The jobs market has never been as challenging for young people as it is today. According to Accuracy in Media, 16% of young Americans – gauged as being between the ages of 18 and 29 – are unemployed. This is a sobering figure and one that is replicated to some extent across many other countries.
This is why it is important to ensure today’s teens are able to think beyond the jobs market. Entrepreneurship is open to anyone at any age, but entrepreneurial teens have their whole working lives ahead of them. We have heard stories about young people setting up their own successful businesses while still at school, and it would be wonderful to ensure more young people could think big in the same way.
Thinking big in many different ways
For most people, setting up a business instead of going into employment is a big step to take. However, when we are young we often have many more opportunities available to us. Think back to when you were a teenager and had big dreams. Quite often, as soon as people head out into the world beyond school or college, those dreams are crushed as the reality of daily life sets in.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way. The more we can encourage young people to embrace their ideas and try them out, so they can be in business for themselves, the more promising our country’s future could be.
This may sound overly dramatic, but there are many bright teenagers around who have superb ideas that could be used to good effect in many areas of life. The problem is many of them are not supported in the right way so they are able to bring these ideas to fruition.
Entrepreneurial lessons
Standard lessons such as English, math and history have their place at school. However, perhaps it is time to incorporate lessons on thinking big and entrepreneurialism as well. As it stands, only those teenagers who have an interest in this area will do anything about it. If they are passionate enough and curious enough about becoming an entrepreneur, they will research it in their own time.
There are other ways to go about this though. If schools were to teach their students about business and entrepreneurialism, they might light the spark that exists in many teenagers at such a young age.
Setting up a business is no small task. There are many areas to think about. However, the right lessons could result in a more in depth approach to a new idea. For example, students would see that marketing a business is not just about getting your product in front of potential buyers. It is also about making sure your business is remembered. Buying marketing gifts and appropriate items for clients (and employees too in the future) is not a cost it is an investment – and one that will set a fledgling business apart from its competitors. Using appropriate services such as providers of corporate gifts means an entrepreneur can be remembered rather than forgotten as soon as a product or service has been bought. In short, if we offered entrepreneurial lessons in the classroom, we might find our society is improved in many different ways. It would certainly result in many more young people seeing the wealth of opportunities they can unlock for themselves.
It is only by changing the opportunities available at a young age that we can encourage a bigger and brighter entrepreneurial spirit to burn brightly in our country and beyond. As each generation retires it gives way to the next, and if that generation is unprepared to handle the many challenges in front of it, we won’t see much in the way of progress. It’s clear to see education has a far bigger role to play than we might think. Many teens may not even consider the idea of being entrepreneurs unless they see the opportunities that are out there. Perhaps we owe it to them to open their eyes a little, after which they can open them further to discover their own talents and skills and what to do with them. Surely it is worth investing in new classes for the entrepreneurs of the future?
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