Rethinking Vocational Education in the State of Massachusetts: An Entrepreneurship Imperative for the 21st Century.

A project submission for the Stanford University course: Re-designing the Learning Environment

Team MembersAntoni Baszczeski (Poland)Sunil Batil (India)Teri Bellamy (Washington, United States)Anthony Gribben (Italy)John Oldham (Massaschusetts, United States)Shakil Ahmed (Bangladesh)

Acknowledgements

In undertaking this small project, the team appreciates the cooperation, interest and imputs of the following individuals and groups:

Pupils of (Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School in Rochester, MA USA) who contributed to the pupil’s survey ensuring an end-user reference to subsequent ideas developed through the project;

Young people from Washington (USA) and Poland who so readily made themselves available to share their experience and ideas for improvement of education through the focus groups;

Teachers and education officials from Massaschusetts who acted as a sounding board for initial ideas developed through the project;

Martin Glassett of Sim Venture (UK) for exchange on issues and options for educational technology proposals to be included in the project;

Pamela Stanford of Stanford University’s Venture Labs initiative for guidance and support for the various modules and to Azim Pradham for interest in the entrepreneurship education project;

Abby Oldham for supporting the team with graphics and the finalisation of the the project document.

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The Project Team

Team LeaderAnthony Gribben: ‘what’s wrong with our education systems?’ItalyTony Gribben has been a policy analyst on education and entrepreneurship for over 10 years with most of his work undertaken in transition and emerging economies. He has also taught child development and entrepreneurship to undergraduates in Belgium, Italy and Syria. He considers himself neither a policy specialist nor a teacher but as an advocate for change, asking difficult questions of different parts of society why more cannot be done to make learning more meaningful and relevant to the our fast-changing world.

Team Members

Antoni Baszczeski: knowledge and values critical to an educational revolution.Poland

Antoni Baszczeski has over 30 years of management experience in education, horticulture, trade and industrial production; and the last 16 years working for FMCG organization – management and financial accounting, planning, financial control, audit, organization change, procurement, integration, restructuring in Poland and abroad. His educational background is engineering (horticulture), business management, economics and finance. He earned an MSc in Horticulture (EMBA University of Illinois) and an MSc in Management and ACCA (UK). He is an entrepreneur and lifelong learner, looking for inspiration to give something back to society where he considers his knowledge, experience and values critical to an educational revolution.

Sunil Batil: an education entrepreneurIndia

Sunil Batil has over 20 years of experience in education, research, marketing and product management. He is currently working on a startup: a platform that allows users to engage and interact with the best online courses to fulfill their learning objective. An online recommendation engine would guide learners on where to go based on what they wanted to learn, how quickly, for what purpose, for how much money, etc. Ratings and recommendations will be provided by past students. The platform allows course providers the broadest possible exposure for their offer.

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c) Teri Bellamy: a concerned parent and…..Washington, USA

Teri Bellamy is an experienced finance executive with a broad foundation in small for profit and not for profit organizations. Her current role as a consulting CFO consists of advising clients on strategy related to growth, cash management and overall financial infrastructure. Teri has a strong background in federal and state income tax, accounting, and financial management. Her finance and accounting training originate in Big Four and large local firm experience. Teri holds an adjunct faculty position at Bainbridge Graduate Institute, teaching accounting and finance to change agents. Teri is a CPA and holds a bachelor’s degree from Linfield College.

John Oldham: a change agent in education.Massachusetts, USA

John Oldham is a teacher of entrepreneurship at a vocational school in Massachusetts (USA). His particular interest is in bringing reform and innovation into the learning environment and to engage fellow teachers both in Massachusetts and beyond into a more coordinated improvement drive for entrepreneurship promotion in high school education. Commenting on the Venture Labs course, John said, ‘I wanted to be part of the team that brings a fresh new approach and new ideas that reflect the changes taking place in the global economy. In short, I want to help young people meet the challenges that previous generations have not faced.

Shakil Ahmed: promoting critical thinking.Bangladesh

Shakil teaches critical thinking to undergraduate students and is working as a researcher at the Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University, Bangladesh where he is primarily involved in designing a secondary school from scratch with an emphasis on the quality of education. His experience also includes leading an expedition of entrepreneurial students to the Middle East, working as a scientific journalist and being part of a team that organized the first student conference on the clean energy industry in Singapore.

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Table of contents

Executive summary

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………...........7

2. Aims and objectives…………………………………………………………………....8

3. What is entrepreneurship education?............................................8

4. Socio-economic context………………………………………………………………8

5. Determining relevance: focus on young people’s interests………... 9

6. The vocational education eco-system in Massachusetts…………….11

7. Rethinking entrepreneurship in vocational education………………..13

8. Young people’s access to finance: road blocks and solutions …….19

9. Leveraging impact for other education environments………………..20

10. Conclusions and next steps…………………………………………………………21

Annexes

Reading and Bibliography

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Executive Summary

Debt, deficits, and declining employment have been dominating the economic headlines since 2008. The impact on young people has been particularly stark with an increasing focus on the role of education and training in the wider bid for growth and jobs. This project focuses particularly on vocational education in Massachusetts (USA) where youth unemployment stands at 20 percent. The objective of the project is to raise awareness and understanding, and ultimately to contribute to dialogue and debate amongst the range of stakeholders in Massachusetts, of the challenges and opportunities for an improved vocational education drive and where entrepreneurship is an embedded feature of the curriculum.1

