Preparing Children to Be Entrepreneurs


The US Small Business Administration (SBA) recently conducted focus groups to learn what entrepreneurs, investors and others believe we need to do to enhance entrepreneurship in America. One of their findings was that we need to improve entrepreneurship education in our K-12 schools.

child entrepreneurs

While it’s hard to argue with “improving education” for anything, this recommendation appears misplaced. More representative surveys show that Americans believe their schools are doing a good job of preparing kids to be entrepreneurs, at least in comparison to what people from many other industrialized countries think.

According to a 2009 Gallup Organization survey of 26,000 people in 36 nations, two thirds of Americans believe that their elementary and secondary schools are providing the requisite skill and knowledge to run a business. These numbers compare favorably to the responses of Europeans, only 39 percent of whom agree.

What are American schools doing right when it comes to entrepreneurship education? The data point to three things:

  • First, American schools are doing a good job of teaching kids what entrepreneurs do. Seventy-one percent of the Americans surveyed said that elementary and secondary schools helped them to learn how entrepreneurs contribute to our economy and society. By contrast, only 44 percent of Europeans held this view.
  • Second, American schools are helping to develop an entrepreneurial attitude, or “sense of initiative.” Seventy-three percent of Americans said that their primary and secondary school education taught them a sense of initiative. But only 49 percent of Europeans agreed.
  • Third, American schools are peaking students’ interest in business ownership. Americans were twice as likely as Europeans to tell the surveyors that their K-12 education stimulated their interest in being in business for themselves (50 versus 25 percent).

While Americans are much more likely than Europeans to believe that primary and secondary schools are effective at training people to become entrepreneurs, there are two negatives in the data:

  • First, a report by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) revealed a significant drop in experts’ opinions of the state of U.S. K-12 entrepreneurship education between 2005 and 2008. If this trend continues, we will see a declining share of Americans reporting that their school education helped them to develop the necessary skills and attitudes to be business founders.
  • Second, while we perceive our schools to be much better at preparing kids for entrepreneurship than do the Europeans, they might not be who we should compare ourselves to.

China is becoming the world leader in entrepreneurship and the Gallup survey showed that Americans were no more likely than the Chinese to think that their schools are doing a good job training people to become entrepreneurs. Twenty-five years ago that would not have been the case.


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Scott Shane Scott Shane is A. Malachi Mixon III, Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of nine books, including Fool's Gold: The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America ; Illusions of Entrepreneurship: and The Costly Myths that Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By.

11 Reactions
  1. Hi Scott – I am all over this one. I’ve been speaking to my 11-year-old son in terms of seeing the world from a place of creating his own money, rather than waiting for a job.

  2. Scott,

    Interesting timing on this post.

    I was just talking to my 16-year old daughter, who’s all of a sudden thinking of becoming an entrepreneur.

    She already has a school picked out, and a roommate for her dorm.

    And, a business idea in the works…

    I’d really like to see her not have to work for someone else.

    She certainly knows how strongly my own feelings are on that.

    The Franchise King®

  3. Scott–
    Great post. It makes me think about my K-12 education, and there certainly was no element of entrepreneurship, so I’m hopeful that it will be different for my son. Of course, he sees both of his parents running their own businesses (actually he thinks we “make money” through the computer, as in: it spits out money), so it’s inspiration for him!

  4. Whoever they surveyed didn’t go to my high school or middle school. I didn’t see many of my classmates develop any initiative beyond doing the bare-minimum requirements.

  5. Surveys are not all they are cracked up to be. Americans continue to believe a number of things are not necessarily true. We at Quickncorporate believe that entrepreneurship is really important, and have 3 suggestion to promote entrepreneurship.

    1. Every high school and college should run a business, and the workers and managers should be students with appropriate adult guidance.

    2. Education should be more varied. Schools should have more practical subjects. The practical subjects allow students to put the theoretical learning into practice.

    3. Schools must teach more advanced math and science. It is math and science that will be the basis of future businesses.

    If students learn advance math and science, have the choice of practical subjects, and participate in a school run businesses, American will be full of entrepreneurs.

  6. I think there’s a difference between people’s beliefs and the actual preparation they receive. Just because more Americans BELIEVE they are being taught a sense of initiative, etc. doesn’t mean that’s actually happening. I also have seen little evidence that schools are teaching the real skills of entrepreneurship or even that it’s a career option. This is definitely an area where we need to do more development!

  7. I must tell you, I only thought of entrepreneurship because my father and uncle even with their college degrees are small business owners.

    They say most startups fail, and thats a very sad thing. It takes years to build up vendor and buyers trust. Whether its credit terms, product offers or buyers coming to buy. But the online world is a blessing as well, young people can start an online business with relatively little capital, by working hard and being honest they can succeed.

  8. In Egypt, Students in University rarely hear or understand what is Entrepreneurship, so schools = zero info about this

  9. I’m all for this! Kids leaving school with the ability and belief that they can make a job they love instead of take a job they hate is what education should be focusing on these days.