Gamification to develop sense of initiative and entrepreneurship in youths

Entrepreneurship creates new companies and jobs, opens up new markets, and nurtures new skills and capabilities. However, in the last 10 years, the share of people preferring self-employment to be an employee has dropped in 23 out of the 27 EU Member States. For these reasons, one of the main recommendations by the EU Commission Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan is to promote entrepreneurial education and training. The uptake and the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in Europe are still far from being fully satisfactory. This is mainly due to the lack of suitable materials and a lack of skills for trainers. In June 2016, the European Commission has released a brand new European common reference framework EntreComp for the Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship (SIE) inviting all the actors of the education and youth sector in Europe to use it. Youths with disadvantages backgrounds pose a strong challenge to youth educators and trainers, as they refuse the standard educational methodologies. GADE successfully developed the Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship (SIE) in youths (18-29 yo) by using gamification techniques and methodologies. Gamifying a learning process is useful because it is fun! Thanks to GADE, nowadays: - a bespoke course on assessing and developing the Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship (SIE) based on gamification techniques is freely available in 6 EU languages - a bespoke e-course for trainers on how to use the course and gamification techniques to develop the Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship (SIE) in youths is freely available in 6 EU languages GADE benefitted from a consortium composed of 5 organizations engaged in youth and entrepreneurial development based in FR, EL, IT, BG, AT. More than 17.000 people and organizations were informed about the project, and more than 490 youth educators and youths were fully engaged in its development. GADE's long-term impact will be assessed in the next future but starting from today youth can (finally) benefit from a new bespoke course based on gamification to develop their Sense of Initiative and Entrepreneurship (SIE)!