An Ohio program highlights the question of whether entrepreneurship can be taught. Andrew Corbett wrote in the Forbes article, ‘You Can’t Teach Entrepreneurship’:
There truly is a method to teaching entrepreneurship but it is substantially different than traditional management teaching most of which evolves from theory focused on large existing firms. Some of the tools are the same but the mindset about what you do is clearly different. I spoke to a friend and colleague Mike Haynie from Syracuse University’s Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises about teaching entrepreneurship and his thoughts parse out this perspective. “Arguably, you can teach anyone 99% of the ‘activities’ related to launching and growing a venture, and we do every day in b-schools everywhere. This is because, at the end of the day, these are fundamental business skills and processes that are not necessarily idiosyncratic to entrepreneurship – other than the context of new firms. So given that, I would argue that I can teach someone to be very skilled in those processes. We can teach someone how to write a great business plan, develop a great marketing strategy, produce financial projections, etc. – thus we can teach the activities that compose that act of ‘entrepreneurship’ – starting and growing a venture.”
But there’s more. Professor Haynie then goes on to illustrate why some schools have changed how they teach entrepreneurship with a focus on bringing action and ‘doing’ into the classroom. “However, a different and more relevant and precise question is can you teach someone to recognize ‘entrepreneurial opportunity’ – the step before entrepreneurial action? This is a question that gets to both cognition and motivation. I’m not convinced that we can do this in a mainstream model of Higher-Ed, but do believe that we can ‘enable’ such learning through experiential pedagogy. In other words, while we can seed such learning in a classroom in this regard – with courses related to understanding motivation, sense-making, and other concepts – we also have to deliver a means for those seeds to be planted such that the teaching someone to be ‘entrepreneurial’ becomes about them teaching and learning on their own and by ‘doing.’
So it’s both about teaching individuals to build ventures but also teaching them to think and act entrepreneurially. And it is being done both at Babson and many others around the world. Most importantly, the old ways of teaching entrepreneurship with war stories of successful entrepreneurs and a mindset and theories taught in a straight line from the practice of large, existing organizations is dying (if not dead everywhere already). This point about the evolution of teaching entrepreneurship leads me to a thought from a good friend and mentor. Here is the perspective of Don Kuratko from Indiana University’s Kelly School.
“People who say we cannot teach entrepreneurship are dangerous people to society. They are the keepers of the old thinking and their beliefs ensure that we cannot advance ourselves. Remember that in the late 1800s it was believed then that medicine could not be taught. It was a trade to be learned “on the job….”http://www.forbes.com/sites/babson/2012/05/24/you-cant-teach-entrepreneurship/
See, Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught? http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204603004577267271656000782
Karen Farkas of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported in the article, “Believe in Ohio” will encourage high school students to become innovators and entrepreneurs:
A new statewide program to develop young entrepreneurs in science, technology, engineering and math will begin next year following the approval Monday of $5 million in funding by the State Controlling Board.
Believe in Ohio will introduce high school teachers and students to STEM research and development and venture programs through online and in-class programs and regional forums.
The first forum, which will include scientists, researchers and practitioners, will be held Feb. 22 at Hudson High School.
That school is in the northeast region, one of six established in the state for Believe Ohio. Each region has an affiliated nonprofit that cultivates entrepreneurship. JumpStart Inc. is the program organizer for Northeast Ohio.
Universities will be asked to work with schools in their region and develop online courses that outline STEM and entrepreneurial opportunities for students.
A statewide STEM mentoring network and teacher support program to connect students with “real-world” mentors is also planned.
The funding, for two years, was in the Ohio Board of Regents budget and will go to the Ohio Academy of Science, which will be the lead agency overseeing the program.
Believe in Ohio evolved from a collaboration between the Ohio Board of Regents and Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio, a nonprofit organization created a few years ago in Northeast Ohio by Julian Earls, retired director of the NASA Glenn Research Center and executive-in-residence at Cleveland State University and John Klipfell, a retired American Greetings senior executive.
They operated several STEM entrepreneurial programs in high schools.
They wanted to develop a statewide program but realized they needed to affiliate with other agencies.
About the same time, the Board of Regents outlined its focus on the need for STEM education in its recent commercialization task force report and said a pathway was needed between secondary education and higher education.
