
Spain’s Ministry of Education is charged, among other things, with the general programming of the educational system, the minimum curricular contents, and defining educational standards. For its part, the Ministry of Industry, responsible for policies supporting SMEs and enterprise creation, is charged with the dissemination and follow-up of Community directives for policies in support of entrepreneurship; it also carries out actions for fostering and promoting entrepreneurial initiative, sometimes in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, in fulfilment of Spain’s 2006 Plan for Business Promotion. Added to these difficulties in coordination is the fact that, in Spain, powers in education have been transferred to the corresponding Autonomous Communities into which the country is divided (Figure 4.1), making it even more difficult to establish joint and unified programmes in regard to entrepreneurship education.

In 2003 Spain’s DG for SMEs held a series of institutional contacts with the Ministry of Education with the idea of including entrepreneurial initiative as a basic competency to be attained in education, and to name experts from that Ministry to the work groups and meetings on the matter organized by the European Commission’s DG of Enterprise and Industry. Likewise, Spain’s DG for SMEs informed the EU of the best practices that, in this aspect, were beginning to be developed in Spain, underscoring the case of Valnalón in Asturias.
Since then, this DG has continued systematically to disseminate the European directives in this matter in order to incorporate this European objective as a basic aspect of Spanish public policies, both in the General State Administration and in the Autonomous Communities, and has continued to keep the EU informed of the most important Spanish experiences in this sense. With the reform of Constitutional Act 2/2006, of 3 May, of Education (LOE), the DG for SMEs again worked together with the Ministry of Education to ensure that entrepreneurial initiative was included in the Act as one of the major basic goals of the educational system, a matter which in the end was indeed included in the LOE. Both Ministries have also collaborated on the development of curricular contents in the different types of education. Since then, and up until now, the different laws and regulations relating to education have tried to spotlight the importance of this topic, which has now been officially introduced into the Royal Decrees on Teaching.
Nonetheless, even before the LOE was passed, quite a few enterprise-creating initiatives had been developing for some years in secondary and vocational schools in many of Spain’s Autonomous Communities: Asturias, Extremadura, Galicia, etc. Some of them collaborate with each other and share educational methodologies and materials, as is the case of the EJE and EME programmes created by Valnalón in Asturias and implemented in many other Autonomous Communities.
Other important work that must be mentioned is that carried out by the Junior Achievement Foundation 1 since its establishment in Spain in 2001. Junior Achievement collaborates directly with schools all over Spain to prepare and inspire young people to be successful in a global economy by generating an entrepreneurial mind-set through different educational activities and competitions.
The compilation of these and other experiences is based on the publication, “Fostering an Entrepreneurial Mind-set in Schools” (Spanish Higher Council of Chambers of Commerce and the Ministry of Education, Social Policy and Sport - 2009), which contains an analysis of the situation in Spain, reflecting certain experiences and best practices in education, and the works by Sánchez, et al 2, 3. These references have helped to identify existing best practices and they have been thoroughly and systematically updated, taking into account the new normative framework. For this task, the information used was provided by the different Regional Ministries of Education, Industry and Labour of Spain’s Autonomous Communities, as well as information supplied by Chambers of Commerce and European Centres for Enterprise and Innovation.
We now move on to the entrepreneurship initiatives carried out in Spain by its Autonomous Communities. Some projects had to be left out because they are just getting started, and there may be others that as yet we have been unable to detect. This first sample of programmes and activities, however, can serve as a summarized and synthesized approach to the situation of entrepreneurship education in Spain, classified by Autonomous Regions. Table 4.2 lists the main entrepreneurship education programmes that are still currently in force in each of the Autonomous Communities. The column marked “Results” specifies the number of schools involved and the number of students that participated during the last year for which data is available, usually 2010.
