Can French-speaking schools give pupils more of Vlaanderen’s entrepreneurial spirit?

Vlaanderen has spent years building an ecosystem around “ondernemend onderwijs”, or entrepreneurial education. The Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, VLAIO, supports partners including Vlajo, UNIZO Onderwijs & Ondernemen and MyMachine Vlaanderen. Their activities range from creative projects for younger children to mini-companies and student-enterprise schemes in secondary and higher education.

VLAIO says more than 87,000 pupils and students take part in its network partners’ activities annually. Its latest figures, based on RSVZ and other administrative data, also show that 27,346 young people had used Belgium’s student-self-employed status since its introduction in 2017. By 2025, 22% were working as self-employed people in their main occupation, 14% in a secondary occupation and 25% remained student entrepreneurs. Those figures describe participants in a voluntary legal status, not proof that one school system produces better entrepreneurs, but they illustrate the infrastructure surrounding young enterprise in Vlaanderen.

The underlying idea is broader than teaching children to register a company. VLAIO defines entrepreneurial learning around initiative, recognising opportunities and creating value. Its design guidance favours authentic tasks with several possible solutions. A class might develop a product, plan a neighbourhood activity or pitch a solution to wasted food; bookkeeping and sales can enter later, when age and course level make them meaningful.

That breadth is important. If “children’s taste for entrepreneurship” is reduced to commercial vocabulary or admiration for start-ups, it will invite understandable resistance. If it means agency, teamwork, basic economic understanding and the confidence to turn an idea into a tested project, it fits more naturally alongside civic, technical and creative education.

Belgium’s linguistic structure makes the answer local. The federal government portal Belgium.be confirms that education belongs to the Flemish, French and German-speaking Communities. In Brussels

Place

Brussels

City where families may encounter Dutch- and French-language schools governed through separate education systems.

Why it matters

City where families may encounter Dutch- and French-language schools governed through separate education systems.

About

The City of Brussels is the largest municipality and historical centre of the Brussels-Capital Region, as well as the capital of the French Community of Belgium, the Flemish Region, and Belgium. The City of Brussels is also the administrative centre of the European Union, as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions in its European Quarter.

Official site ↗View source record ↗

At an open day or meeting with the direction/directie, parents can ask four concrete questions: Does every pupil complete a team project with a real audience? Are financial literacy and budgeting taught, and in which year? Does the school work with local non-profits, tradespeople, companies or programmes such as Vlajo? How are creativity, cooperation and reflection assessed when a project does not succeed?

Language deserves a separate question. Belgium.be notes that French-speaking primary schools must offer a second language from the third year, with Dutch, English or German among the possibilities, while French becomes compulsory from the fifth primary year in Vlaanderen and earlier in designated municipalities with language facilities. Families in Etterbeek, Schaerbeek/Schaarbeek or the City of Brussels should ask whether project work crosses the language boundary in practice—for example through a Dutch-speaking partner—or merely appears in a language lesson. Parents outside Brussels should consult the school finder for the relevant Community rather than assuming that the commune/gemeente determines the school network.

Grenier’s proposal arrives during a strained period for French-speaking education. De Standaard and BRUZZ have reported continuing opposition from teachers and unions to savings and workload measures as the 2026-27 school year begins. That context may limit schools’ capacity to introduce labour-intensive projects, which require preparation, external partners and staff time. It also explains why teachers may resist a new ambition unless it comes with training and resources.

Entrepreneurship organisations and employers will see a different urgency: pupils need experience of initiative, collaboration and economic decision-making before entering a changing labour market. Teacher constituencies and education researchers, however, can reasonably insist that entrepreneurial projects must not displace literacy, mathematics or equal access, or turn classrooms into marketing channels. The real policy test is therefore not whether French-speaking education can copy Vlaanderen, but whether it can adapt useful methods without importing slogans or widening differences between well-connected schools and those serving more disadvantaged communities.

What happens next remains open. Grenier has placed entrepreneurial learning on WBE’s agenda, but WBE still needs to specify whether that means pilot schools, teacher training, partnerships or formal curriculum proposals. Parents can already compare schools on observable practice. The more consequential evidence will come later: which pupils gain access, whether teachers receive time and support, and whether initiative becomes an everyday learning method rather than an occasional mini-company week.