“…one of the top, most inspiring projects in Europe.”
“BIRCH-project” elected by jury of OECD and EuCom to be outstanding in entrepreneurship education in Europe.
It is spring, 2015 now: A little late, but today Hansenberg´s headmistress, Mrs. Dr. Susanne Gebauer, received the “Certificate of Honour for the Hansenberg BIRCH-Project”.
But let’s look a little back into the history of this great honor. It all began in summer 2014: The absolutely great news arrived via email on 17 June 2014
“Dear Mr. Rauh, … It is with great pleasure that I inform you of the selection of Internatsschule Schloss Hansenberg application as part of the top, most inspiring projects in entrepreneurship education in Europe. Congratulations on behalf of the jury and the entire Entrepreneurship360 team! Joseph Tixier, Centre for Entrepreneurship, 38122 Trento – Italy.”
With this superb email the results of the “ten-year-excitement” in business-activities and competitions at Internatsschule Hansenberg can now officially be called “…outstanding, and most inspiring in Europe.” The name “BIRCH-project” is an acronym of course, and signifies the activities in “Business – Innovation – Responsibility – Communication – at Hansenberg” since 2004.
In April 2014 the application for Hansenberg`s BIRCH-Project had to be delivered. It was then evaluated by the jury of the OECD and European Commission according to specified critical points. A comprehensive, detailed and documented application had to be handed in, specifying all aspects of entrepreneurial training, business competitions and activities in vocational and pre-university training.
In November 2014 the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the European Commission (EuC) invited a representative body of high-level, European activities in Entrepreneurship Education to Potsdam. It was organized by the “Entrepreneurship 360 Capacity Building Seminar”, a project of the OECD and EuC, to support activities in business and entrepreneurship education all over Europe.
The seminar in Potsdam was especially dedicated to promoting entrepreneurial education in European schools. And it was the climax of the learning journey, to which the schools enrolled, after having been selected as explained above. The call for ”best practice case-studies” (launched in April 2014) had aimed at identifying good practices throughout Europe in nurturing the entrepreneurial mind-set.
In Potsdam 27 institutions, schools and representatives of local organizations displayed their initiatives to provide entrepreneurial education in their institutions. It was an excellent occasion for the participants to learn and exchange ideas with their European peers. The rich seminar included presentations provided by seven high-level European researchers on entrepreneurial education, and peer learning workshops to exchange top level knowledge on the subject.
Hansenberg was invited to present its specialized project “BIRCH” in this international meeting. For details of the project please have a closer look at the poster produced for this purpose. For more information please contact the school via info@hansenberg.de
