I love passing on the entrepreneurial bug to young people before they turn 18.
Why? Because learning to be an entrepreneur, learning what entrepreneurship is and hearing entrepreneurs’ stories can change their outlook on life, give them new skills and improve their employability.
The Junior Achievement foundation, which originated in the United States, has been taking entrepreneurship into schools and universities for more than 100 years, and its experience produces figures that will convince you. It is present on 6 continents, in 122 countries, and reaches more than 10 million students.
What are the benefits of learning entrepreneurship in primary school, secondary school, sixth form / vocational training and university?
I’ll leave you their infographic, but here is a summary of some key points:
- Creativity, looking for solutions to real problems in their surroundings
- Making decisions and collaborating and cooperating with their classmates
- Learning to manage resources, goods, services, time…
- Turning an idea into a product and designing a business plan
- Knowledge of finance and management
- Developing skills such as problem solving, organisation, leadership, perseverance
- Discovering business areas they can apply in the future: marketing, finance, communication, economics
- Communication, public speaking, negotiation and digital skills, and much more
And now let me tell you about my experience at a state secondary school in Madrid, where I was invited by a former colleague from SEK El Castillo, the great Jorge Moreno Sánchez, now Head of the Computer Science Department at IES El Álamo.
Jorge was already promoting entrepreneurship when he worked at SEK, so when I arrived in 2015 with SEK Lab we hit it off straight away. I was amazed by everything he was getting going at his school. They even set up a programming club led by their students.
Last November, at SIMO Educación, he set me a challenge: to bring the “entrepreneurial bug” to the school where he currently works. As it is something I am passionate about, I couldn’t say no, and I got down to work.
I designed 3 activities to be run over 3 days for this first contact with 1st- and 2nd-year students on intermediate vocational training courses in Care for Dependent People and in Microcomputer Systems and Networks.
So the challenge was to give them content and experiences linked to health and technology.
Day 1: Yours truly tells them what entrepreneurship is. Types of entrepreneurs, without forgetting intrapreneurs and social entrepreneurs. I tell them my personal story and then the stories of benchmark entrepreneurs, from Steve Jobs to Amancio Ortega, Óscar Pierre of Glovo or Antonio Espinosa of AUARA. We finish with an entrepreneurial skills test.
Day 2: A visit to the entrepreneurial ecosystem. What better place than garAJE, the headquarters of the Asociación de Jóvenes Empresarios (Young Entrepreneurs’ Association)? I was lucky enough to launch this space in 2011. On this day we invited 2 technology and health startups to share their experience first-hand, and we wrapped up with some tips for coming up with an idea with real impact to present on the last day.
The guest startups were Depencare and Graddus, who told their story without mincing their words. Look how cool the post by Guillermo, COO of Depencare, is, telling about his experience.
Day 3: Entrepreneurial experiences and pitches. So as not to lower the bar, two more powerful stories from entrepreneurs almost as young as the students, aged 22–24, to get them even more hooked.
The founders of The Trip: Javier García Pasamontes, a former student of the entrepreneurship degree at UCJC, and Diego Verhamme, CEO of Diveinside, a former SEK student and winner of SEK Lab 10.
After so much inspiration some of the students got really fired up, and we finished with several pitches, listening to their entrepreneurial projects in sectors such as fashion, health, education and the elderly. Very good public speaking, presentations made in Canva… REALLY, REALLY COOL!
It was worth it, because at the end of every session lots of students came up to ask questions, to get to know the entrepreneurs better, to ask for advice, to ask for work placements…
We hope to hear soon of some success stories from entrepreneurs born at this school, which has taken the plunge and brought the “entrepreneurial bug to its students”.
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