With the continued disruption and rapid change being experienced in the employment landscape globally, there’s never been a better time to teach the innovative and entrepreneurial skills needed for students to succeed.
We couldn’t write an article like this without mentioning the elephant in the room. The impact of COVID19 has already seen global businesses shifting their business models to more innovative and agile ways of working. Twitter have announced that all employees can work from home indefinitely. Closer to home, Melbourne-based business The Sun Bookshop are thinking outside the box and have taken to delivering books by bike to customers isolating at home. The business landscape is always changing, and now more than ever, which is why we truly believe that there’s never been a better time to equip young people for the jobs of the future.
Here are four more reasons why teaching entrepreneurship is of huge value to you and your students:
1. Prepares Students For The Future
According to the Closing The Skills Gap report in 2019, 55% of employers think there is a skills gap in the next generation. Why is this? The employment landscape looks very different now to how it looked for previous generations. According to the Wade Institute “the next generation will likely navigate 17 jobs across five different careers” and with many different jobs comes many different skillsets.
Teaching entrepreneurship teaches young people that there are many different paths for employment by preparing them with the essential life and employability skills needed to give them confidence to enter the workplace AND shows them more about opportunities they can build for themselves.
2. Builds Resilience
Entrepreneurial education is a great opportunity for students to learn that it’s okay to take risks, and not to fear failure. Whilst failure often means final – not getting the grade you need or having to re-take a test – teaching students that failure is not only an option, but a very real possibility that brings opportunity, can only help with building their resilience.
The innovation process is very intuitive – you have an idea, you test it out, if it works you go forward, if it doesn’t you try something new. “We see students over the years realise that this also relates to normal life, so their ability to bounce back from setbacks builds over time” says Jenny Perks, Upstart’s Co-Founder and Director.
3. It’s Versatile
The inclusion of the general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum has presented new opportunities for embedding the transferable skills necessary – creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration and communication – for successful entrepreneurship and employment.
Teaching entrepreneurship and innovation comes with a hands-on and practical approach, meaning it can facilitate the learning of these capabilities and link in with a variety of curriculum subjects. The students and teachers we’ve previously worked with have interests spanning STEM, Business Studies, Food Technology and Humanities.
4. Encourages Students To Think About The World Around Them
Entrepreneurs want to make a difference. They are often striving for change by identifying problems and finding new and innovative ways to solve them. By teaching entrepreneurship, students are encouraged to look at the world around them in a different way than they may have before. These students will enter the world with the education needed to not only identify problems that need solving, but also with the ability to think creatively about the solutions necessary to make their world a better place.
Let Upstart use our tried-and-tested methods to help your students be ready for success and prepared to enter the ever-changing career landscape.
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The Upstart Challenge is Upstart’s flagship entrepreneurial program for secondary school students. The program encourages and inspires all students to have a go, discover their inner changemaker and win some cash!
Registrations for the 2020 Ballarat Upstart Challenge are open until 19th June. Find out more here.
