Let’s teach entrepreneurship from primary school and beyond
What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? Except running a business independently, being an entrepreneur requires a set of skills that can optimise personal performance and development. For instance, having a growth mindset instead of a fixed one is crucial since it can overcome the mental barriers people create for themselves. Opportunities for growth are everywhere. Yet, we have to train our minds to see them. Cultivating this mindset from a young age can help encourage great innovators and wealth creators, who have a crucial role in shaping a better future for the common good.
Imagination, Creativity & Innovation
As more young people walk off the beaten path and create their own business rather than beginning a typical 9-to-5 role, the education system needs to do a better job of teaching students the skills to become entrepreneurs. Alongside maths and language skills, students need support to enhance interpersonal and softer skills such as imagination, creativity, and innovative thinking from the earliest stages of schooling.
Imagination
Imagination is a must for entrepreneurs because it allows them to envision things that don’t yet exist. In addition, imagination is a crucial skill needed for various jobs while making life more fun overall. Reading, art, film, and theatre are just a few examples of activities that can inspire young children to expand the boundaries of their imagination.
Creativity
Creativity can be sparked and stimulated just like imagination. However, creativity is more about bringing your vision to life. Students need the space and tools to turn their creative thoughts into reality. Students of all ages can learn how to incorporate their creativity into daily tasks.
Innovation
Innovation is the process whereby creative ideas are transformed into practical and solid businesses. Having projects for students to do where they follow the innovation process from the idea stage to contacting references and creating a presentation can teach them to turn their imaginative ideas into real-world solutions.
The school system often avoids implementing these skills and teaching a growth mindset because it’s not as easy to grade. For example, there may be no surefire way to see if their business idea will succeed or fail over time when designing a project. But sometimes, the most valuable lessons are those that can’t be graded.
To illustrate, here are a few practical examples of ways to teach students of all levels the skill set needed for becoming an entrepreneur.
Primary School
Children in primary school can take on small projects similar to those of a science or cultural fair. They can come up with their business propositions, and even if it’s starting an ice cream stall or a clothing store for dolls, it’s teaching them a taste of the skills they would need if they choose to become an entrepreneur. This exercise will also give them a taste of what life might be like as a future CEO, and maybe they’ll be saying their new dream job is to run a business one day.
Secondary School
Students can take a class to choose their project to complete by the end of the term in secondary school. This can help them explore their interests while having a chance to improve them. Through these projects, students can be assigned to demonstrate their company ideas, contact people in a similar field and organise a presentation or event. These projects can be completed individually or as group projects, where students will learn to collaborate and form strong teams.
University
Once students reach university level, they are able to dedicate more time and competency towards bigger projects. These projects could be similar to final year assignments where students pick a problem in their field to solve, or it could be a group project in one of their classes.
A group project can help them to learn that no one can succeed in running a business entirely on their own, as well as impart lessons on teamwork and leadership. These projects can take place in any field, from a sociology class conducting a project on how to best assist prisoners in readjusting to everyday life when they are released to a communications class working together to start a platform to teach students, facility, and the public, about diversity.