1.
Ladies & gentlemen, dear conference participants!
I am delighted see that our city of Pori is the venue for this conference on
entrepreneurship education and I am honored to welcome you all to our city.
Secondly, I’m very pleased about your topic, entrepreneurship education, which already
has a long tradition in our city and our region.
The first innovative ideas about investing in entrepreneurship education systematically
saw the light of day in Pori 10 years ago, back in 2002.
Soon after that, the very first Entrepreneurship class in the whole of Finland was
established at Porin Lyseo Comprehensive School, thanks to the strong commitment of
the Department of education of Pori.
The first 20 selected 7th, 8th and 9th grade students started their entrepreneurship studies
in autumn 2004.
Key issues in our entrepreneurship education have been to develop the knowledge,
skills, and attitudes that will be needed, regardless of whether the young people will
finally become an entrepreneur or an employee.
Regional cooperation has played a significant role in developing our entrepreneurship
education. One example of that is the inter-regional YES Centre, which was established
in 2005.
The next natural step of developing our entrepreneurship education was to raise
national awareness. The first national YES Centre project started in 2008 led by the Pori
Regional Development Agency POSEK and financed by the Finnish National Board of
Education. This project led to the establishment of the YES Centre network, consisting of
14 regional YES Centres offering concrete support services to schools and teachers.
Along with this in 2010, the national YES association started, which coordinates and
supports the activities of regional YES Centers.
The natural development of entrepreneurship education soon led to international
cooperation and to the inter-regional YES project that laid the groundwork for this
conference today.
In our experience, successful entrepreneurship education is based on both geographical
cooperation and on the cooperation between different stakeholders. This is the lesson
we have learned through all this.
The next notable milestone was the Regional strategy of entrepreneurship education,
which was approved exactly one year ago.
Satakunnan ammattikorkeakoulu | Tutkimus ja kehittämistoiminta | Satakunta University of Applied Sciences | Research and Development
Tiedepuisto 3, FI-28600 Pori | Telephone + 358 (0)2 620 3000 | Telefax +358 (0)2 620 3370 / www.samk.fi

2.
In our vision we have stated that every student has the right to receive
entrepreneurship education.
Correspondingly, every young person should have the opportunity to grow up to
become an active, responsible, tolerant, and cooperative adult in our society.
Ladies and gentlemen, entrepreneurship is a mission that unites us. Let´s encourage our
youth to be open-minded towards the possibilities that lie ahead.
On behalf of the city of Pori, I wish you all a successful conference. Let´s all take
advantage of this rare opportunity that we are gathered here and use this day to take
our cooperation to the next level.
Last but not least, it’s my great pleasure to invite you all to our conference reception
that will be held this evening in the Old Town Hall of Pori.
Thank you!
Satakunnan ammattikorkeakoulu | Tutkimus ja kehittämistoiminta | Satakunta University of Applied Sciences | Research and Development
Tiedepuisto 3, FI-28600 Pori | Telephone + 358 (0)2 620 3000 | Telefax +358 (0)2 620 3370 / www.samk.fi