I recently came across an article written by Lauren Maffeo on the TheNextWeb.com site which grabbed my attention and piqued my interest.
Lauren spoke about attending a conference in London UK where she heard Rajeeb Dey speak about his business, Enternships, which helps recent graduates find job placements in smaller startups in the UK and Europe. The idea being that if they gain experience in smaller companies, they can establish themselves professionally more quickly, or go on to start their own businesses.
What a wonderful idea! Connecting students and recent graduates to startups to allow them to gain the experience and knowledge of what it takes to start a business and grow it is an invaluable experience in my opinion.
Also, what an amazing opportunity this is for university students looking for a summer job and for recent graduates to obtain the exposure and skills in entrepreneurship at such an early age; and to gain the experience to basically establish themselves in a business which can mean that they are setup for life. This is the learning experience of a lifetime and can offer skills ranging from character building, creativity, individualism, the mindset to believe that you can accomplish anything, not to mention the business skills you will gain from the ground-up in business development, management, marketing, etc. Particularly if it is also a gain while doing paid work. This opportunity will develop skills and knowledge that a corporate position simply does not foster or allow.
If the Australian business culture is to reach full potential, I would like to see entrepreneurship fully accepted and encouraged in all educational and business arenas. I would like to see the eduction of entrepreneurship moved from the extra-curricular arena, which is currently where most people learn entrepreneurship, to become a core curriculum of all high schools and university, and not just in the MBA departments. Wouldn’t that be brilliant!
Furthermore, entrepreneurship should become a part of the solution to youth unemployment! Early stage entrepreneurs should be nurtured, helping them to grow, develop and subsequently hire people. This focus will give young people even more opportunities and possibly enabling them to add to society by becoming employers themselves in the future.
As Mumby-Croft, Enterprise Education Manager of City University London’s CitySpark Programme, stated and expressed so nicely:
“Being an entrepreneur is about how to turn thought into action and make a difference in the world, be it in the business world, government, voluntary sector or elsewhere.”
You can read the full article by Lauren Maffeo here.