Entrepreneurship Education in the School from an Early Age By Galit Zamler
Education for Entrepreneurship in Israel - The Start-Up Nation
Despite being a relatively young country, Israel is considered to be one of the most entrepreneurial and innovative countries.
As an innovative and advanced state, Israel hosts delegations of investors, entrepreneurs, educators, companies, governments and others from around the world. They all come to learn the secrets that turned a small country into a start-up nation.
Many have tried to understand the Israelis' entrepreneurial mindset and culture. Some attribute this entrepreneurial ability to the integration of various cultures in one small country with characteristics such as learning, opportunism, creativity, rebelliousness, audacity, ambition, etc.
Others see Israel, with so many entrepreneurs and inventions, as a wonder, worthy of interest as well as understanding.
Along with the impressive achievements, Israel nurtures education for entrepreneurship from an early age in the K-12 education system.
To cultivate entrepreneurial skills in children, we should expose them to innovative ideas, inventions and entrepreneurs. It makes them aspire to leave their mark in the world.
It opens their eyes and makes them understand the potential in entrepreneurship.
For this purpose, we prepared this presentation for the Global Entrepreneurship Week, which is celebrated in schools that educate for entrepreneurship. It illustrates that Israel is a start-up state.
What's on this website?
Entrepreneur skills - Those that desire to be entrepreneurs will find on this website a set of qualities and skills required of an entrepreneur, to help him succeed, and along with each of them examples of various entrepreneurs and initiatives from Israel and worldwide, from which one can learn how to become an entrepreneur and be inspired.
Entrepreneurship for Kids Program - Those who believe in entrepreneurship education from a young age, will certainly find right here an assortment of online content, applications, and examples of k-12 entrepreneurship education among young students from elementary schools, middle schools and high schools.
Lectures - Those who are interested in ordering online lectures on entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education for kids in the school and about Israel as an innovative country, are invited to contact Galit Zamler.
Why should schools teach entrepreneurship?
Teaching kids entrepreneurship is about fostering an entrepreneurial mindset and essential 21st-century skills for success in life.
Israel is known as a start-up nation, which sometimes raises the question: Why does one need to learn entrepreneurship?
Since so many successful initiatives originated in Israel, perhaps entrepreneurship has been something natural that is somehow built-in to the Israeli genetic code, and there is no need to teach how to be an entrepreneur or to learn entrepreneurship?
However, there are some good reasons for fostering entrepreneurial thinking in K-12 students and teaching them entrepreneurship lessons, like:
- Entrepreneurship in education does not mean everyone should be entrepreneurs since in practice, most adults are employed, but the qualifications that are learned through the entrepreneurial learning process are important skills for the success of everyone, either as an employee or as an entrepreneur.
- Entrepreneurship plays an important role in improving the country's economy, increasing employment and reducing unemployment.
- Increasing the chances of success of future entrepreneurs.
- Reducing the gap between male and female entrepreneurs.
- Make the benefits of entrepreneurship accessible among disadvantaged populations in a low socioeconomic status and to get them ready for future jobs.
- Entrepreneurial qualifications are the 21st-century skills that everyone must learn to deal with the various challenges, after all, these are life skills.
- Raising the rates of those who dare to be entrepreneurs and who are not afraid of failure. These can also be intra-enterprise entrepreneurs.
Encouraging innovation and developing new ventures depends on us, on how we encourage our children towards being entrepreneurs and acquiring entrepreneurial skill sets.
As we begin teaching at a young age how to be an entrepreneur, so we can introduce our children to the entrepreneurial culture and equip them with the tools and knowledge that will help them in life, empower them and build their self-confidence and self-esteem to dare to fulfill their dreams.
The Israeli Professor Dan Shechtman, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, supported this perspective, saying: Entrepreneurship studies are vital to any sort of country that wants to survive the world whose natural resources rapidly deplete.
Educating children for entrepreneurship from a young age is effective and appropriate when the perception is that most of the qualities of the entrepreneur can be acquired. And here, the environment has an important role and a great influence on the individual.
