entrepreneurship and digital entrepreneurship. It applies to individuals and groups (teams or organizations) and it refers to value creation in the private, public and third sectors and in any hybrid combination of the three. Lastly, it is domain neutral: one can act upon ideas and opportunities to generate value for others in any domain and possible value chain.

The EntreComp framework has been developed through a mixed-methods approach, made up of a comprehensive review of academic and grey literature, an in-depth analysis of case studies, desk research and a set of iterative multi-stakeholder consultations.

Related and future JRC work

EntreComp builds on previous JRC work that was conducted to establish a common reference framework for citizens’ digital competence, the widely known Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp).

Quick guide

The JRC has carried out a study on behalf of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion in order to define a common approach to support the development of entrepreneurship as a competence.

The framework describes entrepreneurship as a transversal competence, which can be applied by citizens to all spheres of life from nurturing personal development, to actively participating in society, to (re)entering the job market as an employee or as a self-employed person, and to starting up ventures (cultural, social or commercial).

The EntreComp is made up by the 3 competence areas and 15 competences as illustrated in the figure below.

EntreComp can be used as a reference for the design of curricula in the formal education and training sector. It can also be used for activities and programmes in non-formal learning contexts (for instance, to foster intrapreneurship with existing organizations). It aims to establish a bridge between the worlds of education and work as regards entrepreneurship as a competence.

1. Introduction

Developing a reference framework with learning outcome descriptors is one of the measures identified by the European Commission to support the promotion of the entrepreneurship competence across the world of education and work.

This report presents the complete reference framework for Entrepreneurship Competence (EntreComp), which consists of 3 competence areas, 15 competences, an 8-level progression model and a comprehensive list of 442 learning outcomes. EntreComp framework has been validated through iterative stakeholder consultations.

The origin of this work goes back to 2006 when the ‘Recommendation on key competences for lifelong learning’ identified a ‘sense of initiative and entrepreneurship’ as one of the 8 key competences for all citizens (European Parliament and the Council, 2006).

Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship can be broadly defined as the capacity to turn ideas into action, ideas that generate value for someone other than oneself. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship is a transversal key competence, which every citizen needs for personal fulfilment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment in the knowledge society.

Today, the entrepreneurial learning community of practice most often refers to sense of initiative and entrepreneurship as ‘entrepreneurship competence’. Hence, EntreComp adopts this simplified label, reflecting how the competence is generally referred to. However, the EntreComp framework presented herein is built on a broad understanding of entrepreneurship that also includes ‘sense of initiative’.

1.1 The aims and objectives of the study

The EntreComp study was launched by the JRC on behalf of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, in January 2015. Its ambition is to build a bridge between the worlds of education and work, by contributing to a better understanding and promotion of entrepreneurship competence in Europe. The EntreComp ultimately aims to facilitate peer learning and exchange among Member States and eventually to have a positive impact on the mobility, employability and active participation of citizens in society and the economy. By establishing a common basis that initiatives dealing with the promotion of entrepreneurship as a competence across levels of education, sectors, domains and purposes of application can refer to, the EntreComp will contribute to unleash European citizens’ potential to participate in all areas of society by transforming ideas into action.

To achieve its aim, the study has been therefore designed to:

Identify the key components of entrepreneurship as a competence;

Describe these components to establish a shared conceptual model that all players in the field of entrepreneurial learning can refer to;

Develop a number of learning outcomes to suggest what European citizens should know, understand and be able to do to demonstrate a certain level of proficiency in entrepreneurship competence.

EntreComp has used a robust mixed-method research process and each of its interim outputs has been validated through multi-stakeholder consultations, leading to progressive refinement and eventually to the consolidated framework presented in this report.

1.2 Methodology

The phases of the EntreComp study that have led to the definition of a consolidated EntreComp Framework are depicted in Figure 1 below:

Figure 1: Main phases of the study that have led to EntreComp Framework

The development of the framework has comprised the following steps:

A literature review of existing concepts, policies and initiatives referring to entrepreneurship as a competence (Komarkova, Gagliardi, Conrads, & Collado, 2015).

