Dr Ian Heywood from the University of Aberdeen's Business School took centre stage in Berlin last week as he attended a symposium which saw the launch of the very first Coneeect handbook.
Launched in 2013, Coneeect is an international network of universities that offers interactive training courses for academic entrepreneurship teachers to improve entrepreneurship education across Europe.
As one of the founding members of the EU-supported project, the University of Aberdeen has access to intense training programmes as well as easy access to the European entrepreneurship community.
The first Coneeect handbook marks a new phase in the development of the project, and provides examples of innovative methods that participating institutions have used to support and develop the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Examples from Aberdeen include an article from Dr Heywood on the concept of disruptive thinking to teach students how they can develop new business ideas, while Dr Bruce Scharlau from the Department of Computing Science writes about the use of the ‘Three Amigos’ approach to meet the same aim. Meanwhile, PhD student Carol Langston has written about her experiences of developing a staff training programme for educators seeking to embed entrepreneurship education within their practice.
Dr Heywood said: “Coneeect offers a unique opportunity to learn, experience and design new teaching methods, materials and learning outcome assessment techniques to maximise teaching impact.
“The Coneeect handbook, which was launched at the latest Coneeect symposium held last week in Berlin, provides a valuable resource where those involved in entrepreneurship education can draw upon innovations in teaching for the benefit of their own students.
“The symposium was held to launch the next stage of Coneeect, which will be an open faculty project engaging colleagues from across Europe in delivering innovative programmes of learning in support of entrepreneurship.
“Along with the launch of the handbook this is an exciting phase in the development of Coneeect and I look forward to working with colleagues in participating institutions as we lead the way in entrepreneurship education across Europe.”