Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR courses

Guidance and resources to support EPICUR course development, cc-by-sa

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Teaching Entrepreneurship and Employability

Teaching Entrepreneurship and Employability

Why Entrepreneurship and Employability?

Teaching entrepreneurship and employability helps students develop important skills, such as problem-solving, communication and collaboration, needed in an ever-changing world. The students develop essential skills that enable them to become aware of their ability to use their knowledge and competences in different contexts, create value in the society where they can act as agents of change as well as in their professional life.

The development of the entrepreneurial capacity of European citizens and organizations is one of the key policy objectives for the EU, and a part of the skills agenda, whose goal is to “strengthen human capital, employability and competitiveness to address the challenges that Europe is facing” (European Commission, 2016). The need for innovation and acting with an entrepreneurial mindset has been reinforced by the Draghi report (European Union, 2025) which showcased the need for innovation and tackling the skills and labour gap.

What is Entrepreneurship and Employability?

Entrepreneurship involves acting on opportunities and ideas to create value for others, whether economic, social or cultural (FFE-YE, 2012). Employability refers to the skills, knowledge and personal qualities that help individuals enter, remain and progress in work, including self-employment (Pool & Sewell, 2007). 

Although distinct, the two are closely connected: entrepreneurial skills such as creativity, critical thinking, initiative and collaboration directly strengthen students’ employability, while employability development helps students apply entrepreneurial thinking in diverse contexts (Cedefop, 2025). 

5 key points about Entrepreneurship and Employability

For students to get the most out of E&E activities, the activities should
1.    Have a distinct focus on relevant competences
2.    Focus on real world issues
3.    Connect students with society
4.    Support students’ lifelong learning and reflection
5.    Demonstrate the potential to create meaningful value for others

Entrepreneurship and Employability in practice

Example – course integrating employability and/or employability focus:

  1. The course could either mention employability/entrepreneurship explicitly in the course description or it could be a course with another specific subject focus in which employability/entrepreneurial aspects are integrated. 
    In both scenarios, it is relevant to try and identify which of the eight competences from the competence framework (see below) that the students will develop during the course. From the eight key competences, select which 2-3 ones are the most central.

  2. After having identified which of the eight competences the students learn through the course, consider planning one or more activities involving external organizations/the outside world, where the students collaborate on practical tasks/cases/real-world problems. This will enhance the students’ opportunity to activate their theoretical knowledge and key competences directly.

  3. In continuation of the practical activities, organize exercises that will help the students reflect upon their experiences and identify how they activated their knowledge and competences in the process. Depending on whether the focus is more entrepreneurial or employability the exercises might have different foci. 
    The reflections could concern what did they do in the collaboration, what did they experience, what did they learn, and how do they understand which competences they contributed with. In the entrepreneurial activities the students could also consider the value proposition or a risk assessment.

  4. As a final step, the students will benefit from reflecting on (individually/in groups/in plenum – talking and/or writing) how they can use their increased awareness of their knowledge and competences in general to be able to contribute to other processes, people and organizations in meaningful ways both for themselves and in general. This will enhance their understanding of own ability to transfer their competences into various contexts and thereby develop their employability.

  5. Consider whether it could be relevant to include (all or some of) the above activities into the exam to align between the elements.

Courses with E&E steps should preferably include some of these activities/tools/methods:
•    Problem-based/case based
•    Focus on development of transferable skills
•    Interaction with external organizations/society
•    Analysis of needs and opportunities
•    Ideation and idea selection
•    Risk analysis/SWOT
•    Testing/market analysis
•    Prototyping
•    Reflection
•    Pitching/presenting the idea/outcome

If you would like to dive into some specific examples of the entrepreneurship and/or employability activities that have been offered as part of the EPICUR course catalogue, you can explore the E&E course data set.

The data set combines various registration data from the previous E&E course offers and presents them, in a Power BI dashboard, in an accessible way. The purpose of the dashboard is to update developers of new E&E about what has already been addressed through EPICUR E&E course offers. This ensures that new EPICUR E&E course offers can be designed to complement and supplement what is already on offer. The dashboard will be updated after every new EPICUR registration cycle.

E&E course data set (dashboard)

As part of EPICUR’s work on entrepreneurship and employability, experts from 9 universities focused on creating resources that are based on best practices and that are aligning the approach to tackling skills needs across Europe. You are welcome to use these resources as a frame or basis for your work, particularly if you would like to design, develop and run a course that could be featured on the EPICUR Course Catalogue.

One of the key goals of the EPICUR alliance is to empower the workforce within its regions, foster innovation, entre- and intra-preneurship and to create deeper connections between universities and businesses and industries by focusing on skills. As a step towards that goal, EPICUR experts conducted a survey across the 9 regions that proved that there is a need for continuous up and reskilling in order to meet the demand for flexible and adaptable skills in an ever-changing world. The Workforce Skills Report compiles the study’s findings. 

The report is focused on identifying two things – the key businesses and industries that have particular weight as stakeholders in a given EPICUR region; and specific skills that these businesses and industries identify as most relevant now and in the near future. 

You can use the report to help identify which specific E&E skills to target through an EPICUR course or another offer. That way, you are addressing a real need and preparing your students to tackle the most relevant challenges. You can also identify commonalities, either in terms of needed skills or the relevant industries, between your region and other EPICUR regions. This will encourage collaborating across different universities on solving common challenges.

