By: April Carson
From a young age, people are brought up with the belief that going to school is crucial. For those who do not go on to university it is believed they will not reach their full potential in life and be disadvantaged as a result.
However, entrepreneurship can provide opportunities for those who want an alternative route into post-secondary education, as well as other jobs that require a different type of education. Entrepreneurship can also provide a comfortable life to those who wish to work for themselves instead of working in the corporate world.
The following highlights how entrepreneurship provides opportunities, and moreover, why it is important for parents and teachers to encourage entrepreneurship within the educational system.
The benefits of encouraging young children to become entrepreneurs:
At the early stages of life, children are ready to explore new things and can be encouraged to become entrepreneurs by simply pointing out opportunities in their environment.
Young children have the potential and mindset to be great future entrepreneurs. When given encouragement, young children will grow up believing in their success as an entrepreneur. Young children are yet undifferentiated from the other options they have for occupation or career choice, so entrepreneurship can potentially provide them with more opportunities than other occupations.
If parents and teachers give positive encouragement to entrepreneurship, the children will be more likely to pursue and develop an interest in entrepreneurship and thus create a society that is more entrepreneurial.
Young children should not only be encouraged to start their own businesses, but also to improve or fix older ones. Young children are always looking for new opportunities and entrepreneurship provides them with the perfect chance to exploit these opportunities. Given encouragement, young children will feel confident in their abilities as future entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurial skills are extremely important in the current economic context. Young people have a greater need to take risks because they do not have families to provide for or a family business to take over when they graduate.
What is "entrepreneurship"?
Entrepreneurship can be defined as creating new business opportunities and opening up new markets. When we encourage young children to become entrepreneurs we are not asking them to start businesses, rather we are starting to develop the "habits of mind" that will lead them to be successful entrepreneurs in the future.
For example, early childhood teachers can encourage children to sell their products or services by enhancing the clients' needs for what their goods or services provide while encouraging relational skills such as group work, marketing to peers and the ability to negotiate.
With the demands of an increasingly competitive global economy, entrepreneurship has become a necessity to society. Young people are naturally entrepreneurs because they possess skills that enable them to be successful in entrepreneurial activities. By teaching children about entrepreneurship promoting social responsibility and developing their talents early on will help reduce the number of high school dropouts, increase student performance in mathematics and science and improve overall economic productivity.
CHECK OUT BILLY'S AWESOME PODAST - CONSCIOUS CONVOS WITH KESS KROSS
ORDER YOUR BOOK NOW!
