Education plays a crucial role in shaping the minds and opinions of the future generation. Debate regarding the much needed changes in our current education systems has been ongoing for some time now – if we want to equip children with knowledge and skills that they will need tomorrow, we cannot teach them things that were relevant yesterday. This has been argued also concerning the entrepreneurial education – for too many years teachers in Economics classes have emphasized only the traditional business models – therefore promoting entrepreneurship where the main success indicator is profit.

 

British Council addresses these issues in the report “Social Entrepreneurship in education”, by providing in-depth analysis of the entrepreneurship education in several European countries as well as already existing Social Entrepreneurship education examples and suggestions and recommendations for more successful implementation of SE education in the classes of Business and Economics. This report argues that there are several reasons why national education systems need to seriously consider incorporation of Social Entrepreneurship education, mainly focusing on the fact that the world around us has changed tremendously but education system remains as it was decades ago. Moreover, authors of the report emphasize the importance of teaching students the skill-set that will be useful for children in a variety of future professions, not only encouraging them to strive academically by remembering huge amounts of information: “Many of the skills and gifts that make a great entrepreneur are not highly valued within a traditional school environment, yet they may resonate with children who do not feel engaged by school or by some educational approaches. Social entrepreneurship education could be an opportunity for those children to shine, not another subject to fail.”

 

The report gives a food for thought for everyone who cares about the skills, knowledge and also welfare of the future generations. If we want to equip students with versatile knowledge and teach things that will not only help them to be better entrepreneurs, but also contribute to environment and society, it will require teamwork and collaboration of government institutions, teachers and social entrepreneurs to make the years spent in classroom more meaningful and valuable.

 

Read full report here: https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/british_council_social_entrepreneurship_in_education_web_final.pdf