Youth Start Social Entrepreneurship Program for Kids: Portuguese UKIDS-Case Study

• Main Authors: Pinho Maria Inês, Fernandes Dárida, Serrão Carla, Mascarenhas Daniela
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sciendo 2019-12-01
• Series: Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education
• Subjects: entrepreneur; sustainable entrepreneurship education; entrepreneurial challenge-based learning; social entrepreneurship
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.2478/dcse-2019-0016

Today’s society has valued entrepreneurship in various sectors of personal and professional life, but the school seems to forget this reality. Aware of this fact, the Portuguese Ministry of Education has created a program, from early childhood education to basic and secondary education, to develop the concept of social entrepreneurship in schools. The Porto Polytechnic Higher School of Education, as an educator of teachers and teachers of the First and Second cycle of Basic Education, joined the European UKIDS project to integrate this theme in the initial and continuous teacher training. In this article we will analyze the data obtained from a UKIDS Portuguese Partner School in the context of continuing teacher education and present some conclusions. The qualitative methodology used allowed us to conclude that the UKIDS project enhanced the valorization of individual capacities, such as creativity, self-confidence, the power of argumentation, as well as the construction of social competences, in interpersonal and group relationships, which are crucial in the formation of a child’s personality in the basic school learning process.