An inventory of 42 initiatives where entrepreneurship as a competence is either defined, taught, learnt and/or assessed (ibidem).

An in-depth case study analysis, where 10 existing initiatives were selected to capture in detail the elements that make up entrepreneurship as a competence and the key features of state-of-the-art entrepreneurial learning processes (Komarkova, Conrads, & Collado, 2015).

An expert workshop, where the preliminary findings from the literature review, inventory and in-depth case studies were presented and the scope of entrepreneurship as a competence was defined.

A draft proposal for a conceptual model based on the previous steps.

A benchmark of the draft proposal against existing frameworks.

The development of a set of use scenarios to evaluate the applicability of the draft conceptual model.

A set of iterative multi-stakeholder consultations³, where progressively refined proposals were distributed for comments.

A subsequent final proposal for a conceptual model consisting of 3 competence areas and 16 competences, based on the feedback received from stakeholders.

A draft Entrepreneurship Competence (EntreComp) Framework which has 8 proficiency levels and an extensive list of approximately 500 learning outcome statements.

Twelve multi-stakeholder online panel discussions to review the draft Entrepreneurship Competence Framework proficiency levels and learning outcomes. The proficiency levels and learning outcomes were identified both through desk research and through interaction with more than a hundred experts in the field of entrepreneurial learning. Among them were the members of the ET2020 Working Group on Transversal Skills, experts of the EIT Climate KIC education programme and members of the Expert Group on Social Entrepreneurship (GECES) of the European Commission.

The consolidated EntreComp Framework has 3 competence areas and 15 competences, which unfold into 442 learning outcomes (see the complete list in Appendix) on 8 levels of proficiency.

1.3 Limitations

The EntreComp framework is the result of a robust research methodology⁴, where a large and heterogeneous group of experts has been consulted at different stages to obtain their feedback and progressively reach consensus around a validated proposal. Although widely endorsed, the framework has not yet been adapted to, or tested in real settings. A subsequent step will be to try the EntreComp Framework out in practice, by implementing and evaluating it in a specific context and, eventually, if necessary, to amend and refine it according to feedback from practitioners and end-users.

1.4 Structure of the report

After this Introduction, Chapter 2 provides the reader with the EntreComp conceptual model, namely its 3 competence areas, 15 competences and relative descriptors. Chapter 3 presents the progression model that underpins the development of different levels of proficiency in entrepreneurship competence and the key principles and characteristics of EntreComp learning outcomes. Finally, it provides a bird’s eye view of the competence framework.

The full framework, including the complete list of EntreComp learning outcomes on the 8 levels of proficiency of the progression model is provided as an Appendix to this report.

2. Entrepreneurship as a competence

The EntreComp study was launched to establish a common reference framework for entrepreneurship as a competence to help citizens to develop their ability to actively participate in society, to manage their own lives and careers and to start value-creating initiatives. The conceptualisation of entrepreneurship as a competence was therefore the stepping stone for the development of a reference framework.

In the context of the EntreComp study, entrepreneurship is understood as a transversal key competence applicable by individuals and groups, including existing organisations, across all spheres of life. It is defined as follows:

Entrepreneurship is when you act upon opportunities and ideas and transform them into value for others. The value that is created can be financial, cultural, or social (FFE-YE, 2012).

This definition focuses on value creation, no matter what type of value or context. It covers value creation in any domain and possible value chain. It refers to value creation in the private, public and third sectors and in any hybrid combination of the three. It thus embraces different types of entrepreneurship, including intrapreneurship, social entrepreneurship, green entrepreneurship and digital entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship as a competence applies to all spheres of life. It enables citizens to nurture their personal development, to actively contribute to social development, to enter the job market as employee or as self-employed, and to start-up or scale-up ventures which may have a cultural, social or commercial motive.

The EntreComp conceptual model is made up of two main dimensions: the 3 competence areas that directly mirror the definition of entrepreneurship as the ability to turn ideas into action that generate value for someone other than oneself; and the 15 competences that, together, make up the building blocks of the entrepreneurship as a competence for all citizens. We have listed the competences in Table 1. Each one is accompanied by a hint or an exhortation to the learner to put the competence into practice and a descriptor, which breaks it down into its core aspects.

