Traditionally, entrepreneurship education has been the domain of scholars active in the field of management and economics. With some exceptions, limited attention has been given to these themes by educational scholars. This is surprising considering the amount of resources and efforts that are put into policy strategies, sector development programs, centers, incubators, education and training programs specifically aimed at fostering entrepreneurship. For instance in Europe the role and importance of entrepreneurship are emphasized in the European Commission’s Green Paper ‘Entrepreneurship in Europe’ (2003) and in the ‘Oslo Agenda for Entrepreneurship Education in Europe’ (2006).  

Also from a theoretical perspective opportunities to contribute to current debates in entrepreneurship education present themselves for educational scholars. Recent scientific literature in the entrepreneurship ‘top’ journals show a move away from narrow definitions of the entrepreneur - someone with dispositional traits to start up and manage a company - towards the relevance of learning and development processes associated with entrepreneurial activities, such as designing and developing new products, services or optimizing existing processes (Cope, 2005). In addition, studies pay more attention to cognitive processes such as perception, interpretation, understanding and creativity in entrepreneurial learning process (Detienne & Chandler, 2004) and recognize the importance of the learning environment affecting  entrepreneurial learning  (Dimov, 2007; Nab et al., 2010). The notification that learning is relevant for entrepreneurs or at least should be encouraged (Zhao, Hills & Seibert 2005) implies that entrepreneurship education targets can be seen more broader than the often narrow business-school focus of entrepreneurship as a matter of venture creation. For instance, entrepreneurship education can focus on the stimulation of an entrepreneurial spirit or culture or focus on the development of entrepreneurial behavior and skills (Heinonen & Poikkijoki, 2006). Aspects which are also regarded as important for the broader agenda of lifelong learning (Holmgren & From, 2005).

In short, the importance attributed to entrepreneurship in general, the recognition of the importance of learning processes associated with entrepreneurial activities as well as the broadening of entrepreneurship education related targets and goals, opens up the door for scholars from educational sciences to contribute to current discourses in entrepreneurship research  (Baron & Ensley, 2006; Corbett, 2007).

In this symposium we want to illustrate the potential of the emerging theme of entrepreneurship for (vocational) education and work-related learning research by providing three different studies from different parts of Europe. All three focus on the processes and outcomes related to learning for and in entrepreneurship, however in different contexts (small firms, education) and with different target groups (nascent and practicing entrepreneurs).