Some impressive 10-year-olds recently manned stalls at a nearby park. Their school asked them to design, make and sell products to the public. Parents and friends happily supported a great event that gave kids their first taste of entrepreneurship.
The trouble is, this event and so many others like it across secondary schools and universities, will not be formally recorded. It will be another experience in a long list of extracurricular activities, but not documented as part of an entrepreneurship learning portfolio.
As Australia hurtles towards a new era of youth entrepreneurship, we must consider how the learning from new ventures – and everything that goes with it – is captured, valued and recognised by employers or other stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem.
The idea is not as crazy as it sounds. Some European countries have discussed launching entrepreneurship skills accreditation programs and the 2014 UK Enterprise For All report outlined the merits of a digital "entrepreneurship passport" for students.
Broadly, these programs will recognise entrepreneurship learning by recording courses, events, internships and ventures that young people engage in and seek credit for.
A secondary student, for example, who completes an internship at a start-up venture would have that learning recorded and formally recognised on their entrepreneurship passport – a centralised, digital system that records their new-venture achievements.
So too would a tertiary student who competes in a university start-up competition, attends a new-venture bootcamp or a seminar featuring learning entrepreneurs. As would another who starts a venture after uni, fails and starts again.
I recall entering a university start-up competition, winning it and receiving a nice cheque. The other students had barely any recognition for their learning from the competition, despite spending months planning their venture and pitching the idea to venture capitalists.
Entrepreneurship, of all fields, requires learning-by-doing in the field. Students arguably gain more from an eight-week internship with a hot start-up than they ever can in a uni classroom. Yet this learning is not recorded or valued in the same way.
I have seen too many aspiring entrepreneurs over the years get little or no recognition for their new-venture experience.
For example, a friend started an online venture, raised capital and did everything from technology to sales and management. He had a thriving business until Amazon obliterated it (no shame in that). When the venture failed, he struggled to find a decent job because corporate employers did not understand or recognise his new-venture skills.
Other fields do much more to recognise learning and oversee its quality through accreditation programs. A financial adviser or company director, for example, might receive Continuing Professional Development points for attending a seminar or short course.
The point is, we need better recognition of entrepreneurship experiences – inside and outside the classroom – so that the value of that learning is recognised.
Imagine a twentysomething who participates in a dozen recognised entrepreneurship programs at school and university. Those recorded experiences are an asset when he or she launches their venture, tries to raise capital or persuade others to support them. Potential stakeholders have a better sense of the young entrepreneur's capabilities and greater confidence in their ability.
And if the venture fails or performs below the founder's expectation, as the majority will, the entrepreneur at least has recognised entrepreneurship qualifications to promote to corporate employers, should they pursue a traditional career.
I do not suggest that every budding entrepreneur has every new-venture course or experience recorded. But a small proportion of young people who are serious about entrepreneurship may want their achievements documented.
The problem, of course, is the lack of a prominent entrepreneurship body in Australia that could design, implement and oversee such a system. Or have the resources to accredit youth entrepreneurship programs, maintain quality control and help safeguard against the threat of private-sector sharks trying to cash in on the entrepreneurship education boom.
Perhaps such an organisation, in time, could even accredit entrepreneurs and have continuing professional learning requirements – an idea I have flagged before, only to be criticised by serial entrepreneurs who claim such formality would never work.
They are usually the same founders who supposedly sold lemonade at age five, were badly misunderstood at school and had a mutant entrepreneurship gene that made them special (or, in truth, helped them spruik their venture and themselves).
Tomorrow's entrepreneurs will increasingly learn about new ventures through the education system, be encouraged to create their job rather than only apply for it, and see entrepreneurship as their calling and profession.
As in other fields, they will want recognition for their learning to help further their career, not the current haphazard system that does little to recognise formal or informal entrepreneurship learning (beyond that provided by unis or training organisations).
Our next generation of entrepreneurs deserves better.
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