‘Ideas and opportunities’, ‘Resources’ and ‘Into Action’ are the 3 areas of the conceptual model and they have been labelled to stress entrepreneurship competence as the ability to transform ideas and opportunities into action by mobilising resources. These resources can be personal (namely, self-awareness and self-efficacy, motivation and perseverance), material (for instance, production means and financial resources) or non-material (for instance, specific knowledge, skills and attitudes). The 3 competence areas are tightly intertwined: entrepreneurship as a competence stands above all three of these together. The 15 competences are also interrelated and interconnected and should be treated as parts of a whole. We are not suggesting that the learner should acquire the highest level of proficiency in all 15 competences, or have the same proficiency across all the competences. The framework does, however, imply that entrepreneurship as a competence is made up of 15 building blocks.

Figure 2 depicts the EntreComp competences as slices of a pie chart. Each slice has a different colour: blue for the competences in the ‘Ideas and opportunities’ area, orange for those in the ‘Resources’ area and green for the competences in the ‘Into action’ area. The slices are surrounded by the three competence rings, which embrace all the 15 competences. This representation underlines that the coupling between competence areas and competences does not have taxonomic rigour. For example, creativity is presented as one of the competences in the ‘Ideas and opportunities’ area, even though the creative process entails both the use of resources and the capacity to act upon ideas to mould their value. The reader is welcome to establish new links among areas and competences to expand the elements of the framework and adapt them to best fit his/her focus.

Figure 2: Areas and competences of the EntreComp conceptual model.

Table 1 provides an overview of the EntreComp conceptual model, showing how the entrepreneurship competence has been broken down into its constituent parts within the framework. Competences are numbered for ease of reference – the order in which they are presented does not imply a sequence in the acquisition process or a hierarchy: no one element comes first, and none of them is more important than the others. There are no core competences and enabling competences in the EntreComp conceptualization.

Depending on the context of take-up, it is reasonable to expect that more emphasis may be put on some of the competences and less on others, or else that competences are streamlined to mirror an entrepreneurial process created to foster learning through entrepreneurship. In other words, the EntreComp Framework can be seen as a starting point for the interpretation of the entrepreneurship competence, which over time will be further elaborated and refined to address the particular needs of specific target groups.

Table 1: EntreComp conceptual model

Areas
Competences
Hints
Descriptors

1. Ideas and opportunities

1.1 Spotting opportunities
Use your⁵ imagination and abilities to identify opportunities for creating value

Identify and seize opportunities to create value by exploring the social, cultural and economic landscape

Identify needs and challenges that need to be met

Establish new connections and bring together scattered elements of the landscape to create opportunities to create value

1.2 Creativity
Develop creative and purposeful ideas

Develop several ideas and opportunities to create value, including better solutions to existing and new challenges

Explore and experiment with innovative approaches

Combine knowledge and resources to achieve valuable effects

1.3. Vision
Work towards your vision of the future

Imagine the future

Develop a vision to turn ideas into action

Visualise future scenarios to help guide effort and action

1.4 Valuing ideas
Make the most of ideas and opportunities

Judge what value is in social, cultural and economic terms

Recognise the potential an idea has for creating value and identify suitable ways of making the most out of it

1.5 Ethical and sustainable thinking
Assess the consequences and impact of ideas, opportunities and actions

Assess the consequences of ideas that bring value and the effect of entrepreneurial action on the target community, the market, society and the environment

Reflect on how sustainable long-term social, cultural and economic goals are, and the course of action chosen

Act responsibly

2. Resources

2.1 Self-awareness and self-efficacy
Believe in yourself and keep developing

Reflect on your needs, aspirations and wants in the short, medium and long term

Identify and assess your individual and group strengths and weaknesses

Believe in your ability to influence the course of events, despite uncertainty, setbacks and temporary failures

2.2 Motivation and perseverance
Stay focused and don’t give up

Be determined to turn ideas into action and satisfy your need to achieve

Be prepared to be patient and keep trying to achieve your long-term individual or group aims

