Schools in Europe have a vital role to play in teaching children the entrepreneurial skills that will be needed to help the region recover from the current financial crisis, a report states.

The report from the European education information network Eurydice says: “Europe faces a number of challenges that can only be met if it has innovative, well-educated and entrepreneurial citizens.”

It states that, because attitudes are shaped at an early age, schools have an important role in helping young people to become entrepreneurs - able either to launch their own ventures or to become innovators in larger organisations once they start work.

This entrepreneurial teaching is usually part of a cross-curricular approach, often combined with economics, business studies or careers education.

6 out of 31 countries have specific strategies for entrepreneurship education:

Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway (marked in red)

In how many countries is entrepreneurship taught as part of ...

1 a separate compulsory subject

7 a separate optional subject

5 compulsory economicsbusiness studies

13 optional economicsbusiness studies

11 compulsory social sciences

0 optional mathsscienceICT

4 compulsory mathsscienceICT

1 another optional subject.