Creating the next generation of entrepreneurs

Traditional education may have had its place, but in the economy of the future, a different skill set will be required. Many of today’s most successful entrepreneurs learned what they needed to know outside the traditional schooling system, and as technology continues to change every aspect of our lives, educators are catching up and taking a more strategic approach when they devise educational programs.

Schools around the world, such as the American International School in Hong Kong, are now placing emphasis on arming children with the necessary skills and aptitude to ensure they leave school as well-rounded creative and entrepreneurial young adults. So what skills will the next generation of entrepreneurs need to succeed in a competitive business environment?

Resilience:

Being an entrepreneur exposes an individual to the regular risk of failure. Indeed, many entrepreneurs face a string of rejections before achieving their goals. Teaching children to be resilient and to efficiently overcome setbacks, partially by encouraging them to speak about how they feel, will equip them with the necessary strength of character and determination to be able to push through problems to reach their entrepreneurial objective.

Creativity:

By definition, being an entrepreneur means seeing the world differently and doing things that have never been done before. Teaching children to learn by rote will not help them to thrive in an ever-changing modern employment marketplace. Instead, educators are increasingly focusing on unlocking children’s creativity, encouraging them to try new approaches, to express themselves, and to devise their own unique solutions to problems.

Industry:

There is no doubt that being successful in any walk of life requires hard work, and entrepreneurs will experience plenty of that. When you’re setting up a new business, there will be times when you need to put in many extra hours to get an enterprise off the ground. By teaching children the value of hard work and stressing that sometimes you have to work hard in the short-term for long-term rewards, they will be more likely to succeed and realize their entrepreneurial ambitions.

Confidence:

All the most successful entrepreneurs have plenty of self-confidence. That is not the same thing as arrogance. Confidence comes from a deep belief that you can succeed and make things work. All too often children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, grow up thinking they can’t be a success, and they lack confidence. Modern educational approaches emphasize building up the confidence levels among students, so that they are not afraid to fail, and have the self-belief to succeed.

Vision:

Perhaps the most important skill the entrepreneurs of the future will need is the ability to see what consumers will need and want in the coming years. As technology changes every aspect of society and our economy, future entrepreneurs will need to be able to predict change and envision the future. Instilling this ability to think beyond the present and to speculate is a crucial part of unleashing children’s creativity, enabling them to fulfill their ambitions and to become successful entrepreneurs of the future.

Read More:

• Impact Of Technology On Education
• Tips To Succeed In An Online Course.