Why Teach Entrepreneurial Skills to Kids?

I used to think that if I got good enough grades and worked hard enough, I could get a competitive job where I didn’t have to worry about the boring business side of things. I could minimize risk and focus on what I loved. “The man” doing the dirty work was fine with me. But as much as I loved the arts, being an artist meant selling myself which seemed like the least desirable type of business. 

However, it never occurred to me that the job I actually wanted could only exist if I created it. The smartest kid from my high school had the same experience. He went to MIT and planned to work for an engineering company. But when the project he wanted to work on at Tesla got cut, he left and started his own company so he could do the work he wanted to do.

Gaining the skills and mindset of an entrepreneur, developing entrepreneurial skills, is valuable for almost everyone, not just entrepreneurs. Many “normal” jobs require it. 46% of doctors run their own business and 75% of lawyers are in private practice. Ironically, of my 6 siblings, the only one that doesn’t have their own company is the one that went to business school. Makers and creators of all kinds—designers, writers, freelancers, contractors, even farmers, will likely benefit from learning entrepreneur skills whether they work for themselves or a company because, within companies, innovation is necessary in order to stay competitive!

We’ve already talked about how fast the working world is changing. Driven by technology as well as social demands, what jobs will be available and what the workplace will even look like is unpredictable at best. This is what many analysts point to when talking about the causes of the “The Great Resignation” that is happening right now (2021). As STEM fields grow, as new technologies emerge, as economies grow and shift, career opportunities will only continue to change at a rapid pace.

But what benefits does learning entrepreneurial skills and thinking give children now? According to VentureLab, a company that provides learning resources for teaching entrepreneurship, when students “are exposed to entrepreneurial thinking, a profound change takes place. They become aware of the opportunities around them. They think more critically and creatively. The result: they become more confident and experimental in their ability to problem-solve and tackle challenges.” Entrepreneurial thinking requires students to take ownership of their own learning. When that happens, magical things occur. Their vision increases, their willingness to work hard on a problem expands, and their creativity has a purpose. Entrepreneurial thinking makes more responsible learners, which makes self-motivated learners. Self-motivated learners can do anything.

Entrepreneurial skills are those of the innovator. VentureLab and Link Education League share many of the same values, skills, and mindsets.

We have so much in common because “entrepreneurship isn’t just about starting companies; it is a skillset and a way of thinking. It involves identifying needs, brainstorming creative solutions, innovating, and taking calculated risks. In short, it’s about having a vision and making it a reality” (VentureLab). Every day we do some degree of each of these through projects in our classrooms – when materials run out or fail, or students run out of time, they come up with creative solutions. In choosing projects that are new and challenging that they will present at Celebration, students take risks (like life-sized safari animals out of paper-mache, a model castle made of foam, a set of St. Basil’s Cathedral for a local ballet, writing and performing their own plays, etc.) But during our Holiday Market, which is our Entrepreneurial Celebration, we get to really dive deep into developing this skill set in the real world with immediate outcomes. 

Learn more about the programs we offer by visiting https://linkeducationleague.com/2022-23-program-overview/.