Teaching Entrepreneurship: How Generation Z Will Weather an Unpredictable Future
by Thomas Gold, Impact Consultant, JA Worldwide
Originally published on November 18, 2020, by the Global Entrepreneurship Network. Reprinted with permission.
Generation Z has their work cut out for them. COVID-19 has created massive economic dislocation, with countries closing down large segments of their economies to stem the spread of the virus. Industries like tourism, restaurants, and entertainment have been decimated, and, in developing countries, the World Bank predicts the virus will push nearly 50 million people into extreme poverty. Globally, youth are losing their current jobs and will find a reshaped job market when they complete their education. In addition, more than half of all youth surveyed report that their education has been delayed due to school and university closures during the pandemic, putting their futures and careers further into doubt. With the next wave of the virus surging, an economic turnaround is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
In many ways, however, COVID-19 put into stark relief economic uncertainties that had already been brewing. Concerns about jobs and the future were taking shape even before the pandemic, due in part to the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence. McKinsey estimates that, although few occupations will be completely automated, roughly half of all work-related activities will be replaced by machines, and about 60 percent of all occupations could have up to a third of their activities automated in some way by 2030, leading to considerable workplace transformations. The jobs replaced by automation will not just be lower-level tasks, but those that currently require higher education. For example, the language-translation industry has been steadily losing workers to machines with the advancement of neural machine technology, which is used in apps like Google Translate, has improved its accuracy in processing voice and text.
2020 has also shown us that economic insecurity will not be the only factor facing Gen Z. We are only at the beginning of much-needed conversations and actions around climate change, social justice, racial equity, and the state of democracy. To be ready for these challenges, young people need a new kind of education, one that prepares them for a future that is unpredictable, both economically and socially. The “factory model” of education will no longer work, given that the next generation requires a whole new set of skills, abilities, and competencies.
For several years, educators and researchers have extolled the value of entrepreneurship education, not only as a way to teach business skills, but also to share critical skills for the future, like communication, creativity, and critical thinking. This is particularly the case if the instruction utilizes techniques like project-based and experiential learning, which links real-world issues to classroom work. A rigorous study of the JA Company Program, for example, found that students participating in the organization’s signature entrepreneurship course for at least 100 hours during the year have a higher grade point average (GPA) than students in a control group.
If entrepreneurship education is so critical and impactful, why don’t we see more of it on a global level? One potential issue is the association of entrepreneurship with capitalism. In an age of growing inequality, there’s an increasing skepticism of capitalism as a positive social force. The Edelman Trust Barometer, which polled 34,000 respondents in 28 countries, recently asked views on capitalism. Fifty-six percent of all respondents reported that they believe capitalism causes more harm than good, and these responses came from places as diverse as India (74%) and France (69%). Even business leaders are beginning to address the need to reform capitalism before it’s broken. Ray Dalio, a billionaire investor and the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world, has argued that the current capitalist system needs to be reengineered to eliminate the wealth gap. Likewise, the Davos Manifesto of 2020 argues for a shift from shareholder to stakeholder capitalism that “honours diversity and strives for continuous improvements in working conditions and employee well-being.”
With these perspectives in mind, it is important that entrepreneurship education not be about evangelizing capitalism, but about providing a toolkit to identify and solve truly difficult challenges through socially equitable innovations. If we’re going to solve issues like climate change and racial inequity, we’re going to need business models that are not just about profit or personal gain, but about building companies that benefit everyone: employees, customers, suppliers, local communities, and society at large.
This is the education that every young person needs, one that teaches young entrepreneurs the importance of inclusive innovation, that a truly impactful result requires more than a top-down effort, and that collaborative effort involves the people closest to the problem. Every school in every country, not just select ones in certain countries, needs to introduce youth to entrepreneurship and its social benefits. As Raj Chetty and his team at Opportunity Insights based at Harvard have demonstrated, the United States alone has potentially lost thousands of “Einsteins,” because young women, people of color, and students from low income backgrounds were not exposed to innovation at an early age. Had there been greater equity of access to these opportunities, Chetty and his team argue, the U.S. might have four times the number of inventors. In order to avoid losing these critical innovations, we need to ensure the equity of access to opportunities like entrepreneurial education at a young age.
JA isn’t the only entrepreneurship program in the world, but it is the biggest and, therefore, offers one example of how broad-based, global entrepreneurship education is possible. One example is the JA Entrepreneurs Skills Pass (ESP), an international certification — currently used in more than 30 countries — that students can share with potential employers, signaling hands-on entrepreneurship experience that has generated skills and competencies that employers deem essential. The ESP is based on the JA Company Program, a time-tested entrepreneurship educational experience in which students start real companies with real products or services that generate real profits (and impacts). What’s most intriguing about the ESP, however, is that it not only encourages youth to launch their own social startups but also shows employers that applicants with an entrepreneurial mindset — so-called “intrapreneurs” — are ready to roll up their sleeves and solve complex problems.
An education program that teaches young people to start their own companies (including hiring locally, sourcing ethically, and sharing profits widely) and that teaches youth how to be creative and innovative employees is the one thing every young person needs to prepare for an uncertain future.
