While many European countries are still figuring out how to teach young people to think like innovators rather than employees, Cyprus already has entrepreneurship written into its national youth strategy, and soon, into a new one that will take it to 2030.

A new report by the Eurydice network, published by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency, shows just how far Europe has come, and how uneven that progress still is.  

Covering 36 education systems, including the 27 EU Member States and countries such as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey and Montenegro, the 2025 report explores how schools are equipping students with the mindset to turn ideas into action.

Across Europe, the focus on entrepreneurship has changed dramatically. Once associated mainly with business start-ups, it’s now one of the eight key competences for lifelong learning defined at EU level,  a combination of creativity, initiative and adaptability seen as essential for the green and digital transitions. 

In Cyprus, this shift is already visible. The National Youth Strategy, launched in 2017, was among the first in the region to link entrepreneurship with creativity, civic participation and social responsibility.  

A new Youth Strategy 2030 is being prepared, continuing the push for education that fosters initiative, critical thinking and resilience, skills that the report describes as “indispensable for navigating uncertainty and creating value for others.” 

The report builds on two previous Eurydice studies, tracing a steady policy evolution that began with the European Charter for Small Enterprises in 2000 and the 2006 Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, which recognised entrepreneurship as a core skill for all citizens.  

Since then, successive EU agendas, from the Entrepreneurship Action Plan 2020 to the European Skills Agenda and now the Union of Skills strategy, have placed entrepreneurship education at the heart of Europe’s competitiveness. 

According to the latest findings, 20 out of 38 education systems now have top-level strategies that include entrepreneurship education.  

Only five, Luxembourg, Austria, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, have strategies devoted entirely to it. The rest incorporate entrepreneurship into broader frameworks covering education, skills, innovation or youth empowerment. 

Greece, for instance, integrates entrepreneurship into its ‘Skills Labs programme’, promoting initiative-taking and financial literacy as part of everyday learning.  

Portugal’s National Strategy for Citizenship Education includes a detailed entrepreneurship framework covering creativity, innovation, ethics and communication, developed with input from national education, youth and industry bodies.  

Poland, by contrast, weaves entrepreneurship through several national strategies, including the Integrated Skills Strategy 2030, the Strategy for Responsible Development, and the Human Capital Development Strategy, reflecting a long-term approach that ties education to economic growth. 

Meanwhile, Serbia’s Education Strategy 2030 features measurable indicators for teacher training and student financial competence, while Lithuania’s State Progress Strategy: Lithuania 2050 identifies entrepreneurial thinking as vital to the country’s future prosperity.  

In Malta, the National Education Strategy 2024–2030 strengthens collaboration between schools and industry, while Iceland’s Innovation Country strategy promotes creative and entrepreneurial learning as a national growth driver. 

Elsewhere, Austria, Luxembourg and Sweden stand out for having strategies fully dedicated to entrepreneurship education.  

In Austria, the ‘Entrepreneurship Education Platform’ has reshaped how schools work with external partners, offering training and resources for both students and teachers.  

Luxembourg’s Memo on Entrepreneurial Schools focuses on integrating sustainability and innovation into secondary education, while Sweden’s long-running Strategy for Entrepreneurship in Education continues to guide teaching practices nationwide.  

Montenegro, too, has a dedicated ‘Strategy for Lifelong Entrepreneurial Learning’, covering everything from early education to adult learning. 

Eurydice’s data show that all 38 education systems now include entrepreneurship education in their curricula, though the approach varies widely.  

Around three-quarters use a cross-curricular method, embedding it in subjects like science, technology, mathematics and humanities, while others offer stand-alone courses in upper-secondary school.  

In Switzerland, entrepreneurship is taught through a compulsory ‘Economy and Law’ subject, now treated as a core part of the curriculum.  

In Poland, ‘Business and Management’ replaces the older ‘Entrepreneurship Education’ course to reflect modern realities.  

Serbia has introduced ‘Economics and Business’ as an option for all upper-secondary students, while Slovakia’s new cross-curricular programme, Man and Work, inspired by the EU’s EntreComp framework, will soon make entrepreneurial learning mandatory from the age of six. 

At primary level, entrepreneurship is often introduced indirectly, encouraging creativity, teamwork and curiosity rather than business concepts.  

By contrast, in upper-secondary schools, the focus broadens, with projects, competitions and innovation labs that allow students to apply ideas in real contexts. “Any subject,” the report notes, “can offer a basis for teaching entrepreneurial abilities.” 

Among the fifteen competences in the EntreComp framework, six are most often identified in European curricula.  Spotting opportunities, vision, mobilising resources, financial literacy, planning and coping with uncertainty. Of these, financial and economic literacy dominates.  

In contrast, vision and risk management are often missing, particularly in primary education. This imbalance, the report suggests, shows that schools still tend to favour measurable, business-related skills over creativity and imagination. 

However, even the best policies need teachers who can bring them to life. And this, the report mentions that, is where Europe’s progress remains uneven.  

Although almost every country now has a teacher competence framework, only Estonia, Poland and Norway explicitly mention entrepreneurship for all teachers, and only Austria has a dedicated framework for entrepreneurship educators. 

Even so, 19 education systems now provide in-service training on entrepreneurship, and 15 define clear learning goals.  

Finland and Ireland, for example, have embedded entrepreneurial thinking in teacher professional development, while Denmark and Czechia encourage collaboration between schools and local businesses through workshops and joint projects. 

When it comes to leadership, the gap widens. In most education systems, training for school leaders remains limited.  

While teachers are offered regular opportunities for professional development, very few programmes focus on helping principals lead innovation at school level, a weakness the report says can slow down even the most ambitious reforms. 

Another area still developing is the “whole-school approach”, which encourages entrepreneurship to become part of the school’s overall culture rather than a single subject.  

Only about a third of education systems currently provide guidance for adopting this model, and even fewer offer incentives such as grants, awards or recognition schemes. 

A more positive thing though is that practical experiences are becoming common.  

Across Europe, students now engage in projects ranging from mock companies to community start-up challenges. Junior Achievement Europe, active in Cyprus and ten other countries, gives students aged 10 to 25 the chance to launch small enterprises, manage finances and pitch ideas to mentors.  

Similarly, YouthStart, implemented in Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Slovenia, uses hands-on tasks to teach collaboration and innovation.  

These initiatives, often backed by public-private partnerships, have been instrumental in translating abstract concepts into real experience.  

Even so, these opportunities are rarely mandatory. As the report points out, many pupils still graduate without having tested an idea in practice. 

“An entrepreneurial mindset should be seen as an asset beyond the traditional business world,” the report insists, urging governments to make these experiences part of the core curriculum rather than an after-school extra. 

In her foreword, Roxana Minzatu, European Commission executive vice-president for Social Rights and Skills, said that entrepreneurship “is not an innate gift, but a set of skills and attitudes that can be learned, practiced and refined.”  

Her conclusion is clear, saying that “Europe’s future competitiveness depends on embedding entrepreneurial competence into the heart of education, from the first years of school onwards.”