Earls and Klipfell met with Vinny Gupta, the regent heading the commercialization task force, and legislators in 2012 to convince them their organization could expand its existing successful program statewide, and that the Ohio Academy of Science had the expertise to run it. They also worked with NorTech….
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/11/believe_in_ohio_will_encourage.html
Believe in Ohio is closely allied with Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio.
This is what Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio says about its mission:
Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio (EEO) is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Corporation that was formed for the educational and charitable purpose of:
1.) Promoting student and community awareness as to the challenges and opportunities the changing regional, national and global economies present for the future;
2.) Providing educational instruction, curriculum, research, training, mentoring and other information that helps develop the entrepreneurial, economic, business, and scientific literacy of students and the community, and other 21st Century skills that may needed for the future. http://www.eeohio.org/eeohio_site/eeoabout.html
Here is a description of Scholarship of Entrepreneurial Engagement Program:
The SEE Economics & Entrepreneurship program during the 2012-2013 school year variously included approximately 800 students from fifteen Northeast Ohio high schools, who participated in a mini-course of study to teach students how the American free enterprise system works and the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation in the context of the global economy. As part of the program more than 600 students participated in business plan development activities leading up to local high school business plan competitions and SEE’s Northeast Ohio business plan competition. The twelve finalists and the five first place award winners in the Spring 2013 SEE Northeast Ohio Business Plan competition were recognized at the SEE Program’s Year End Recognition Event held on May 23, 2013.
The SEE Science & Technology program included its Fall 2012 Science & Technology Forum attended by nearly 500 students, teachers and parents in which students learned from more than a dozen noted entrepreneurial STEM thought leaders about the wide range of STEM research and development activities occurring in Northeast Ohio. Also as a part of the SEE Science & Technology program, 130 students participated in a science concept plan competition. Five of those science concept plans we recognized as first place award winners at the SEE Program’s Year End Recognition Event held on May 23, 2013.
The Introduction to the Innovation Economy of Northeast Ohio” online course was first introduced at the Ohio Board of Regents January 2013 meeting. The course was developed by Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio with the cooperation of The Ohio Academy of Science and features more than fifty instructional videos authored by three dozen leaders of Northeast Ohio’s innovation economy that are grouped into seven different content tracks. People may view individual videos that may be of interest to them or view a larger portion of the course content if they want to understand the many economic development initiatives that will help determine the future economic prosperity of the region.
Although best viewed on iTunes University via iPad or iPhone, the course is also available at http://www.NEOInnovates.com and on YouTube. The iTunes U site features additional reading materials, assessment quizzes and the ability to print out student quiz results if a student chooses to use the course to obtain high school or college course credit.
About The SEE Program
Jim Montaquila, SEE Executive in Residence
Email: tribe123@windstream.net
John Klipfell, SEE Program Director
Email: jklipfell1@aol.com http://www.eeohio.org/SEE/seehome.html
Ian Armitage of the Independent wrote in the article, Why we need more entrepreneurs about why programs like Believe in Ohio are so important:
Putting aside this rather parochial view, entrepreneurship does matter. As our environment is subject to a constant stream of externally and internally generated shocks or movements, our society must be able to adapt itself quickly, or else we simply become victims of events.
Entrepreneurs are the first people to read the straws in the wind, to identify new patterns of demand, and to identify new methods of making or delivering goods and services. Their activity is both the product of change and a driver of change. For example, in response to the spiralling costs of healthcare, several entrepreneurial-minded managers and companies have introduced novel methods of drug design, managing the R&D process (Clinical Research Organisations), and delivering healthcare (e.g. home i.v. therapy).
Entrepreneurs have a wonderful record of achievement. The great enterprises of today are almost, without exception, built on the foundations created from the vision, talent and drive of entrepreneurs. For example, the great retailers such as Walmart and Marks & Spencer, the major oil companies such as BP, and the leading consumer electronics business, Sony, are all founded by entrepreneurs of vision and energy….http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/why-we-need-more-entrepreneurs-1173409.html
The economic well-being of any nation depends upon job creation and providing revenue for the functioning of a civil society. Innovation is key to a successful economy.
Related:
Study: Troubled teens likely to be successful entrepreneurs https://drwilda.com/tag/troubled-teens-are-more-likely-to-be-successful-entrepreneurs/
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