Teach entrepreneurship to future proof workforce

A new report from The Entrepreneurs Network argues that students as young as eleven should have the opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship in order to develop the skills to succeed in a fast-changing labour market.

Half of young people in the UK (aged 14-25) do not know a family member or friend who is a business owner and the majority cannot name an entrepreneur who inspires them.

Evidence from programmes in Australia, Denmark, and the Netherland finds that short, low-cost entrepreneurship education programmes targeted at students as young as eleven can raise awareness of entrepreneurship as a career and develop entrepreneurial attitudes.

Entrepreneurship education can complement traditional subjects such as Maths and English. High school students who took part in NFTE, a US entrepreneurship programme, doubled their interest in applying to university. While a Danish programme that focused on developing entrepreneurial traits made students more likely to report that they ‘enjoy being in school’ and are less likely to say ‘I get bored a lot in school’.

Teaching young people the basics of starting and running businesses will not only lead to more businesses starting up, but also will raise the overall quality of businesses. One large study found entrepreneurs who had taken part in entrepreneurship education programmes when they were young earned on average 10.2% more from entrepreneurship 11 to 12 years after graduation compared to entrepreneurs who had not taken part.

Despite the strong case for teaching young people entrepreneurship, many young people across the world lack access to entrepreneurship education programmes in secondary school.

Educating Future Founders is calling on national leaders to assign clear responsibility within education and business departments for promoting entrepreneurship education at secondary level.