ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND UNIVERSITY: AN EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Currently, due to the economic crisis in Spain, there has been an increase of entrepreneurial initiatives. The main problem entrepreneurs have encountered is the implementation of their initiatives, with one of the causes being little or no training in the subject of entrepreneurship within universities. Although in recent years Spanish Universities have created a program to facilitate the development of business plans, start-ups, and the acceleration of already created enterprises, but universities have not incorporated this knowledge in formal training plans. For this reason, the Department of Business Management of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Montes, Forestal y del Medio Natural of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, has launched a procedure based on the experiential learning based on four phases: 1) generalization and transfer, 2) experience, 3) reflection and 4) application. With this process, students acquire skills that will enable them to business venture. This way, students can learn through a concrete experience about how to launch real entrepreneurial projects into the environmental sector, specifically within the field of forestry.

Acknowledgement:
This work has been supported by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), through ECOSTAR project (562358-EPP-1-2015-1-IT-EPPKA2-KA).