Nigeria
faces a number of challenges that can only be met if it has innovative,
well-educated, and entrepreneurial citizens who, whatever their walk of life,
have the spirit and inquisitiveness to think in new ways, and the courage to
meet and adapt to the challenges facing them.
Moreover,
a dynamic economy, which is innovative and able to create the jobs that are
needed, will require a greater number of young people who are willing and able
to become entrepreneurs, young people who will launch and successfully develop
their own commercial or social ventures, or who will become innovators in the
wider organisations in which they work.
Because
education is the key to shaping young people’s attitudes, skills and culture,
it is vital that entrepreneurship education is addressed from an early age.
Entrepreneurship education is essential not only to shape the mindsets of young
people but also to provide the skills and knowledge that are central to
developing an entrepreneurial culture.
It is
important we embrace this ‘global age’ paradigm in our education system as it
has been done in China, India, Australia, Europe, U.S.A and of lately the Asian
tigers (Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and the Koreas).The most advanced form of
this new model is what is referred to as ‘TEACHERPRENEUR’,
Which
Bill Gates was referring to in 2010 when he said ‘five years from now on the
web, you will be able to find the best lectures in the world and it will be
better than any single university’.
This
involves embedding entrepreneurial education into education and training right
from the primary school to secondary school and tertiary institution. The
essence of this is because education is key to shaping young people’s
attitudes, skills and culture, it is vital that entrepreneurial education is
addressed from an early age, besides, age is no barrier to entrepreneurship
as Tony Hsieh of Zappos started selling worms from raw mud when he
was 9 years old, Steve Job, Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg of the Facebook
fame all started off as young entrepreneurs.
The time
is ripe for us as a country to stop celebrating mere certificates and dormancy,
while primacy and recognition should be given to creativity, skills and
enterprising spirit. The present times have shown over time that the global
arena is blind to your credentials but is a wealth creating slave to your
skills and abilities. Anyway, it is not your credentials that guarantees
success in the global/information age but rather your problem solving
abilities, critical thinking ability that can discern ‘fact from fiction’, your
ability to adapt (un-learn & re-learn), your creative and innovative
abilities and your life-long love of learning.
If your
‘piece of paper’ failed to deliver these then whilst it may have successfully
prepared you for the industrialized 20th century economy but it has certainly
failed you in the globalized 21st. As Alvin Toffler puts it, ‘The
illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn unlearn and re-learn’. It is the acceptance of
this open secret that should make policy makers and the general populace to
shift attention from the conventional way of thinking that you must be a
graduate before achieving success.
Some of
the inventors such as Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of school to
make it in life because of their innovative, creative and enterprising spirit
and not necessarily because of certificate. Also, individuals with creative
skills and innovative minds in our society should be encouraged irrespective of
their academic qualifications as it has been proved that only a few percentage
of entrepreneurs believed that higher education played a role in their mindset
while 61% credited their innate drive.
Furthermore,
we must begin to create conducive atmosphere for entrepreneurship to thrive in
our society if this revolution must not die on paper, government should as a
matter of policy single out innovative and creative minds for honours to serve
as encouragement to others, Entrepreneurship, skills and vocational development
centres should be built across the length and
The
current state of affairs in our country requires an urgent embrace of the
entrepreneurial education revolution because of its numerous potential
benefits. Research has shown that there is strong evidence that entrepreneurial
education contributes to risk-taking and the formation of new ventures. On
average, entrepreneurship graduates are three times more likely
than non entrepreneurship graduates to start new business ventures.
Controlling
for the personal characteristics of graduates and other environmental factors,
entrepreneurial education increased the probability of an individual being
instrumentally involved in a new business venture by 25 percent over non
entrepreneurship graduates. Similarly, there is clear evidence that
entrepreneurial education increases the propensity of graduates to be
self-employed. Once again, entrepreneurship graduates on average are three
times more likely to be self-employed than are general graduates.
Vanguard
Business: By Peter Osalor
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