Be resilient under pressure, adversity, and temporary failure

2.3 Mobilizing resources
Gather and manage the resources you need

Get and manage the material, non-material and digital resources needed to turn ideas into action

Make the most of limited resources

Get and manage the competences needed at any stage, including technical, legal, tax and digital competences

2.4 Financial and economic literacy
Develop financial and economic know how

Estimate the cost of turning an idea into a value-creating activity

Plan, put in place and evaluate financial decisions over time

Manage financing to make sure my value-creating activity can last over the long term

2.5. Mobilizing others
Inspire, enthuse and get others on board

Inspire and enthuse relevant stakeholders

Get the support needed to achieve valuable outcomes

Demonstrate effective communication, persuasion, negotiation and leadership

3. Into action

3.1 Taking the initiative
Go for it

Initiate processes that create value

Take up challenges

Act and work independently to achieve goals, stick to intentions and carry out planned tasks

3.2 Planning and management
Prioritize, organize and follow-up

Set long-, medium- and short-term goals

Define priorities and action plans

Adapt to unforeseen changes

3.3 Coping with uncertainty, ambiguity and risk
Make decisions dealing with uncertainty, ambiguity and risk

Make decisions when the result of that decision is uncertain, when the information available is partial or ambiguous, or when there is a risk of unintended outcomes

Within the value-creating process, include structured ways of testing ideas and prototypes from the early stages, to reduce risks of failing

Handle fast-moving situations promptly and flexibly

3.4 Working with others
Team up, collaborate and network

Work together and co-operate with others to develop ideas and turn them into action

Network

Solve conflicts and face up to competition positively when necessary

3.5. Learning through experience
Learn by doing

Use any initiative for value creation as a learning opportunity

Learn with others, including peers and mentors

Reflect and learn from both success and failure (your own and other people’s)

3. The EntreComp Framework

This chapter presents the EntreComp Framework progression model and the key characteristics of the learning outcomes that have been based on it.

The stakeholders involved in the review of the EntreComp regard it as a very comprehensive and broad-based tool with 3 competence areas, 15 competences, 15 descriptors, 8 proficiency levels and 442 learning outcomes (see Appendix). They acknowledge that the EntreComp Framework (i) reflects the complexity of the entrepreneurship competence domain, which touches upon several aspects of our everyday lives, and (ii) can be used as a multi-purpose reference guide. The advantage of having a broad yet comprehensive competence framework is that although it can accommodate bespoke customisations, it also allows initiatives that tackle entrepreneurship as a competence to be compared, facilitating a common understanding of what being entrepreneurial means.

The comprehensiveness of EntreComp is one of its main assets. However, the reader should bear in mind that not all citizens, learners, or users will be interested in developing all the competences here described to the highest level of proficiency. It is expected that institutions, intermediaries and initiative developers who are willing to adopt EntreComp as a reference framework adapt it to their own purposes and to the needs of the user group they intend to target. In other words, the EntreComp framework presented in this report should be considered as a starting point. It must be tailored to the context of use in order to be implemented (see also below, in Section 3.2).

3.1 Progression Model

Entrepreneurship as a competence is developed through action by individuals or collective entities to create value for others.

The progression in entrepreneurial learning is made up of two aspects:

Developing increasing autonomy and responsibility in acting upon ideas and opportunities to create value;

Developing the capacity to generate value from simple and predictable contexts up to complex, constantly changing environments.

The EntreComp Progression Model does not lay down a linear sequence of steps that every citizen must take to become proficiently entrepreneurial or to start-up a venture. Instead, it shows that the boundaries of individual and collective entrepreneurial competences can be pushed forward, to achieve greater and greater impact through value creating endeavours.

The EntreComp Progression Model provides a reference for the development of proficiency starting from value creation achieved through external support, up to transformative value creation. It consists of four main levels: Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert. Each level is in turn split into two sub-levels, as illustrated in Table 2. At Foundation level, entrepreneurial value is created with external support. At Intermediate level, entrepreneurial value is created with increasing autonomy. At Advanced level, responsibility to transform ideas into action is developed. At Expert level, the value created has considerable impact in its reference domain.

