« NSF research on innovation | Main | The next Chinese challenge »
November 14, 2005
UK gets it - again
This from today's FT - "Budding entrepreneurs to be sent to US":
Students with entrepreneurial flair will be sent to the US to learn how to make the most of their business ideas under plans for a scholarship to be unveiled by Gordon Brown later this year.
After introducing a requirement in September that children receive five days a year of education that promotes entrepreneurialism, the chancellor writes in today's Financial Times that the government wants to add summer schools for budding businesspeople and the US scholarship programme.
Once again, like with the link between manufacturing and design, Gordon Brown and the UK get it. Brown's FT article - "Britain's future lies in entrepreneurial talent" clearly links entrepreneurship with education:
If we are to have enterprise in our boardrooms, it must start in our classrooms. A Britain of enterprise needs schools that, like business and society, motivate young people and challenge them to achieve greater heights. In 1997, less than 15 per cent of schools offered enterprise education. Now half of all schools do. By 2006, every school in Britain will offer such education.
This education must be available not just for boys but also for girls. If the UK could achieve the same levels of female entrepreneurship as has the US, Britain would gain three-quarters of a million more businesses.
And enterprise education must extend beyond the normal school term - to provide inspiration and support to those with talent and enthusiasm throughout the year. So later this week, when I visit Manchester to meet young people and entrepreneurs, I will set out plans for new enterprise summer schools to be set up throughout the country next year.
And where are the US scholarships for "budding businesspeople"? The answer lies in what the foundation and higher-education system is doing to promote entrepreneurship. According to the 2003 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, "the United States continues to be a leader in entrepreneurship education and training at the undergraduate and graduate levels." That may be why Gordon Brown wants to send UK students here to study.
At the college level, entrepreneurship is a growing area. According to the Kaufman Foundation's 2004 Survey of Endowed Positions in Entrepreneurship and Related Fields in the United States, "(t)he number of chairs and professorships in entrepreneurship and related fields grew 71 percent, from 237 in 1999 to 406 in 2003." And there are a great number of individual scholarships (many university-specific) for students wishing to study entrepreneurship. There are also a number of specialty-specific Federal scholarship programs (such as math, science, public heath, etc.) in addition to the general student aid programs.
What we don't have is a specific Federal entrepreneurship education program or strategy.
I repeat what I just said in today's earlier posting: maybe we need an National Innovation Foundation charged with educational assistance and promotion of all forms of innovations, including entrepreneurship and S&T.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at November 14, 2005 11:53 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.athenaalliance.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/421
Comments
Ken has it right here. The challenge is to get entrepreneurship education into schools, but this is tough with all the competing pressures around No Child Left Behind, testing, and the like. At present, only two states (West Virginia and Nebraska) have appointed state education officials to focus on entrepreneurship education. Every state needs to do this. A good source to learn more from the educators' perspective is the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education (www.entre-ed.org).
Posted by: Erik Pages at November 15, 2005 10:12 AM