Abstract:

Starting from an educational concept about entrepreneurship and centered on a broad view of it “education for entrepreneurial attitudes and skills” (European Commission, 2002), the Educational Center Alice Nabeiro (CEAN), Portugal, developed a manual in 2008 “Having ideas to change the world”, which constituted an innovative bet in an educational methodology centered in the development of soft skills, enabling an entrepreneurial spirit and a responsible citizenship development. This manual was recognized by OCDE in 2014 as one of the 20 more inspiring projects in the frame of the Entrepreneurship 360 initiative, under the subject “Entrepreneurship Education for children 3 to 12 years old”, as by the EU in the “Entrepreneurship Education – A Guide for Educators” (2013: pp 98-39) as a pioneer and innovative project.

The manual is organized in 12 knowledge subjects: Stimulating ideas, Sharing ideas, What do I want to do, Mind-sets, Active Listening, Talking about the project, Working with collaborators, Identification of needs, Building prototypes to communicate the project, Collaborators' network, Task cycles and Project leadership. On all the subjects there are activities divided by 3 age groups: 3 to 6, 7 and 8 and 9 to 12 years old. These activities were developed by an interdisciplinary team focused in the adaptation of several knowledge areas on entrepreneurship to the referred age groups.

The manual’s implementation was tested and validated by the CEAN educators and an external educator’s team. At the moment the manual is being applied in several Portuguese regions and in the Spanish Extremadura’s region: meaning 57 schools/regions and 3600 children.

The present article intends to evaluate the results achieved with this manual at CEAN – Campo Maior, the entity that promoted its creation and dissemination abroad the country.