Three Important Reasons Why Youths Should Get Entrepreneurship Education

Teaching entrepreneurship to young and older individuals as well helps them improve their ability to think out of the box, and handle situations more confidently

Famous Dutch entrepreneur, Hennie van der Most, stated “you cannot learn entrepreneurship, 100% you cannot. It’s either in your blood or not”. He is not alone in his personal belief. Many other seasoned entrepreneurs, among them Steve Jobs, believe that entrepreneurs are born, not made. But is this truly the case?

The likes of Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who founded Instagram, knew each other through an entrepreneurship work/study program that provided classes, mentoring and other immersive experiences, Other beneficiaries of the program like Avid Larizadeh of Bottica and Google Venture, and Bobby Lee of BTCC also agree to having acquired a lot of skills that set them apart in their entrepreneurial endeavors.

With this in mind, it is safe to say that entrepreneurship can be learned, and that learning it, despite not being a prerequisite for business success, has immense benefits. So, why haven’t we set in place proper systems to teach, especially kids, what entrepreneurship offers? Do we even understand the benefits that entrepreneurship learning can have for the younger generation? Let’s see.

What Does The World Lose From Lack Of Entrepreneurship Education?

Approximately half of the small enterprises in the United States and the European Union closed their doors within five years of their first opening. According to Fundera, in the United States, these small businesses have the capacity to affect 99.9% of all the country’s firms, 48% of private sector employees. 41.2% of private sector payroll, and 33.6% of known export value. Given that these are figures from a single country, it can only be assumed that the failure for small and medium-sized businesses would have dire effects on a global scale.

The U.S Bank in 2020 cited that some of the reasons behind such huge failures of entrepreneurial activities were:

1. Poor planning: 78% — Lack of well-developed business plan, including insufficient research on the business before starting it
2. Lack accurate business information:73% — Are overly optimistic about achievable sales, money required, and about what needs to be done to be successful.
3. Poor financial management: 82% — Poor cash flow management skills/poor understanding of cash flow.

What many do not realise is that these are all areas that are covered under entrepreneurship education, and the fact that many current and to-be entrepreneurs have not mastered them could spell doom for the future of entrepreneurship and that of world economies. But, if we begin to put measures in place that ensure everyone, and especially the young generation, has access to entrepreneurship education, then we might stand a chance at improving lives and resuscitating or even growing the global economy.

What Are The Benefits Of Entrepreneurship Education?

The Financial rewards that stem from a deeper understanding of business, the possession of entrepreneurship knowledge and entrepreneurship skills are far too vast to be ignored. However, they are not the only benefits that arise from entrepreneurship education.

In fact, teaching entrepreneurship to young and older individuals as well helps them improve their ability to think out of the box, and handle situations more confidently, Besides this, entrepreneurship learning and training has other benefits such as:

- The Society Benefits From Value Addition

Through entrepreneurship education, individuals get to learn that entrepreneurship goes beyond just starting a business. Entrepreneurship is about creating value and improving the lives or circumstances that people around find themselves in. Entrepreneurship training and learning helps people understand this important, but often forgotten aspect of being an entrepreneur. In fact a special term has been coined for this is, social entrepreneurship.

- Increased resilience and determination

Entrepreneurship is not a smooth ride. It requires one to have a lot of grit to help them weather the challenges and struggles that come along with starting and running a business. As such, entrepreneurship education is great for teaching resilience. While not everyone will become an entrepreneur, everyone needs some extra strength to deal with life situations in general.

- Changing Negative Societal Perceptions

Every society battles one or more forms of wrongful thinking. For instance, many societies are still practicing various forms of social exclusion, or still propagating negative stereotypes about certain members of the community. Through entrepreneurship education, people can be made to see the negative impact of such actions and perceptions. By doing so, some of these thought patterns can be reshaped or completely changed and the world could become a better place.

Why Edventures Aims To Spread Entrepreneurship Education To Everyone

Besides the fact that we believe that everyone deserves a shot at becoming an entrepreneur, we want to spread entrepreneurship education as far as we can because we believe that entrepreneurship is among the very few approaches left for creating a better life for people all over the globe.

Through entrepreneurship learning, people and especially the youth have a chance to: grow their ideas, start business that will generate income for them and for others, gain transformative thinking, be knowledgeable and become more accommodative and appreciative of others.

It may seem like a longshot, but we really believe in the power that entrepreneurship education wields to transform individual lives, societies and the world at large. We would like for you to share this power. Join our journey and sign up to our waitlist 📝 today and be part of the people who wish to change the world, one entrepreneurship lesson at a time.