Autonomous Community |
Project name |
Began |
Educational level |
Results |
---|---|---|---|---|
Andalusia |
Carabelas |
2007-... |
Primary |
48 schools; 4470 students |
Emprender en mi escuela |
2008-... |
Primary |
22 schools, 1023 students |
|
ICARO |
2008-... |
Compulsory Secondary |
12 schools, 229 students |
|
JES, jóvenes emprendedores solidarios |
2006 |
All educational levels |
109, 5000 students |
|
Empresa joven europea |
2005 |
Compulsory Secondary, Upper Secondary, Vocational |
53, 1694 students |
|
Emprende joven |
2003 |
Vocational |
1572 schools, 69512 students |
|
Concursos empresas virtuales |
2003 |
Vocational |
85 projects |
|
Creando empresa |
2006-... |
82 schools, 1800 students |
||
Emprender en Europa |
2006 |
18 schools, 600 students |
||
SEFED, simulación de empresas con fines educativos |
2006 |
11 schools |
||
Music Hero |
2007 |
34 schools, 853 students |
||
Emprende en Cádiz |
2004-2012 |
All levels |
37 schools, 8568 students |
|
Aragon |
Emprender en la escuela |
2004 |
Compulsory Secondary, Upper Secondary |
55 schools, 3460 students |
Asturias |
Una empresa en mi escuela |
1998 |
8-11 years of age |
48 schools, 1625 students |
Una empresa en mi centro |
2003 |
8-11 years of age, EE |
20 schools, 567 students |
|
Jóvenes emprendedores sociales |
2004 |
Compulsory Secondary |
17 schools, 526 students |
|
Empresa joven europea |
1999 |
Compulsory Secondary |
3400 students |
|
Eje profesional |
2005 |
Vocational |
3400 students |
|
Taller de Empresarios |
1994 |
17-25 years of age |
9000 students |
|
Jóvenes Productoras Cinematográficas |
2003 |
100 students per year |
||
Creación y gestión de microempresas |
2004 |
Upper Secondary |
400 students |
|
Balearic Islands |
Jornadas de autoocupación |
2002 |
Vocational |
25 schools, 850 students |
Crea Institut Empresa |
2008 |
Vocational |
||
Simulación de Empresas |
2002 |
Vocational |
15 schools, 640 students |
|
Canary Islands |
Una empresa en mi escuela, EME y EJE |
2003 |
Compulsory Secondary, Vocational |
|
Cantabria |
Labor ESO |
2005 |
Compulsory Secondary |
|
Simulación de empresas |
Vocational |
|||
Cultura emprendedora |
Compulsory Secondary |
|||
Escuela juventud emprendedora |
2006 |
600 students |
||
Castile-La Mancha |
Emprender en el aula |
2006 |
Compulsory Secondary |
|
Innova Junior |
2007 |
Compulsory Secondary, Vocational, Upper Secondary |
||
Jornadas de creación de empresas |
1999 |
Upper Secondary, FP |
240 workshops, 6667 attendees |
|
Castile-Leon |
Vitamina E-Primaria |
2007 |
Primary |
26 schools, 236 students |
Vitamina E-Iniciativa Emprendedora |
2004 |
Compulsory Secondary (4th yr.) |
123 schools, 2420 students. |
|
Vitamina E-Upper Secondary |
2007 |
Upper Secondary |
293 schools |
|
Aprende a emprender |
2002 |
Vocational |
193 schools, 14000 students |
|
Cataluña |
Seminarios de generación de ideas |
2007 |
Compulsory Secondary, Upper Secondary |
119 seminars, 53 workshops |
Programa emprendedores |
2007 |
Compulsory Secondary |
37 schools |
|
Estada a l’empresa |
Upper Secondary |
|||
Community of Valencia |
Emprende plus |
2010 |
Compulsory Secondary, Upper Secondary |
83 schools, 2537 students |
Motivación para emprender |
2003 |
Upper Secondary |
131 workshops, 2790 students |
|
Motivación para emprender |
2009 |
Compulsory Secondary |
11 schools |
|
Extremadura |
Imaginar para emprender |
2008 |
Primary |
1550 students |
Imagina tu empresa |
2005 |
Upper Secondary, Vocational |
54 schools, 1200 students |
|
Imagina y emprende |
2008 |
Compulsory Secondary |
||
Galicia |
FP Plus-Programa idea |
2009 |
Vocational |
|
Taller iniciativas emprendedoras |
2007 |
Compulsory Secondary |
293 schools, 6260 students |
|
Seminarios para la difusión de la creación de empresas |
2008 |
Upper Secondary, Vocational |
23 schools, 644 students |
|
Empresa e iniciativa emprendedora |
2009 |
Vocational |
||
Madrid |
Taller de emprendedores |
2006 |
Compulsory Secondary |
|
Yo tengo un plan |
2006 |
Compulsory Secondary |
||
Emprender en formación profesional |
2009 |
Vocational |
||
Talleres de fomento del espíritu empresarial |
2009 |
Compulsory Secondary, Vocational |
350 Workshops |
|
Murcia |
Talleres de actitudes emprendedoras |
2008 |
Vocational |
|
Concurso de ideas empresariales |
2008 |
|||
Talleres de habilidades empresariales |
2009 |
Compulsory Secondary, Universidad |
||
Escuela de Jóvenes Emprendedores |
2009 |
Compulsory Secondary, Upper Secondary |
||
Olimpiada de creatividad |
2009 |
Compulsory Secondary |
||
Navarre |
Empresa Joven Europea |
Compulsory Secondary |
||
Guía-activa FP |
Vocational |
|||
Concurso Jóvenes Emprendedores |
Vocational |
|||
Basque Country |
Hasi eta hazi primaria |
2007 |
Primary |
|
Hasi eta hazi secundaria |
2007 |
Compulsory Secondary |
||
Hasi eta hazi Bachillerato |
2007 |
Upper Secondary |
||
Kosmodisea |
2006 |
Primary, Compulsory Secondary, Upper Secondary |
40 schools, 5430 students |
|
Gaze |
2008 |
University |
1000 students |
|
Sensibilización |
2008 |
Vocational |
30 schools, 3000 students |
|
Urratsbat |
2008 |
Vocational |
40 schools |
|
Rioja |
Olimpiada de emprendedores |
Vocational, Upper Secondary |
||
Concurso ideas de negocio |
2004 |
Vocational |
104 ideas presented |
|
Empresa joven educativa |
2004 |
Compulsory Secondary, Vocational |
13 cooperatives, 165 students |
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