Schools failing in entrepreneurship education, says report

Sixty-four leading entrepreneurs and educators have signed a letter arguing that schools are failing students by not adequately equipping them with the skills that they need for the future.

The letter coincides with the launch of a report by the APPG for Entrepreneurship which argues that despite the fact that students and employers alike prize entrepreneurial skills, schools are often stuck in the past and they fail to give their students the tools they need for a rapidly changing economy.

Entrepreneurship Education in English schools is currently relegated to after-school programmes and lunch times and left out of curriculums. In this way England lags behind the other four nations, especially Wales which has had a specific “Youth Enterprise Strategy” since 2004, the goal of which is to “develop and nurture self-sufficient, entrepreneurial young people in all communities across Wales, who will contribute positively to economic and social success.”

Report author Finn Conway says “Currently entrepreneurship education, when it is taught at all, suffers from being siloed. Children are left being taught the basic concepts in maths and science but are not taught how to engage with these topics with an entrepreneurial mindset. The curriculum should be brought to life through the lens of entrepreneurship from an early age”

Alison Cork, Founder of Make it Your Business says “As young people in particular re-evaluate how they want to work and live, it is imperative that we normalise a culture of entrepreneurship within our education system".”

The report and letter call for, among other things, entrepreneurship education to be properly embedded into curriculums, funding for mentors for young people, and for entrepreneurship education to be assigned as a core duty for the Education Secretary.