Entrepreneurial and vocational education and training in central and Eastern Europe

Since the late 1980s most of the countries in central and Eastern Europe have been undergoing a radical socio‐economic and political transformation, generally referred to as the “transition” from a centrally planned, command system to a more or less liberalised, Western‐style, market economy. The new thinking and the hopes for economic regenerations in the region were centred mainly upon the two inter‐related concepts of entrepreneurship and small business development. In these countries, however, relatively little is known about the education and training needs of entrepreneurs and their workforce. This paper outlines the preliminary results of a longitudinal research study (1995‐1999) that focussed specifically upon the training needs of 6,000 small and medium sized businesses in six of the former communist countries in central and Eastern Europe.