Something is changing in entrepreneurship education

“Enterprise for All is about motivating young people to learn and excel in their education and to see the relevance of their studies. Enterprise is more than the creation of entrepreneurs, it is about a can-do and positive attitude and equipping people with the confidence to develop a career and vocational interests. Enterprise therefore supports the development of a wide range of work and professional skills and capabilities, including resilience, risk taking, creativity and innovation, as well as a self-belief that starting a business is a viable career choice and one of the most exciting and challenging things a person will ever do”.

These are the opening sentences of the document “Entrprise for All” of Lord David Young, the “czar of advisers” to the UK Prime Minister on small business and enterprise. It is the third report after “Make Business Your Business” published in May 2012 and “Growing Your Business” in May 2013.

Carla and I think that there isn't a better way that the one used by Lord Young to clearly describe what is at the moment one of the most important challenge in education and culture: to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

Lord David Young

It is a huge challenge, we know. Because it involves not just individuals but the entire society, how this attitude is perceived, what are the main role models, the idea of success (so often confused with fame). For decades, in Europe entrepreneurs have been seen as devils: they were taken for exploiters, leaded only by greed and personal interests, without any benefit for the community. Yes, they are not all angels, we know. As in every aspect of life, there are the goods and the bads. We have to choose the good examples, non the bad ones. We would like to talk (and to spread) about the positive attitudes of entrepreneurial mindset.

Luckily, we are not alone in this attempt. There are a lot of people that enjoy to share what it means; for example Martin Zwilling with this article on some key mentality attributes he believes an entrepreneur should have: Do you have the mentality to be an entrepreneur?. Few days ago, on the Wall Street Journal, Ruth Simon wrote a very interesting article about what is changing in entrepreneurship education in the U.S. (here you find it). Dawn Bowlus, director of the University of Iowa's Jacobson Institute for Youth Entrepreneurship, declared to the journalist: “We are trying to influence the conversation so that entrepreneurship is not all about writing a business plan”.

As you see, something is moving. And we are proud to be part of this movement!