The introduction of entrepreneurship education is bringing about a change in mentality to a more entrepreneurial spirit, the Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and the Self Employed, Edwin Vassallo, told the launch of a lobby group for entrepreneurship education.

An entrepreneurial mentality was needed in teachers, students, employees, small business owners and in administration, and in everybody who provided a service, he said. “An entrepreneurial mentality will lead to an increase in the quality of the product or service offered, and will give added value,” he added.

Those present for the activity were representatives from a number of youth and student organisations, both from the University of Malta and from MCAST.

Mr Vassallo explained that “in order to achieve a change in mentality we need to include entrepreneurship training in our educational system. In order to do so successfully, the government, through the Parliamentary Secretariat for Small Business and the Self Employed, is launching an Entrepreneurship Student Pact, that is made up of a number of student organisations and a number of students who participated in a European Union-funded work placement.

“The government wanted to join forces with youth organisations in order to organise events for youths and students that encouraged the innovation in thinking and research that were inherent in entrepreneurship education. Between last year and this,” he added, “the government, through the Discover Enterprise project, will have distributed around Lm60,000 (E139,762.40), to a number of schools and organisations to assist them in entrepreneurship education.”