Developing entrepreneurial skills through cultural activities

In the education system

In Portugal, the development of entrepreneurial skills is part of the school curriculum indirectly. The Ministry of Education developed a set of guidance documents for schools on various themes, among which there is a module about Education for Entrepreneurship.

According to the guidelines, the objective is the acquisition of knowledge, capabilities and attitudes that encourage and provide the development of ideas, initiatives and projects in order to enable students to create, innovate and change their scope of action according to the challenges that society throws at them.

(cross-reference withs ection 3.8 DEVELOPMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMPETENCE 2. Formal Education - 2.1 In the school curriculum)

At the higher education level, there are a few public institutions with offers in creative fields and entrepreneurship. For example:

Postgraduate Course in Industries and Creative Cultures: Management and Strategies, of the Higher Education School of Social Communication, in partnership with the Faculty of Fine-Arts and the Faculty of Letters, of the University of Lisbon, which is now on its second edition.

This course is the result of the strategic axis of the Higher Education School of Social Communication which focus on growing closer to the entrepreneurial world, as well as public policies related to the creative sector combining both the theoretical/conceptual dimension and the practical/experimental, in a single training offer.

Support young entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative sectors

Programmes and initiatives

Young Creators Programme

The Young Creators Programme - an initiative of the State Secretariat for Youth and Sport - aims to create effective opportunities for the dissemination of the work of young creators in the country, usually without access to cultural circuits, and whose event stimulates and supports initiative, creativity and innovation on the part of young people.

The programme includes two initiatives:

Young Creators Competition: the Young Creators Competition allows young people with artistic creative work to apply every year.

The works must be submitted in the following fields:

• Visual Arts (painting, sculpture, photography, video, digital, etc.);
• Architecture;
• Comics;
• Cinema (feature and short films, regular film or animated);
• Dancing (proposals for contemporary dancing, with an experimental nature, with at least one public presentation);
• Graphic Design;
• Equipment Design;
• Object Oriented Design (Industrial Design, Ceramic, Textile, Footwear, Accessories, etc);
• Fashion Design (five coordinated (man, women or mixed) that in its whole constitute a fashion show);
• Photography;
• Illustration;
• Jewellery;
• Literature (original texts - prose or poetry);
• Music (any kind of acoustic or digital music project, in the fields of electronic, classic, hip-hop, jazz, pop, rock world music, etc.);
• Theatre (proposal for contemporary theatre, with an experimental nature, with at least one public presentation).

The target group are young people of Portuguese nationality or resident in national territory, who may present themselves individually or in groups, with a limit age of 30 years, until 31 December of the year of realization. In collective projects, competitors up to the age of 35 are admitted, provided that the average age of the group does not exceed 30 years.

This programme is regulated by Ordinance 50/2018 of 15 February.

National Young Creators Exhibition

The Young Creators Competition results in a selection of projects that are presented in a National Exhibition; from this three young creators are selected to represent Portugal in an international event.

The target group are young Portuguese citizens aged 30 or under, selected in the Young Creators Competition.

The National Exhibition consists of:

• Exhibitions of works in the fields of Visual Arts, Comics and Illustration, Architecture and Equipment, Graphic Design, Photography, Object Oriented Design, Fashion and Jewellery;
• Presentation of shows in the fields of Dancing, Theatre and Music;
• Presentation of a Film Screening;
• A Fashion Show;
• A Literary Café.

The National Young Creators Exhibition is regulated by Ordinance 50/2018, of 15 February.

Support protocols for entities developing activities with or for young people

AMEC - Music, Education and Culture Association/Metropolitan

The mission of the Association Music, Education and Culture/Metropolitan is to promote music and culture in Portugal and abroad, particularly in the Lisbon metropolitan area, through the activity of the professional orchestra - Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa - and the Orquestra Académica de Lisboa, are financially supported to the value of 15,000.00 euros by the Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth, under the IV Founders Agreement, where according to clause seven, the Secretary of State for Youth and Sport is a founding member.

The Association Music, Education and Culture - Sense of the Sounds grants scholarships, or reduction of tuition fees, to undergraduate students of the National Superior Academy of Orchestra, after analysis of their respective economic, family and school situations, so that they can thus continue their musical studies at a higher level, through counterparts of pedagogical interest that are enshrined in the respective regulations.

CMP - Portuguese Music Circle / Youth Symphony Orchestra

The Portuguese Music Circle, through the project Orquestra Sinfónica Juvenil (Youth Symphony Orchestra), constituted mostly by young people, aims to promote and divulge classical music, giving the opportunity to a large majority of young people to listen to a live orchestra, through the concerts integrated in the "Youth Music" Season (400+350 spectators). 150 musicians (85+65) and the "Internships of Intensive Work / Summer Tour" (training of 60 musicians) integrate these concerts as well as in the instrumental practice, thus giving the opportunity to young people to produce music.