These proficiency levels provide a way for the reader to look at the learning outcomes. For instance, the first learning outcome of the 8th proficiency levels is: I can spot and quickly take advantage of an opportunity. Although ‘spotting and taking advantage of opportunity’ is a skill that learners start developing at lower levels, level 8 emphasises the need to do it ‘quickly’. At this expert level, timeliness in making use of a window of opportunity has a strategic importance which can lead to high growth, breakthrough innovation or radical transformation.

The EntreComp aims to be comprehensive and to offer a tool that can be adapted to different needs. It is not prescriptive and it does not suggest that all learners should acquire the highest level of proficiency in the competences, or that they should reach the same proficiency across all the competences. For example, we could imagine designing an entrepreneurial learning experience targeted at the employees of the shoe-making district of our region. In our programme we could, for instance, aim at an advanced level of proficiency in competences like ‘spotting opportunities’, ‘vision’, ‘mobilizing resources’, ‘mobilising others’ and ‘planning and organising’. At the same time, we could aim to achieve an intermediate level of proficiency in ‘financial and economic literacy’. We could deem it important to provide our learners with the skills to understand the financial viability of their ideas, but not important to have them develop double-entry bookkeeping skills, which would require and advanced level of proficiency.

We remind the reader that entrepreneurial value creation and entrepreneurial learning can take place in any sphere of life. The EntreComp Progression Model does not refer to any specific setting, especially not to formal education settings. By focusing on the development of competences through the actual creation of entrepreneurial value, the progression model breaks down the boundaries between education, work and civic engagement. In this respect, the EntreComp Progression Model is transversal to formal, non-formal and informal learning contexts.

Table 2: EntreComp Progression model

Foundation | Intermediate | Advanced | Expert
Relying on support⁶ from others | Building independence | Taking responsibility | Driving transformation, innovation and growth
Under direct supervision. | With reduced support from others, some autonomy and together with my peers. | On my own and together with my peers. | Taking and sharing some responsibilities. | With some guidance and together with others. | Taking responsibility for making decisions and working with others. | Taking responsibility for contributing to complex developments in a specific field. | Contributing substantially to the development of a specific field.
Discover | Explore | Experiment | Dare | Improve | Reinforce | Expand | Transform
Level 1 focuses mainly on discovering your qualities, potential, interests and wishes. It also focuses on recognising different types of problems and needs that can be solved creatively, and on developing individual skills and attitudes. | Level 2 focuses on exploring different approaches to problems, concentrating on diversity and developing social skills and attitudes. | Level 3 focuses on critical thinking and on experimenting with creating value, for instance through practical entrepreneurial experiences. | Level 4 focuses on turning ideas into action in ‘real life’ and on taking responsibility for this. | Level 5 focuses on improving your skills for turning ideas into action, taking increasing responsibility for creating value, and developing knowledge about entrepreneurship. | Level 6 focuses on working with others, using the knowledge you have to generate value, dealing with increasingly complex challenges. | Level 7 focuses on the competences needed to deal with complex challenges, handling a constantly changing environment where the degree of uncertainty is high. | Level 8 focuses on emerging challenges by developing new knowledge, through research and development and innovation capabilities to achieve excellence and transform the ways things are done.

3.2 Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are statements of what a learner knows, understands and is able to do after completion of learning (Cedefop, 2009). These statements can be designed and used for educational planning and curriculum development or for different types of accountability such as legal or professional accountability (Prøitz, 2010).

Entrepreneurial learning can hardly be reduced to fixed pre-specified statements of learning outcomes since it deals with the creation of value that does not exist prior to the entrepreneurial learning process and cannot be foreseen in abstraction.

However, learning outcome statements are considered as crucial to make the framework actionable. EntreComp learning outcomes have been developed as references for different purposes. They could be used in the formal education and training sector for curricula design. In a non-formal learning context, they could be used to inspire the creation of programmes which aim to foster intrapreneurship within existing organisations. They could also be used to guide the definition of tailored pedagogies, assessment methods, and learning environments that foster effective entrepreneurial learning.

