Educational practices for improvement of entrepreneurial skills at secondary school level

Abstract

Entrepreneurial knowledge and skills can play a crucial role for young people in order to achieve a bright professional perspective. In this context, entrepreneurship education can make a significant contribution to the development of their entrepreneurial attitudes and skills. It can inspire future graduates to develop and internalize entrepreneurial mindsets and prepare them for the challenges of the future. This paper introduces four practices for fostering entrepreneurial skills carried out at Vienna’s biggest secondary school Vienna Institute of Technology/Technologisches Gewerbemuseum (TGM). Two of the presented approaches are realized by the TGM alone (the Junior Company and the Learning Office) while the other two are implemented in cooperation with the non-profit association Practical Robotics Institute Austria (PRIA) and the Automation and Control Institute (ACIN) of the Vienna University of Technology (iBridge and Makers@School, the latter also with further partners).