Promoting Regional Development Through a Collaborative Project in Entrepreneurship Education: Lessons from a Regional Experiment to Develop Entrepreneurial Competencies in Children and Youngsters

The chapter focuses on the reflection around the relationship between entrepreneurial empowerment and regional development, based on the assumptions, methodology and results of a self-sustained supramunicipal project in entrepreneurship education, promoted by a wide network of partners representing all the municipalities of Baixo Alentejo, Portugal, and coordinated by the Polytechnic Institute of Beja (IPBeja). The project Promoting Entrepreneurship Education at the Schools of Baixo Alentejo (PEEBA) was carried out in collaboration with Elementary Schools (1st to 2nd Ciclos) and kindergartens of Baixo Alentejo with the objective to nurture entrepreneurial competencies in children and youngsters aged 3–12 through practical and experiential entrepreneurship education. It provided them with entrepreneurial skills and attitudes that will increase their opportunities, by helping them face their lives with more initiative and confidence and/or be more proactive at work, or even start their own business in a near future, in the hope that this may eventually contribute to reduce the brain drain in Baixo Alentejo.