164 leading entrepreneurs and educators call for a radical policy shift on entrepreneurship education in England
164 leading entrepreneurs and educators have signed a letter arguing that schools are failing students by not adequately equipping them with the skills that they need for the future.
“Young people are entering a world of work that is changing at breakneck speed. Many of the jobs that school leavers expect to do today didn’t exist 15 years ago and the same is likely to be true in the next 15 years.”
The letter coincides with the launch of a report by the APPG for Entrepreneurship which argues that despite the fact that students and employers alike prize entrepreneurial skills, schools are often stuck in the past and they fail to give their students the tools they need for a rapidly changing economy.
Entrepreneurship Education in English schools is currently relegated to after-school programmes and lunch times and left out of curriculums. In this way England lags behind the other four nations, especially Wales which has had a specific “Youth Enterprise Strategy” since 2004, the goal of which is to “develop and nurture self-sufficient, entrepreneurial young people in all communities across Wales, who will contribute positively to economic and social success.”
Report author Finn Conway says
“Currently entrepreneurship education, when it is taught at all, suffers from being siloed. Children are left being taught the basic concepts in maths and science but are not taught how to engage with these topics with an entrepreneurial mindset. The curriculum should be brought to life through the lens of entrepreneurship from an early age”
Alison Cork, Founder of Make it Your Business says
“As young people in particular re-evaluate how they want to work and live, it is imperative that we normalise a culture of entrepreneurship within our education system”.”
The report and letter call for, among other things, entrepreneurship education to be properly embedded into curriculums, funding for mentors for young people, and for entrepreneurship education to be assigned as a core duty for the Education Secretary.
Hilary Rowland, Co-Founder of Boom Cycle says
“Making exposure to entrepreneurship a priority for young people is a no-brainer. There are so many lessons to be learned even if they don’t go on to open their own business.”
Sam Smith, group CEO of finnCap says:
“I have worked with programmes that teach entrepreneurship in schools. I’ve seen first hand how these programmes open up opportunities for young people from backgrounds that are usually excluded from entrepreneurship. Embedding education into the mainstream education system will create a more equitable future for the UK’s young people.”
Louise Hill, Co-Founder and COO of GoHenry says
“It’s so incredibly important to support the next generation of entrepreneurs. GoHenry fully supports this.”
Open letter calling for a major shift in how enterprise is taught in schools
Sir,
Young people are entering a world of work that is changing at breakneck speed. Many of the jobs that school leavers expect to do today didn’t exist 15 years ago and the same is likely to be true in the next 15 years. It’s not just job titles that are changing. Young people increasingly expect to and, most importantly, want to start businesses and work for themselves. This change represents a massive opportunity to lift Britain’s sluggish rates of economic growth, but it is not being seized.
Despite the valiant efforts of teachers, charities, and social enterprises, too many young people are leaving school without the entrepreneurial skills necessary to succeed in the 2020s. We, as entrepreneurs, educators, and organisations working with young people believe this must change.
A new report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship calls for a radical shift in policy. The Government should publish a Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy, building on existing work from organisations and experience from across the world.
Entrepreneurship needs to be a part of every student’s education and integrated into existing subjects such as Maths, English, and Design. This would bring subjects to life and make each subject’s relevance clear to less engaged students.
Funding should be provided to recruit a network of representative entrepreneurs to act as role models and mentors to young people. Exposing more students to entrepreneurs within their communities from similar backgrounds would help us fix entrepreneurship’s diversity problem.
At the moment, responsibility for entrepreneurship education isn’t clearly assigned to a specific Secretary of State. This must change – to drive lasting change, we need accountability and ownership. The buck must stop with the Education Secretary.
By making entrepreneurship education a priority we can develop a workforce that is more productive, innovative, and adaptable to whatever the future economy might hold.
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