As a guest writer for the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation in South Africa, ELI Founder Gary Schoeniger shares how a new framework will be required in order to move entrepreneurship from the perimeter to the core of the way education operates.
Entrepreneurship has never been more important than it is today. Academic, business, government, and nonprofit leaders around the world have begun to recognize entrepreneurship education as essential for creating the societies of the future. Among the most vocal is the World Economic Forum (WEF). In one report, they cite the need to embed entrepreneurship at all levels of education, emphasizing that “It is not enough to add entrepreneurship on the perimeter – it needs to be at the core of the way education operates.” WEF further states that it is “a process that will require new teaching methods, new frameworks, and new models.”
And yet, while entrepreneurship education initiatives have exploded within colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations worldwide, our understanding of entrepreneurship remains limited and narrowly defined. As a result, much of these efforts have yielded limited results. In fact, a recent report published by the Kauffman Foundation declared that “[t]he traditional methods of encouraging entrepreneurship are not producing desired results and should be replaced with methods that are more likely to gain traction.”
If we are to infuse entrepreneurship into the core of our systems of education, we need to focus on the five key concepts – the five E’s of entrepreneurship education: 1. Expand the definition 2. Explore the mindset 3. Engage our students 4. Embrace entrepreneurial learning 5. Examine ourselves.
Read the full blog at elimindset.com