Why our children should get entrepreneurial training…

I was in the playground with my pre-schooler merrily running around when I heard a friendly voice…”Excuse me, your daughter looks like she loves running around. I am starting sports classes at my house – would you like to send her?” This was coming from a maybe 10 year old girl. I had seen her around in our building campus but was now seeing her in a new light altogether.

Flashback 10 years to my economics class and to Schumpeter.” the doing of new things or the doing of things that are already being done in a new way” contribute to entrepreneurial spirits and development of an economy. Hmmm…so if entrepreneurs contribute SO much to an economy, shouldn’t entrepreneurship be a part of our curriculum and a career option given to kids like doctors, lawyers etc ? But wait….can entrepreneurship really be taught? Turns out it can…Hynes(1996) summarizes various studies suggesting entrepreneurial role can be influenced by education and training. And Cameron Herald here makes a very strong case on TedX about “raising children to be entrepreneurs”. In fact research shows that pupils and students who are given “entrepreneurial education” are 3 to 6 times more likely to start a business at some point later in life than others.Such education would teach how to turn “ideas into action” and focus on specific attributes like innovation, thinking creative and out of the box, problem-solving. Entrepreneurial training is multidisciplinary in nature and involve MY favourite FEM ( Finance Eco Maths) topics. In fact guess what even people who are not entrepreneurs would find these traits useful, so its a win-win training for all!

“Excuse me, are you interested?”…the voice bought me back to reality….I gave my sweetest smile ever and said “Yes, tell me more”.