Thus, EntreComp learning outcomes should not be taken as normative statements to be directly transposed into actual learning activities, or be used to measure student performance. They are a basis for the development of specific learning outcomes that are fit for the specific context and a basis for the development of performance indicators.

Although the vast majority of learning outcomes have been formulated as ‘I’ statements, this does not mean that Entrepreneurship Competence only refers to the capacity of individuals. On the contrary, the subject of entrepreneurial learning and behaviour can be a group, like a project team, a non-profit organisation, a company, a public body or a civil society movement.

EntreComp learning outcomes are presented in the Appendix. Though comprehensive, the list of learning outcomes is not exhaustive as it aims to suggest transversal applicability across educational contexts and application sectors.

3.3 The EntreComp Framework at a glance: the overview table

The EntreComp overview table depicts the 3 areas and all the 15 competences, but develops them only on the three levels of proficiency that apply to all citizens: the foundation, intermediate and advanced levels. The expert level by definition captures a level of expertise that is beyond average, and more context-dependent and, as a result, it is not detailed in the overview table.

The overview table consists of descriptors that capture the essence of the different levels of proficiency. Its aim is to provide the general readership with a bird’s eye view of the EntreComp Framework similar to those presented in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages⁷ or in the Digital Competence Framework (Ferrari, 2013; Vuorikari, Punie, Carretero, & Van den Brande, 2016).

Table 3: EntreComp Overview

Levels of proficiency

Area
Competence
Foundation
Intermediate
Advanced

Ideas and opportunities

Spotting opportunities
Learners⁸ can find opportunities to generate value for others.
Learners can recognise opportunities to address needs that have not been met.
Learners can seize and shape opportunities to respond to challenges and create value for others.

Creativity
Learners can develop multiple ideas that create value for others.
Learners can test and refine ideas that create value for others.
Learners can transform ideas into solutions that create value for others.

Vision
Learners can imagine a desirable future.
Learners can build an inspiring vision that engages others.
Learners can use their vision to guide strategic decision-making.

Valuing ideas
Learners can understand and appreciate the value of ideas.
Learners understand that ideas can have different types of value, which can be used in different ways.
Learners can develop strategies to make the most of the value generated by ideas.

Ethical and sustainable thinking
Learners can recognise the impact of their choices and behaviours, both within the community and the environment.
Learners are driven by ethics and sustainability when making decisions.
Learners act to make sure that their ethical and sustainability goals are met.

Resources

Self-awareness and self-efficacy
Learners trust their own ability to generate value for others.
Learners can make the most of their strengths and weaknesses.
Learners can compensate for their weaknesses by teaming up with others and by further developing their strengths.

Motivation and perseverance
Learners want to follow their passion and create value for others.
Learners are willing to put effort and resources into following their passion and create value for others.
Learners can stay focused on their passion and keep creating value despite setbacks.

Mobilising resources
Learners can find and use resources responsibly.
Learners can gather and manage different types of resources to create value for others.
Learners can define strategies to mobilise the resources they need to generate value for others.

Financial and economic literacy
Learners can draw up the budget for a simple activity.
Learners can find funding options and manage a budget for their value-creating activity.
Learners can make a plan for the financial sustainability of a value-creating activity.

Mobilising others
Learners can communicate their ideas clearly and with enthusiasm.
Learners can persuade, involve and inspire others in value-creating activities.
Learners can inspire others and get them on board for value-creating activities.

Into action

Taking the initiative
Learners are willing to have a go at solving problems that affect their communities.
Learners can initiate value-creating activities.
Learners can look for opportunities to take the initiative to add or create value.

Planning and management
Learners can define the goals for a simple value-creating activity.
Learners can create an action plan, which identifies the priorities and milestones to achieve their goals.
Learners can refine priorities and plans to adjust to changing circumstances.

Coping with uncertainty, ambiguity and risk
Learners are not afraid of making mistakes while trying new things.
Learners can evaluate the benefits and risks of alternative options and make choices that reflect their preferences.
Learners can weigh up risks and make decisions despite uncertainty and ambiguity.