On a personal level, educating for entrepreneurship also considerably empowers the individual child, improves their chances of success in life and increases the feeling of confidence that they are capable of achieving success in any field they desire, regardless of academic achievements (Although cultivating entrepreneurial abilities definitely encourages learning, curiosity to know and explore).
Who is an entrepreneur?
Allegedly it is obvious: An entrepreneur is a person who takes a concept and controls its implementation.
In practice, the definition is much broader. Almost all of us have ideas, but for many of us, the ideas remain a thought and a dialogue without being able to put them into practice.
The difference lies in the characteristics, skills, knowledge and experience that the entrepreneur has acquired throughout his life.
Being an entrepreneur means having capabilities that are essential in a challenging and changing world.
The entrepreneur's skills and qualities
Among the entrepreneur skills you can find: A visionary and a focus on purpose, determination and perseverance, courage to dare, not to be afraid of failure, the ability to learn from mistakes, the desire to learn and grow, high self-esteem, believing in yourself, believing in your abilities, the ability to lead, optimism, practicality, the ability to plan, the ability to manage economically and within a budget, social and communication skills, expression abilities, oral and written communication skills, respect for others, attentiveness, responsibility and taking responsibility, patience, ability and willingness to deal with things, identifying opportunities, acknowledgment of others who think differently, creativity, the joy of creation, the ability to ask for help, the ability to manage either yourself or others, the ability to take calculated risks, ability to make the distinction between the wheat and the chaff, self-motivation, flexible thinking, realism, negotiation, ambition, self-discipline, work as a team and the desire to make a change.
The skills required for an entrepreneur are life skills that each of our children should have to some extent in order to succeed in life and in the labor market.
Most of the skills required for entrepreneurship can be acquired and children should learn them from an early age, at a time when they can adopt new abilities and behaviors relatively easily.
Young students participating in our entrepreneurial program for children, learn to understand the importance of the entrepreneur's skills, and via theoretical and experiential learning they internalize and adopt these qualities.
Entrepreneurship for Kids Program
This entrepreneurial program for schools was developed in recognition of the need to teach students entrepreneurial skills from an early age. In recent years, also officials of the educational system in Israel and around the world have come to this conclusion.
The program was developed in accordance with the schools, in order to encourage school principals and teachers, who do not come from entrepreneurial backgrounds, to serve as mentors for students, while providing relevant knowledge to the young entrepreneurs, guiding them in entrepreneurial experience, having fun and believe in the ability of each and every student to succeed.
As part of the program, young students learn to identify opportunities, raise ideas for projects, plan, take responsibility, set and achieve goals, collect and analyze relevant information, convince others, believe in themselves and their abilities, speak in public, make financial calculations, be sensible consumers, solve problems, be creative, work as a team, develop social skills, develop independent and positive thinking and more.
The program encourages students to acquire entrepreneurial skills through a meaningful and experiential learning process by using lectures, discussions, presentations, videos, exercises, and implementing projects developed by the students themselves.
The program combines professional theoretical knowledge of the entrepreneurial world with practical experience, applied to the students' projects. This combination trains the students and provides them with the necessary tools to succeed as future entrepreneurs, if they chose to follow that path.
The k-12 entrepreneurship programme has been implemented in Israel since 2009 and is considered to be one of the most successful programs for teaching kids entrepreneurship within the school.
The program has a children's version and a youth version:
Schools outside of Israel that are interested in using the program are welcome to contact Galit Zamler.
A map of Israeli schools that taught entrepreneurship lessons from the syllabus of our entrepreneurship program for kids:
The Hebrew Academy school in Miami Beach, Florida, USA also teaches its students entrepreneurship classes from the program.
The future of each country and its citizens depends mainly on the education, tools and skills we provide to our children.
Like Janusz Korczak said:
He who cares for days - sows wheat
He who cares for years - plants trees
He who cares for generations- educates people