Aside from the focus on skills, the EPICUR alliance wants to make sure that students know what to expect from an EPICUR course, regardless of which university it is based in. To help “standardize” the entrepreneurship and employability offer, the EPICUR partners developed a specific framework. It draws on existing competence frameworks, such as Dig-Comp, Entre-Comp and Green Comp, among others, as well as two university-developed competence models.

The competence framework can be used as a tool to both identify and train central competences that are transferable to other courses, student activities, collaboration processes with external organizations and work experiences. It can help with course design and provide a guideline of what you could focus on in your teaching. Each of the eight competences are explained in detail below.

E&E Competence Framework
  • Curiosity and openness towards the subject and the problems to be solved, but also a curiosity towards the I’s represented in the EPICUR Educational Values: Intercultural, Inclusive, Interdisciplinary, Innovative and Interactive, and how they are expressed and acted upon in the course. Curiosity can act as a driver for the motivation to learn.
  • Critical thinking is the core of problem solving from problem identification and framing to solving. It involves the ability to question and test previously held assumptions and be aware of biases and ambiguity. It is the ability to examine, interpret, evaluate and reflect, and to make informed judgments and decisions.
  • Consideration is the careful thought of others and taking in opinions/perspectives/ideas from others. It represents the reflections on our actions in the world and to consider them in the perspective of social, economic and environmental impact.
  • Creativity is the ability to form new and original ideas and to find hidden patterns and make relations between them. It is the ability to spot opportunities, envisioning solutions, bringing new ideas or paradigms. It is an aspect of problem solving and of dissemination of solutions and findings. It consists of two elements: thinking and then producing.
  • Communication is the ability to disseminate information in a relevant way by understanding the audience and the situation. It is at the core of all collaborations and draws on the ability to sympathise, synthesise and to deliver the information constructively.
  • Cultural awareness is the ability to be sensitive to the differences and similarities between cultures when communicating or interacting. It has an extrovert and introvert dimension: knowing of your own culture (ethnicity, proficiency, social background etc) as well as understanding the other. Focuses on values, norms, traditions and the context.
  • Collaboration is the ability to achieve something in interaction with others. It is the ability to build and manage relationships, resolve conflicts, and create an environment where everyone feels included and respected.
  • Construction is the ability to act and to do. It entails the capacity to act purposefully and autonomously. It ensures a direction and outcome of the acting in a creation process. It could be to test and implement ideas, produce a physical/digital outcome and to ensure the advancement of knowledge and the improvement of systems and practices.

Links to other resources

References

Cedefop. (2025). Terminology of European education and training policy: Employability. Publications Office of the European Union.
[xln url="https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/vet-glossary/glossary/beschaeftigungsfaehigkeit]https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/vet-glossary/glossary/beschaeftigungsfaehigkeit[/xln]

European Commission. (2012). Rethinking education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes. Publications Office of the European Union.

European Commission, Joint Research Centre. (2016æ). EntreComp: The entrepreneurship competence framework (JRC Science for Policy Report). Publications Office of the European Union.
https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/entrecomp-entrepreneurship-competence-framework_en

European Union. (2025). The future of European competitiveness: Part A – A competitiveness strategy for Europe. Publications Office of the European Union.
https://commission.europa.eu/topics/competitiveness/draghi-report_en

FFE-YE. (2012). Impact of entrepreneurship education in Denmark – 2011. In L. Vestergaard, K. Moberg, & C. Jørgensen (Eds.), Impact of entrepreneurship education (pp. 1–52). The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship – Young Enterprise.yumpu.com

Pool, L., & Sewell, P. (2007). The key to employability: Developing a practical model of graduate employability. Education + Training, 49(4), 277–289. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910710754435

Interactive Approaches

Author(s)

This resource sheet has been co-written by

  • Yurii Chipko (SDU)
  • Marie Sindberg Jensen (SDU)
  • Tine Lynfort Jensen (SDU)
  • Helene Fast Seefeldt (SDU)

Related Resource Sheets

Next steps

If you need further support with developing your course, please contact your local teaching support unit.
If you need further information on offering your course for EPICUR, please contact your EPICUR institutional coordinator.

Local teaching support units

EPICUR Institutional Coordinators

Adam Mickiewicz University
Karolina Choczaj
karmench@amu.edu.pl

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nikos Kouloussis
nikoul@agro.auth.gr

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Michael Zacherle
zacherle@kit.edu

University of Amsterdam
Tiffany Boersma
t.a.boersma@uva.nl

Universität Freiburg
Charlotte Langowski
charlotte.langowski@zv.uni-freiburg.de

Université de Haute-Alsace
Léa Ziri
lea.ziri@uha.fr

Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
Nicolas Fries
nicolas.fries@boku.ac.at

University of Southern Denmark
Ida Thøstesen
ilt@sdu.dk

University of Strasbourg
Pascale Nachez
pnachez@unistra.fr

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Further use as OER explicitly permitted:
This Resource Sheet within the Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses was created by Yurii Chipko, Marie Sindberg Jensen, Tine Lynfort Jensen, Helene Fast Seefeldt, University of Southern Denmark.
Please attribute according to TASLL rule as follows: Team-based Learning (TBL) (Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses), by Yurii Chipko, Marie Sindberg Jensen, Tine Lynfort Jensen, Helene Fast Seefeldt, University of Southern Denmar. Any icons included are protected by copyright, © The Noun Project, used with permission.
License: This work and its contents are – unless otherwise stated – licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 . 

Last edited: 27. Mar 2026, 10:20, Hutz-Nierhoff, Dorthe [dh1076@rz.uni-freiburg.de]