Working with others
Learners can work in a team to create value.
Learners can work together with a wide range of individuals and groups to create value.
Learners can build a team and networks based on the needs of their value-creating activity.

Learning through experience
Learners can recognise what they have learnt through taking part in value-creating activities.
Learners can reflect and judge their achievements and failures and learn from these.
Learners can improve their abilities to create value by building on their previous experiences and interactions with others.

4. List of abbreviations and definitions

The EntreComp framework aims to establish a common understanding of what entrepreneurship as a competence is. Its goal is to become a reference for a broad spectrum of initiatives which aim to foster entrepreneurial learning in Europe and beyond. The definition of the basic terms that make up the backbone of this report is therefore a critical building block of the full framework.

Term
Definition Source

Attitudes
‘Attitudes’ are motivators of performance. They include values, aspirations and priorities.

Competence
In the context of the EntreComp study, competence is understood as a set of knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the practice of outsourcing necessary services, ideas, or content to a large group of people, rather than assigning the tasks to traditional employees or suppliers. Crowdsourcing typically takes place via the internet.

Digital entrepreneurship
Digital entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship that involves the use of new digital technologies (particularly social media, big data, mobile and cloud solutions). The purpose of this use may be to improve business operations, invent new business models, improve business intelligence or to engage with customers and stakeholders.⁹

End user
In the context of the EntreComp study, an end user is the person for whom something was ultimately created or intended.

Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is when you act upon opportunities and ideas and transform them into value for others. The value that is created can be financial, cultural, or social (FFE-YE, 2012).

Green entrepreneurship
Green entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship that has a positive effect on environment and can be seen as a move to a more sustainable future (Schaper, 2012).

Intrapreneurship
Intrapreneurship is entrepreneurship inside an organisation(see Pinchot, 1985).

Knowledge
Knowledge is the body of facts, principles, theories and practices that is related to a field of work or study. In the context of the European Qualifications Framework, knowledge is described as theoretical and/or factual (European Parliament and the Council, 2008).

Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes are statements of what a learner knows, understands and is able to do after completion of learning (Cedefop, 2009). Such statements can be designed and used for educational planning and curriculum development or for different types of accountability such as legal accountability or professional accountability (Prøitz, 2010).

Practical entrepreneurial experiences
Practical entrepreneurial experiences are educational experiences where the learner has the opportunity to come up with ideas, identify a good idea and turn that idea into action. They require the involvement of external partners in the design and/or delivery of this learning, to ensure relevance to the real world. Practical entrepreneurial experiences provide students with a supportive environment, where mistakes are embraced and failure is a learning tool, so that they gain the confidence and experience to turn their ideas into action in the real world. Practical entrepreneurial experiences should be a student led initiative either individually or as part of a small team, involve learning-by-doing and producing a tangible outcome (Thematic Working Group on Entrepreneurship Education, 2014).

Resources
In the context of this work, resources is a term that encompasses personal resources (namely, self-awareness and self-efficacy, motivation and perseverance), material resources (for instance, production means and financial resources) or non-material resources (for instance, specific knowledge, skills and attitudes).

Skills
Skills are the ability to apply knowledge and use know-how to complete tasks and solve problems. In the context of the European Qualifications Framework, skills are described as cognitive (involving the use of logical, intuitive and creative thinking) or practical (involving manual dexterity and the use of methods, materials, tools and instruments) (European Parliament and the Council, 2008).

Social entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship that that aims to provide innovative solutions to unsolved social problems. Therefore it often goes hand in hand with social innovation processes, aimed at improving people’s lives by promoting social change (see OECD, 2010).

Stakeholders
Stakeholders are individuals, groups and organisations with direct and indirect interest in value-creating activity and its impact.

System
A system as a dynamic complex whole made up of a set of interacting components that influence one another. A system is defined by the boundaries that distinguish it from the environment that surrounds it and interacts with it, and it is characterized by a structure, a purpose and way of functioning.

