Abstract:

Entrepreneurship and self-employment are becoming an alternative to employment for young people during their studies and after graduation. Hands-on entrepreneurship activities enable integration of the students into the entrepreneurial ecosystem and increase networking with companies, also in some cases leading to more chances of employment after graduation. However, to achieve this aim, there is a need to create an entrepreneurial mindset and address skills gaps, high perceptual challenges, and thresholds in starting a new business. Moreover, young people's entrepreneurial skills are hard to identify and apply in practice because youth is not integrated into professional networks. The SLEM project partners identified that mindfulness exercises develop self-awareness which in turn enhances self-leadership and entrepreneurial skills. The partners developed a teaching manual for high school and university students aimed at developing an entrepreneurial mindset by employing mindfulness and self-leadership exercises. The manual was tested by the partners in Liechtenstein, Finland, Croatia and Albania, and based on the results of the pilot teaching, the case studies of teaching were compiled, including curricula outline and teacher guidelines for target groups of various age and education levels. This article provides an in-depth description of the case study of the pilot in the Finnish higher education institution, with recommendations for teaching online. The results of this study will be of particular use for educators planning the self-development courses aimed at developing self-leadership and mindfulness skills or updating existing courses with new modules.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurship, self-leadership, mindfulness, curricula design.