Shaping how the young think
AS ANOTHER school and university year closes it is perhaps an ideal time to reflect on the qualities we would like to instil in our young people, and the future we are endeavouring to shape for ourselves.
One particular area that does not enjoy as much attention as it should is the development of entrepreneurial mindsets, or the lack thereof in SA where entrepreneurial rates are low when compared to other developing countries.
It is well known that innovation is an essential driver of job creation and development, so what steps do we need to take to change the way our young people think and to open up a new world of opportunities for them?
Childhood is often marked by an innovative spirit, by creativity and exploration – somehow, though, that is lost over time because we do not nurture it in the right way.
Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally recognised leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation, has explained this in his various books – he points out that “in a nutshell, it’s that we’re all born with immense natural talents but our institutions, especially educational, tend to stifle many of them and as a result we are fomenting a human and an economic disaster”.
He also says that in education, “this vast waste of talent involves a combination of factors” including “a narrow emphasis on certain sorts of academic work; the exile of arts, humanities and physical education programmes from schools; arid approaches to teaching math and sciences; an obsessive culture of standardised testing and tight financial pressures to teach to the tests.
The result is a disastrous waste of talent among students and their teachers”.
The tragedy, he adds, is that meeting the many social, economic, spiritual and environmental challenges we now face depends absolutely on the very capacities of insight, creativity and innovation that these systems are systematically suppressing in yet another generation of young people.
While some will disagree with Robinson – and it is important to not generalise that all education institutions are the same – there is a truth to face in the fact that in the case of SA, some things are not work- ing as well as they could be to create a generation of capable and passionate entrepreneurs.
There is indeed a need in our country for educational curricula to be improved to stimulate entrepreneurial activity. Parents also need to encourage their children to be innovative.
Sometimes children are restricted at home. As parents, we need to rethink what we do with our children. When they come up with new ideas, we should not tell them: “No, you are going to embarrass me,” but rather: “What a good idea, let’s talk about it.”
Stellenbosch University is looking at ways to create a generation of young people willing and able to solve some of the toughest challenges facing the country.
The university was recently among 15 higher education institutions that participated in the Global University Entrepreneurship Student Spirit Survey (Guesss) – the aim of which was to establish whether SA students were aware of what their institutions offered in terms of entrepreneurship, and what their needs were, their use of and their level of satisfaction with universities’ offerings.
One of the key findings of the report is that even though students are keen to start businesses, they are cautious to do so because of the negative effect of the global financial crisis on small enterprises.
The report also showed that students are in need of experience before starting their careers as entrepreneurs.
Although students are satisfied with lectures and seminars about entrepreneurship, they have a need for more such edu- cational opportunities as workshops and business activities during their studies.
They were not aware of lectures and seminars at their respective universities regarding family businesses and technological and social business opportunities.
A large percentage of students – 42.8 percent – indicated that they would be interested in establishing enterprises to address social and/or environmental issues in the country.
The report also makes recommendations to stimulate entrepreneurship among SA students.
One of these is that more young people should gain access to tertiary institutions to unlock the potential of future entrepreneurs.
There is a need for better marketing of entrepreneurship offerings and the cultivation of greater awareness thereof among students.
Institutions can also review and realign the content of their entrepreneurship offerings regularly, and academics could highlight the value and dynamics of family businesses in their academic programmes to encourage students to continue such businesses.
It is also important to promote interaction between students and experienced entrepreneurs, to prepare students to gain access to the labour market and to develop their general skills.
Universities need to align programmes with the needs of students and the needs of the market.
This will contribute to improved policy measures and the curriculum changes necessary to further stimulate entrepreneurship in SA.
But this kind of research and alignment is needed at all levels of our society – from parents to schools and universities and beyond.
We need to identify the future scenario we want to achieve and make the hard decisions now on how we are going to get there.
Goosain Solomon is a lecturer in the Department of Business Management in Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. He was a speaker at a recent Symposium on Entrepreneurship for Human Development, hosted by Stellenbosch University under the auspices of its HOPE Project, a campus-wide initiative through which societal challenges are being tackled