The importance of entrepreneurship in Norwegian education and training

Ladies and gentlemen. As my colleague minister, Mr Dag Terje Andersen just said – welcome to Oslo and Norway.

We are, as you have noticed two ministers present here today. This is because we find the topic of this conference important, and our two ministries work together with these issues. My colleague Mr Dag Terje Andersen has already mentioned the most important perspectives within entrepreneurship in education. That is why I choose to try out my creative and innovative skills within the area of opening speeches, and give you a glimpse of four young enterprises here in Norway. Before I go to this part of the speech, I want to present three perspectives stressing the importance of entrepreneurship in education for Norway.

The question being asked is: Why entrepreneurship in education?

First of all the human capital in the form of competence and workforce makes out the main part of Norway’s national fortune. It is the pupils and students of today who are supposed to create the values and the workplaces of the future. It is of major importance to develop knowledge, not only to understand, but also to change and further develop our society.

Secondly we have the regional and the local perspective. Through young enterprises a foundation is laid for future entrepreneurship, innovation and productive work in the whole country. We want to motivate and inspire training institutions, municipalities and county municipalities to plan and anchor entrepreneurship as an educational tool.

Stimulating entrepreneurship is a central dimension in the development of business and industry in our society. Newly established workplaces can contribute to strengthening the local labour market because these new workplaces are often situated where the entrepreneurs are living. New workplaces offer young people a greater possibility of choice with regard to where to settle down.

Thirdly we find that the education system has a role to play in stimulating attitudes and behaviour which promote the capability to be creative. This must take place through long term work with good progression. Young people must be given a strong belief in their own creative forces and the ability to see and apply local resources as a basis for creative values. With this belief in themselves, young people can be productive, develop workplaces and take responsibility in their local community.

We all know that there are even more perspectives on what we gain from entrepreneurship in education. I have not even mentioned what young people learn about democracy, about how they learn to cooperate or even understand the complexity in a modern society through entrepreneurship and innovation.

Today we launch a new strategy on entrepreneurship in education. This strategy is intended to serve as an instrument for the strengthening of entrepreneurship education. The strategy covers the entire education sector and has concrete objectives that are measurable. One of these objectives is the strengthening of international cooperation at all levels of education. This conference is a concrete example of our intentions put into practice. I believe this conference can be an arena for the initiation of new cooperation projects at European level. The Directorate for Education and Training will give a more detailed presentation of the strategy in the next session.

I could continue on the “why”, but I would rather show you a glimpse of some of the creative young people of Norway. I also know that you will discuss these issues amongst you these two days, so let me tell you about:

1. Den levende skogen”, or “The living forrest”. They organized their Kids Business as a theatre play about their local municipality. They invited parents and friends to discuss environment and how important the forest is, and they will give the pupils in their school and the community a better insight to the place they live.
2. If we move a little up in age, the mini company “HotSolution” represents an innovative idea, where they suggest a solution to a problem many parents have seen:

The mini company has developed "Therby" a product that heats up the baby's milk without using electricity.

On their web-site we can find their own statement: "Dream product for baby-parents! You can now warm up your baby's milk, any time, anywhere, with the newly developed baby bottle heater “Therby”. The product consists of two heat pillows that can be activated when you want to use your “Therby”, in addition to the heat insulating bag.

The product is very easy in use and can be used at anytime and place. The mini company got several awards during the National Competition for the Company program.

3. “Laptable mini company” is another young enterprise, and they are located in Bergen. They have invented a laptop table for youth. It helps you to sit in a proper position and protect you from the heat from the computer.

The mini company won the award for best innovative product at the National Company competition. They have advantage of their network in Bergen, and have invited several businesses to take part in the development of the product.

This autumn, they will take part in a competition on one of the national TV stations in a program about new products and new ideas.(Skaperen på TV2).

4. Finally, we have the young enterprise “Flush SB”. This is a student-company located in University college of Telemark. This is the advanced example of a entrepreneurship in higher education.

The four students from engineer-studies in Telemark have invented a new, environmental system for cleaning toilets.

They have recently established their own “real” company in order to bring the prototype into production.

They won the European competition in Maastricht this summer.

So - If you are interested in these four “soon to be multi-national companies”, I can inform you that they will be present tomorrow with stands.

Ladies and gentlemen; With this presentation of four young enterprises I wish to thank you for your attention, and wish you all good luck with the conference!