CNC - National Culture Centre

The National Culture Centre is a Cultural Association of public utility. Created on 13 May 1945 by a group of monarchists and Catholics opposed to the regime, it was conceived as a "club of intellectuals" for the discussion of ideas.

It is an initiative supported by the Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth, which aims to stimulate the creative work of young people in the various areas of Arts and Letters, with the National Culture Centre being responsible for the management of the process of selection and monitoring of fellows.

Aimed at young people residing in Portugal aged no more than 30 years, the Young Creators' Grants are intended to encourage and support the creative work of young people in the various areas of Arts and Letters, namely in the areas of Music, Visual Arts, Literature and Performing Arts. This objective has been fulfilled both by the growing number of young people applying since 1990 (the year the programme was launched) and by the results of the projects presented.

Considering that young people have a particular role to play in "updating" tradition and history, transposing to the present their teachings and giving them a contemporary dimension, projects that somehow translate the double dimension "Tradition/innovation" of Portuguese Culture are encouraged. The projects can be of creation, research or training and can be developed in Portugal or abroad. A maximum of 8 to 10 grants are awarded each year, to be chosen between new projects submitted and renewals from the previous year.

The selection of these young people, by independent juries invited by the National Culture Centre, is not always easy due to the large number of quality projects presented annually. The suitability of the selected candidates has been rewarding for their excellent work and undoubted contribution to the Portuguese cultural panorama.

More than 200 scholarships have been distributed to date, allowing many young people to consolidate their artistic careers, many of them having distinguished themselves in national cultural and artistic creation.

The Young Creators Scholarships programme of the National Culture Centre aims to encourage and support the creative work of young people in the areas of arts and letters. The programme allows many young people to consolidate their artistic careers in the areas of Music, Literature and Performing Arts.

IAC - Child Support Institute

The Child Support Institute is an Institution of Solidarity and Social Security created on 14^th March 1983 with the fundamental objective of the integral development of children and the defense of their rights, seeking at every moment to be the voice that calls attention, puts pressure, acts, carries out actions that help more children to live the time of being children with joy.

A group of people from different professional fields - doctors, magistrates, teachers, psychologists, social service technicians, educators - has given life to a new project of hope for a better world for our children.

The Child Support Institute is financed by the Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth at 40.000,00 Euros for two projects: "Projeto Rua - Em Família para Crescer" which aims at contributing to the reduction of the number of children, adolescents and young people at risk and/or in danger by promoting their socio-family reintegration.

General Objectives:

• Optimize responses that allow the recovery of adolescents and young people with disruptive/deviant behaviours, promoting skills leading to the construction of a healthy life project;
• Create and develop an integrated alternative education/training response for young people at risk and with deviant behaviours in order to build a healthy life project;
• To contribute to the creation of integrated projects, in the communities marked by situations of children, adolescents and young people at risk, with a view to building a healthy living project.

and Project "SOS-Child" which aims to give a voice to the child, youth and family, guaranteeing them the right to speak, support and protection and has as general objectives:

• Guarantee the child/youth the right to speak and their protection;
• To make community structures and society aware of the problems of the child/young person, particularly in situations of danger, disappearance, exploitation or sexual abuse;
• To develop actions that contribute to the educational social intervention that responds to the needs of the school community;
• To guarantee psychological support to all children/young people who request it.

The main beneficiaries of the different activities of the SOS-Child sector are children, up to the age of 18, who are in a situation of psychological risk and/or vulnerability. In the field of psychological care, the target group focuses mainly on children and young people, living or studying in the Greater Lisbon area, due to the specificity of the geographical location of this service. In relation to the SOS-Child lines, the targets of our action are all children and young people residing in Continental Portugal and Autonomous Regions, given the national scope of the SOS-Child service.

Youth Symphony Orchestra

The Youth Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1973, under the auspices of the association of the same name. In 1994 it is tutored by the Círculo Musical Português, an association that has coordinated its activities since then. The Youth Symphony Orchestra assumes itself today, as a fundamental institution in our pedagogical-musical panorama. It is its maestro-owner, for 28 years, Christopher Bochmann, unavoidable personality in the Portuguese musical culture. In these 39 years of existence, the Youth Symphony Orchestra saw many of the current instrumentalists of our orchestras passing through its pictures, extended its action in favour of the musical culture to the whole country, encouraged and made known to the public many young soloists, represented Portugal in meetings of youth orchestras. He privileges performances in the interior of the country, having performed in numerous concerts in places never before visited by a symphonic orchestra.

The Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth gives a funding of 25.000,00 euros per year to the Youth Symphony Orchestra.

We should also emphasize that the Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth, P.I., through its financial support programmes to youth organizations´ annual activities plans (PAAJ), enables many cultural projects, regarding music, festivals, dance, theatre, cinema, literature and arts in general.