GAZE
GAZE is an acronym for the Basque term 'gazte ekinzale' which refers to an entrepreneurial youth.
GAZE: Gipuzkoa Gazte Ekinzale is a territorial strategy created in 2008 and funded by the Department of Innovation and Social Knowledge of Gipuzkoa’s Provincial Council .
The objective of GAZE is to encourage entrepreneurial culture and the sense of initiative among young students of higher education of the province of Gipuzkoa (Basque Country).
The goal of the initial phase of GAZE is that students take full responsibility of the design of the next territorial program to promote the entrepreneurial culture and the sense of initiative within higher education.
Governance
In accordance with the governance type of management, GAZE ensures that students, as final users of the future program that promote the entrepreneurial culture, take part in an active way at every stage and in every decision of the project.
To achieve that, between October 2008 and December 2008 GAZE organized various events (above all, GAZEabian and GAZE in your classroom) in which more than 600 students of Gipuzkoa shared their ideas about how to increase entrepreneurial awareness. The document for the territorial program, which has to be delivered in November 2009 to the Local Delegation of Gipuzkoa will transfer the proposals gathered among students in those events.
GAZE ABIAN and GAZE in your classroom
Between October and December 2008, more than 500 students participated in the events called GAZE ABIAN (which in basque means, 'setting off GAZE'). Every university of Gipuzkoa organized its own particular event, coherent with its own vision, and all provided an opportunity to directly survey the proposals that students had to encourage entrepreneurialship among themselves.
Based on the results of the events GAZE ABIAN, between April and May 2009, 123 students of all universities of Gipuzkoa participated in the workshops 'GAZE in your classroom'. Those students had the opportunity to sharpen the proposals gathered in the GAZE ABIAN as well as to think about new proposals.
Some results
The 343 valid proposals gathered in the GAZE ABIAN event, where classified in 4 areas of application: - Changes in the curriculum or in the academic methodology, 147 proposals, 43%; - Creation of social nets, 93 proposals, 27%; - Improvement of infraestructures, 70 proposals, 20%; Creation of institutional nets, 33 proposals, 10%.
In the 'GAZE in your classroom' workshops there were 326 valid proposals, most of them in line with the proposals gathered in the GAZE ABIAN events: - Changes in the curriculum or in the academic methodology, 136 proposals, 41.7%; - Creation of social nets, 57 proposals, 17.4%; - Improvement of infraestructures, 84 proposals, 25.7%; Creation of institutional nets, 49 proposals, 15.2%.
Inter-institutional
To lead a strategy of territorial dimension, GAZE has reached an agreement with all the institutions of higher education in Gipuzkoa: University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), the University of Deusto, University of Mondragon, the University of Navarre and Tknika, which encloses most superior grade formative centres. This institutional commitment is covered in a declaration signed on 11 June 2009 by the deputy José Ramón Guridi as well as the representatives of all the universities and Tknika .
The sense of initiative
GAZE promotes the sense of initiative and the entrepreneurial culture among students of higher education in Guipúzcoa. The sense of initiative or the fact of undertaking must not only be understood, however, in relation to the creation of firms.
In accordance to the European Commission (EC 2006/962), the sense of initiative is the skill of a person to transform ideas into action. It is related to creativity, innovation, the assumption of risks and the capacity to recognize actual opportunities. It means the skill to plan and to manage projects to reach objectives, working both individually or collectively. It is characterized by the initiative, the pro-activity, the independence and the innovation. ("Recommendation of the European Parliament and the Council on the 18 December 2006 on key competences for permanent learning ").
GAZE takes that definition of sense of initiative' and, along the same lines, it adopts a wide and inclusive entrepreneurship concept. Within the framework of the GAZE project, 'to entrepreneur' means to set projects in motion in any life context.
IKERSAREA
The project GAZE is also building a social net, called GAZE IKERSAREA, to connect researchers, experts and managers of programs related with the encouragement of the entrepreneurial culture among higher degree students. GAZE IKERSAREA has an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional character as well.
The type of research of GAZE IKERSAREA is action-oriented. In that sense, all results are openly available to students, professors, institutional responsibles, public policy makers and stakeholders.
The main goal of this initial phase of GAZE IKERSAREA is to integrate in the design of the program that students are leading the views and ideas of all other agents that are committed with the cultural transformation that GAZE seeks: professors, stakeholders, institutional responsibles and graduates.