I have written frequently about the need to start entrepreneurship education at a much earlier age, perhaps as early as middle school. (Previous posts are here and here.) Two stories support this trend:
- A prep school in Miami recently received an anonymous grant of $7 million to establish an entrepreneurship program
- The Academy for Software Engineering, a new NYC public high school, is recruiting its first class. More detail in this post from AVC.
The related articles below talk about programs supported by the Kauffman Foundation and the University of Chicago. The quality of the people experimenting in this space and the exceptionally insightful early stage programs suggest that this trend should quickly become mainstream.
Early takeaways from these programs:
- Focus on individual empowerment and student-centric learning approaches
- Make entrepreneurship an integral part of the curriculum or its own track
- Make real world mentors an important part of the program (VC and PE folks are probably better than small business owners or corporate types)
- Provide access to startup capital
If anyone needs an advisor on such a program or an easy to read book on developing a new business concept, you might look here.
Image credit: business.wsu.edu
