Sustainability is being placed at the heart of training the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Fabienne Kieffer, who coordinates Luxembourg’s sustainable entrepreneurial schools programme, explains.
When economics teacher Fabienne Kieffer began researching extracurricular entrepreneurship activities in Luxembourg for her travail de candidature, she noticed a critical flaw. “I saw many initiatives from partners, but most of the students and teachers didn’t know about them,” she says.
Her research paper proposed the creation of a single platform where all the information could be posted, an idea that caught the attention of the education ministry’s innovation centre, Script. They hired her to relaunch the school entrepreneurship project in 2020, five years after it was first rolled out. When Kieffer took over, programmes were already embedded in four secondary schools: the École de Commerce et de Gestion, Lycée Technique de Lallange, École Privée Marie-Consolatrice, and Lycée Ermesinde.
“In 2020, we relaunched the project and opened it for every interested secondary school to apply,” the teacher explains. In the first year, 12 new schools joined, followed by six more in the second year. The extra-curricular programme focuses on entrepreneurship, financial and economic education, professional orientation and sustainability, topics which are explored through external visits, job shadow days and challenges like the Mini Enterprise scheme run by Jonk Entrepreneuren Luxembourg.
“We show students that sustainability is not only climate but also social and economic.”
Fabienne Kieffer
“It’s not the goal to have 100 students become entrepreneurs after school. But, if it happens, it’s great,” says Kieffer. The goal is to help the young people develop an entrepreneurial mindset in which students set themselves goals, take responsibility and achieve them.
The relaunch provided an opportunity to introduce sustainability to the programme. “We brought in partners like Fairtrade Lëtzebuerg and SuperDrecksKëscht, who are really into trying to teach young people about circular economy. Also, trying to see where your goods and services are coming from,” the coordinator explains.
Sustainability is embedded in the Mini Entreprise competition, which rewards the most sustainable small business. When drafting a business plan, students are also expected to outline the sustainable aspects of their projects.
And sustainability is a major consideration when choosing partners for the scheme, all of which are rated on the project website according to the sustainable development goals they fulfill.
“We show students that sustainability is not only climate but also social and economic. And they also see the 17 different goals where students can also have an impact,” says Kieffer.
Sustainability is also part of the challenges students are asked to work on, such as the Trash Value Challenge. Here students must find a solution that will help them to monetise trash produced in the home.
There was also a lot of buzz around sustainability and adaptability during the pandemic which began shortly after the programme was relaunched. Kieffer says that like businesses, students were quick to adapt and embraced virtual job shadow days and online conferences and visits. During the second year of the pandemic, Script launched an online platform for schools and programme partners. Kieffer says: “Like the companies, students also had to focus on developing online products and services. It worked!”
This article was first published in the Silicon Luxembourg magazine. Read the full digital version of the magazine on our website, here. You can also choose to receive a hard copy at the office or at home. Subscribe now.
