An entrepreneur is always an innovator: he must think creatively, be able to take responsibility, take risks, and, of course, inspire his team and those around him. And in order to instill these qualities in children, it is necessary to develop entrepreneurial thinking in them – it will come in handy in any profession, not just business. About how to form qualities in a child that will be useful to him in the future, we will tell in this article.
Teamwork is a vital skill for a child
All parents have in common the desire to help their children become happy, successful and harmonious individuals. One of the moments in which children tend to seek advice from their parents is the choice of profession. But the world is dynamic and changing rapidly. Therefore, it is impossible to say with certainty which professions will be in demand in five or ten years.
Today’s children need to be prepared for lifelong learning and, perhaps, to change their professional profile more than once, change jobs just to get to work and earn some money. We are moving to a competency-based educational paradigm in which practice is inseparable from theory, and participants in the educational process learn from each other and solve specific applied problems in the process of learning.
Despite the uncertainty about future professions, it is possible to identify the basic competencies and skills that schoolchildren and students need to develop. They do not depend on the chosen professional path. Here are just some of them: communication skills, the ability to listen, to set goals and formulate their point of view, public speaking, teamwork, the ability to take responsibility.
Activities in the field of entrepreneurship that allow students to develop skills and competencies that will be useful to them in their professional lives. An entrepreneur is always an innovator. He or she must think creatively, be able to take responsibility, take risks, and, of course, inspire the team and those around him or her. It is and necessary to develop entrepreneurial thinking in schoolchildren through project activities.
Learning Through Entrepreneurship
In today’s business schools, students typically undertake two types of business-related projects in the course of their studies:
- Team members independently generate ideas, form a value proposition, research the market, develop a business model, develop a marketing strategy, calculate a financial model, and bring the project to prototype or test sales
- Participants work on a case provided by a specific company. Students understand that there is a specific goal to be achieved by solving problems in a limited period of time. This is definitely an invaluable experience for students.
Project activities with specific business cases have a number of significant advantages:
- Learning as close to real life as possible. Often, learning at school and even at university is only theory, which is difficult to put into practice. Students do not understand why they perform these or those tasks, what is the result of the project, how the acquired knowledge will be applied in life. Therefore, they lose interest in the learning process. But if the project is based on a real case, students are enthusiastic and immersed in the relevant subject area. Consequently, they then study more open positions for part-time and full-time remote work.
- Motivation. This is a key factor in achieving goals. As interest in learning is lost, motivation decreases as well. It is very difficult for children (and adults as well) to do something well without motivation. Unfortunately, over time it becomes a habit. In order for a student to be motivated to learn and to achieve a quality result, he/she should receive feedback from experts and teachers in the process of project implementation, check hypotheses, test the prototype, i.e. conduct customer development. This approach to learning develops curiosity and love of learning.
- Goal setting. Goal setting is the most important skill of the 21st century. Every action begins with goal setting. In this sense, project activities allow you to clearly define the goal and objectives to be achieved. This means that the goal must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and limited in time. This approach eliminates abstract and not very specific goals.
- Teamwork. The success of a project largely depends on how well coordinated the teamwork of the participants is. The ability to work in a team is a vital skill for any field. It is not enough to be a professional in your subject area, you need to be able to correctly allocate roles within the team and interact with other project participants. In some business schools, the leader’s role in a project changes regularly, so each participant can try his or her role as both a performer and a leader.
- The ability to plan and allocate resources effectively. Even though we live in an age of global opportunities, our resources are limited, especially time. In this sense it is important to teach children how to allocate their time rationally, how to prioritize.
- Feedback and work on mistakes. Since the project has specific business customers, students know that they must present and defend their project by a certain deadline. During the project defense, children answer questions from experts and the jury, can analyze the effectiveness of their actions, and receive recommendations on how to improve their project.
- Responsibility. Project activities in the team promote a sense of responsibility for the final result and the personal contribution of each participant in the project.
- Awareness. As a result of the projects, children develop awareness in making decisions. It will help them in making decisions both in relation to some current situations and in the future – when choosing a future profession, college, or career track.
- Early career guidance. Entrepreneurship project activities allow students to answer not only the questions “Do I want and can I be an entrepreneur?” or “Am I interested in further education in business?”. Learning through project-based learning helps them understand what field of endeavor they want to develop in the future.
Summing up
The development of entrepreneurial thinking will allow the child to find their vocation, to approach any tasks that arise creatively, and to choose a profession consciously. And when a person loves his profession and is engaged in what he loves, he is sure to achieve success.