Sergio Arzeni, OECD

 

The mission of the OECD LEED programme is to contribute to the creation of more and better jobs at the local level. LEED identifies, analyses and disseminates innovative ideas for local development, governance and the social economy. LEED considers innovative entrepreneurship through new firm creation, as well as adaptation in the existing firm stock, to be a critical determinant of local economic growth. At the same time, promising entrepreneurial potential amongst graduates and researchers should be further encouraged and fostered. OECD studies show that higher education institutions can play a considerable role in hatching new firms and supporting their growth. LEED created a criteria list on what constitutes good practices in higher education institutions' entrepreneurship support. Higher education institutions can use it a tool to self-assess and re-orient their strategy in supporting entrepreneurship, their pool of financial and human resources, their support infrastructure, their current approaches in entrepreneurship education and start-up support and their evaluation practices.