WKO
Austrian Federal Economic Chamber

Brief description

The Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKO- Wirtschaftskammer Österreich) coordinates and represents the interests of the Austrian business community on a national and international level. Within the Austrian Economic Chambers’ system, it functions as the national umbrella organization for the nine State Chambers (one in each of Austria’s federal States or Bundesland) and 110 trade associations for different industries. Most State Chambers and associations have local offices to provide services in close proximity to members. The Chamber has a total of 5.000 employees (1.000 in Vienna).

Membership is compulsory and includes all Austrian companies in operation. The resultant membership, some 430,000 businesses drawn from a diverse selection of business areas such as trade and craft, commerce, industry, transportation, tourism, services industries, finance and insurance.

Role in the Project and Added Value

The Austrian Federal Economic Chamber will share their expertise in Entrepreneurship Education.

WKO might:

• Provide peer-learning opportunities, know-how and support for project partners to advance entrepreneurship education.
• Present tools and methods as used in previously implemented projects.
• Share knowledge on interactive online webinars for continuous professional development in entrepreneurship education.
• Help to promote the integration of entrepreneurial learning as a key competence in all parts of education and training.
• Host events at the Chambers’ Headquarters in Vienna.
• Host study-visits of the partners.
• Support the visibility and dissemination activities of the project.

Experience

Expert on behalf of UEAPME (the employer’s organisation representing the interests of European crafts, trades and SMEs at EU level) in numerous Thematic Working Groups of the European Commission (2011 – ongoing).

Expert for Entrepreneurship Education in the EntreComp working group/ JRC Sevilla, (2016)

Partner in Leonardo Project “Entrepreneurial Skills Pass” (2013 – 2016)

Member of the EE-HUB (European Entrepreneurship Education NETwork), co-funded by the COSME programme of the European Union (Consortium partners are JA Europe, Eurochambres, SEECEL, EUproVET)

Experience in the project topics: Youth Employment, Careers Advisory, Entrepreneurship Education, Validation of Learning

Longstanding experience in fostering Entrepreneurship Education on behalf of the Austrian Federal Economic Chambers (WKO).

WKO is running resp. offering/sponsoring the following entrepreneurship training programmes for use in schools:

1. The Entrepreneur’s Skills Certificate (www.unternehmerfuehrerschein.at) – a modular training programme with online assessment leading to a widely acknowledged business certificate (> 75.000 modules in upper secondary schools) – the programme was launched in 2004.
2. The Entrepreneurial Skills Pass (www.entrepreneurialskillspass.org) – a joint programme together with JUNIOR Europe – combining a basic module of the Entrepreneur’s Skills Certificate with the JUNIOR Company programme – since 2013.
3. The JUNIOR Company programme (www.ja-ye.org or www.junior.cc) reaching > 30.000 students since 1995.
4. Expert for UEAME in various Thematic Working Groups of the European Commission:

• TWG Entrepreneurship Education (2011 – 2013)
• TWG Transversal Skills (2014-2016)
• TWG Digital Skills and Competences (2016 cc)

5. Expert in numerous other European Projects on Entrepreneurship Education and Employability.

Here is some information on the  European Commission’s Thematic Working Groups on Entrepreneurship Education and Digital Skills and Competences.

Equal Partnership “Alternative Self-Employment/Selbstständigkeit” in English.
In this project, we were focusing on female entrepreneurship and offering guidance, training and coaching to women – mainly to those in maternity leave – who wanted to re-enter the job market. I was responsible for the project’s guidance and training module for starting a business on behalf of the Burgenland Chamber of Commerce (WK Burgenland) which is one of the nine regional county branches of the Austrian Chambers.