Strategies for Innovative Teaching of Entrepreneurship Skills: Developing Business Plans for Undergraduate Final Year Projects

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has brought significant changes in university education, focusing learning on the acquisition and improvement of key competences and basic skills. This approach allows for a comprehensive training and a high-quality integration into the professional and labor market. The university-level studies of economics and business recognize the importance of fostering entrepreneurial abilities in alignment with sustainability principles and values. In this context, the Undergraduate Final Year Project (FYP) is a mandatory requirement for the award of a university degree and the FYP plays a significant role for acquiring and enhancing certain skills that are more challenging to develop in other subjects, such as entrepreneurial competence. It is important to pay attention to entrepreneurial competence, beyond the occasional existence of a related optional subject. In the case of FYPs on business plans, they are typically the result of student initiatives, though they often receive little institutional support. This document outlines the need to improve entrepreneurial skills, taking advantage of FYP’s advanced level of reflection as the culmination of the university degree program. A strategy is formulated based on participation in a digital entrepreneurship platform such as the International Entrepreneurship Lab Smart Money (IELSM), where other transversal skills like “digital competence” are being promoted. In addition, the development of specific micro-credentials to recognize the entrepreneurship training process is considered, in the context of upskilling and reskilling. A proposal for a university micro-credential is presented with the objective of fostering collaboration and knowledge transfer between various stakeholders engaged in academic and professional activities within the field of business and economics education.