Uncertainty
Uncertainty is a situation which involves imperfect and (or) incomplete information, and which affects the predictability of outcomes. Uncertainty entails a risk of undesired effect or loss, whose probability and magnitude cannot be calculated.

Value creation
Value creation is the outcome of human activity to transform purposeful ideas into action which generates value for someone other than oneself. This value can be social, cultural or economic.

5. References

Cedefop. (2009). The shift to learning outcomes. Policies and practices in Europe. Cedefop Reference series. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

European Commission. (2003). Green Paper Entrepreneurship in Europe COM(2003)27. Brussels.

European Commission. (2008). Think Small First - A Small Business Act for Europe, COM(2008) 394 final. Brussels.

European Commission. (2012). Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes COM(2012) 669 final. Brussels.

European Commission. (2013). Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan COM (2012) 795 Final. Brussels.

European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice. (2016). Entrepreneurship Education at School in Europe. Eurydice Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

European Parliament and the Council. (2006). Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning. Official Journal of the European Union, L394/310.

European Parliament and the Council. (2008). Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 on the establishment of the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning. Official Journal of the European Union, (2008/C 111/01).

Ferrari, A. (2013). DIGCOMP: A Framework for Developing and Understanding Digital Competence. JRC Science and Policy Reports. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

FFE-YE. (2012). Impact of Entrepreneurship Education in Denmark - 2011. In L. Vestergaard, K. Moberg & C. Jørgensen (Eds.). Odense: The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship - Young Enterprise.

Komarkova, I., Conrads, J., & Collado, A. (2015). Entrepreneurship Competence: An Overview of Existing Concepts, Policies and Initiatives. In-depth case study report. JRC Technical Reports. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Komarkova, I., Gagliardi, D., Conrads, J., & Collado, A. (2015). Entrepreneurship Competence: An Overview of Existing Concepts, Policies and Initiatives. Final Report. In M. Bacigalupo, P. Kampylis & Y. Punie (Eds.), JRC Science and Policy Reports. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

OECD. (2010). Social Entrepreneurship And Social Innovation SMEs, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Paris: OECD Publishing.

Pinchot, G. (1985). Intrapreneuring: Why You Don’t Have to Leave the Corporation to Become an Entrepreneur. New York: Harper & Row.

Prøitz, T. S. (2010). Learning outcomes: What are they? Who defines them? When and where are they defined? Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 22, 22. doi: DOI 10.1007/s11092-010-9097-8

Schaper, M. (2012). Understanding the green Entrepreneur. In M. Schaper (Ed.), Making Ecoentrepreneurs: Developing Sustainable Entrepreneurship. Farnham, Surrey: Gower Publishing.

Thematic Working Group on Entrepreneurship Education. (2014). Final Report of the Thematic Working Group on Entrepreneurship Education. Brussels: European Commission.

Vuorikari, R., Punie, Y., Carretero, S., & Van den Brande, L. (2016). DigComp 2.0: the Digital Competence Framework. Update Phase 1: the Conceptual Reference Model. JRC Science and Policy Reports. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Appendix: The full EntreComp framework

Notes

¹   https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/entrecomp

²   https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/digcomp

³   Involving feedback collection twice from the ET2020 Working Group on Transversal Skills (TSWG); an online consultation of approximately 200 stakeholders; two informal workshops in a social entrepreneurship incubator and informal bilateral inter-service discussions; and the audience of the various panels where JRC has presented and discussed the interim results of the project.

⁴   EntreComp study followed the methodological approach defined and validated for the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (Ferrari, 2013).

⁵   In the context of EntreComp framework, entrepreneurship competence is regarded both as an individual and collective capacity.

⁶   Support from others includes for example support by teachers, mentors, peers, advisors, or consultancy services.

⁷   http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre1_en.asp

⁸   Learner is a broad the term used to indicate the subject of lifelong learning. It refers to pupils, students, jobseekers, employees, entrepreneurs and citizens alike.

⁹   See full definition at the Digital Entrepreneurship Monitor website: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/dem/monitor/project-description

¹⁰  Threads identify the theme running through out each row of the table.