Determining the skills required for the future of work is always unpredictable. A recent report from the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship argues that 60% of young people lack the requisite skills to thrive in the coming years.
The authors argue that work-based learning opportunities are likely to be key as young people cannot afford to take repeated periods out of the workforce in order to refresh their skills. These learning opportunities should focus as much on soft skills as they do on hard, technical skills, and the paper suggests that entrepreneurship training could be just the ticket to help people develop these crucial skills.
The right skills
Central to this is the bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), but the authors believe that the act should be modernized to address challenges related to equity, access, and changes in the workforce.
For instance, the original WIOA law covered high school work-based learning opportunities and youth workforce investment activities like apprenticeships, leadership development, adult mentoring, internships, financial literacy, and entrepreneurial skills training. The recent amendment, called the A Stronger Workforce for America Act, expands on the initiatives covered by WIOA by including activities that develop critical skills like creativity, digital literacy, critical thinking, and collaboration.
The bill highlights skills like creativity, problem-solving, communication, and persistence as key skills for the future of work, and the paper suggests that entrepreneurship is a great way to develop them.
“Entrepreneurship education programs leverage experiential, problem-based learning to help young people cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset, a set of skills and behaviors that include recognizing opportunities, taking risks, learning from setbacks, and communicating with others,” the authors explain.
Skills-based hiring
In the last year, LinkedIn reported a 21% rise in job postings prioritizing skills over work experience. Given the growing emphasis on skills-based hiring by employers, it is crucial to empower high school students and younger to improve their employability skills.
Helping young people enhance their skills boosts their employability and contributes to their overall success in the careers they pursue. Employees hired based on their skills are five times more likely to succeed on the job.
Entrepreneurship programs are effective at cultivating skills that employers are increasingly demanding, like creativity, digital literacy, critical thinking, collaboration, and persistence. These “soft skills” are among the top skills sought by employers and the hardest for them to find.
“Traditional workforce development programs are crucial for acquiring essential skills, but incorporating entrepreneurship into these initiatives has the potential to revolutionize approaches for sustainable employment,” the authors explain.
An entrepreneurial mindset
The report argues that entrepreneurship education programs help young people develop an entrepreneurial mindset by using experiential and problem-based learning to cultivate skills like recognizing opportunities, taking risks, learning from setbacks, and communicating with others.
Entrepreneurship offers a so-called “transversal approach” that is not limited to particular sectors or career clusters and instead focuses on developing skills that are applicable across different industries and roles. This skills-based approach to workforce development mirrors how employers are increasingly hiring based on skills rather than degrees or experience.
This interdisciplinary approach helps by fostering entrepreneurial and employability skills in young people through creativity, agency, and exploring solutions without being bound to specific fields. The paper argues that promoting entrepreneurial skills alongside technical expertise empowers young people not only to seek jobs but also to create them.
Boosting confidence
The paper also highlights that entrepreneurship education may increase student confidence in developing communication, collaboration, opportunity recognition, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills compared to other career readiness programs.
What’s more, they also believe that entrepreneurship programs expose young individuals to a broader range of career options. As such, entrepreneurship is an important part of career readiness and workforce development.
The authors argue that an entrepreneurial mindset can be developed through meaningful work-based learning activities for young people. Entrepreneurship involves cultivating practical skills like goal setting, learning from failures, and seizing opportunities throughout life, not just business ownership.
A shift in perspective
To fundamentally transform workforce development, there needs to be a shift in perspective to recognize entrepreneurship as a critical part of career readiness. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act acknowledged this by including entrepreneurial education in high school work-based programs.
The bipartisan WIOA reauthorization bill builds on this foundation by further expanding the focus on skills essential for thriving in the workforce.
Entrepreneurship education has demonstrated an ability to develop critical employability skills needed for workforce success and should be seen as a significant opportunity for high-quality skills training. It cultivates an entrepreneurial mindset and improves career readiness in secondary students. Developing an entrepreneurial mindset provides an on-ramp to greater opportunities.
“To transform workforce development fundamentally, we need a shift in perspective,” the authors conclude. “Recognizing entrepreneurship as an integral part of career readiness is critical.”