Firstly, the paper proposes a number of improvements to the vocational education eco-system. These are considered a pre-condition to a more developed and sustainable solution to improving the labour market prospects of vocational school leavers. In particular, the paper advocates more developed cooperation and direct engagement of the business community into the teaching and learning drive. More structured cooperation is proposed between vocational schools and a) the small business support environment and b) the wider careers and employment support environment to maximise entrepreneurship promotion both within the school setting as well as follow-up potential for school leavers intent on self-employment or business start-up. A case is also made for an awareness raising and engagement initiative for parents as an essential stakeholder group in the vocational education eco-system. Further, the paper recommends that the Massachusetts vocational education stakeholders (Department of Education, vocational schools and local businesses) immediately engage with an evolving educational technology community in Massachusetts to determine options and opportunities for more systemic promotion of learning technologies in vocational education.

Secondly, a number of improvements to the existing Massachusetts vocational curriculum are proposed with specific reference to promoting a more entrepreneurial mindset amongst young people. The proposals include requirements for a more open teaching and learning paradigm where the pupils’ learning outcomes are the driver for more innovative pedagogy; and where affordable learning technologies are key to more enhanced learning environment.

More specifically, three clearly defined entrepreneurship pillars are proposed: a) business knowledge: local (including regulatory environment), national, global economy, social and environmental responsibility) and business-community relations; b) business skills: business start-up, core skills (e.g. finance) and business operations; and) c) entrepreneurship key competences: people skills, self-management and development skills and mindset development.

While the paper concentrates primarily on the vocational education system in Massachusetts, issues and implications for other learning environments in developed and transition economies are also considered.

The paper concludes with a number of concrete, next-step recommendations to bring forward the proposals outlined in the paper.

1 While the project involved some empirical data collection, the project team is keen to emphasize that this final submission for the Venture Labs course does not constitute a scientific paper. Rather, the project should be considered as the starting point for discussion and exchange between a range of stakeholders concerned with developing systemic solutions for more effective design and delivery of vocational education in Massachusetts and where proposals for a revised teaching and learning paradigm involving technology applications make for a richer, more engaging environment for vocational students.

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1. Introduction

Set against a global economic turn down, young people face increasing uncertainty as they move from formal schooling to the labour market. The spectre of youth unemployment and the socio-economic ramifications for young people, their communities, and local and national economies is generating a scramble for solutions. While policy makers and business turn to education in their quest for solutions, the potential for more strategic promotion of entrepreneurship education stands apart as critical opportunity. Unlike other areas of public policy where progress is frustrated by political ideology, the entrepreneurship education presents a political opportunity in that it uniquely satisfies both a social agenda (employment and inclusion - driven by necessity entrepreneurship) and a market agenda (competitiveness – driven by opportunity entrepreneurship).

A review of literature covering entrepreneurship education underlines how emphasis is particularly focused on third-level education (Pittaway & Cope, 2007; Mwasalwiba, 2010). Nonetheless, a strategic review of entrepreneurship education by the World Economic Forum and recommendations to apply globally go wider and include early education but fail, to address vocational education (WEF, 2009). Aware of this policy blind spot, this project specifically addresses the vocational education system in Massachusetts in the United States while allowing for learning value for other education environments in the USA, and beyond.

The project sets out to determine how existing efforts to promote entrepreneurship for 16-19 year old vocational students can be enhanced. It takes as its starting point the entrepreneurship eco-system, in particular how vocational education interfaces with the wider range of actors engaged in the economic, employment and enterprise development drive in Massachusetts. The critical issue is that all partners in the eco-system work in partnership to maximise the entrepreneurship potential of Massachusetts’s people and economy. This includes exploring how the banking sector could a) directly cooperate with vocational schools in terms of building knowledge and capacity of young people in financial and loan management, and b) to develop financing instruments and arrangements specifically suited to the circumstances of budding entrepreneurs.

Secondly, the project reviews ‘Strand 5’ - the existing entrepreneurship curriculum - and proposes a number of concrete ways the curriculum could be enhanced to meet the demands of a changing economy. In particular, and by way of example, the project concentrates on one pillar of the entrepreneurship education drive (start-ups) and proposes ways and means to improve student engagement and ownership of the learning process as a pre-condition for overall effectiveness of public investment in vocational education. With increasing availability of generic information and communication technologies, and the opportunity that these technologies can bring to the teaching and learning process, the project team makes a number of concrete recommendations for low-cost (and potentially) high-impact technology applications for vocational education.

An important argument in the paper is that entrepreneurship promotion should go beyond the traditional understanding of entrepreneurship as a business-specific phenomenon to include entrepreneurship as a ‘key competence’. The key competence comprises a collection of interpersonal, cognitive and attitudinal traits which develop the potential of the individual’s entrepreneurial contribution to the economy as an employee (intrapreneur) as well as building the entrepreneurship mindset requirements for those starting and growing a business. The

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entrepreneurship key competence calls for a rethink of the learning environment and in particular of the teaching and learning process.

The paper closes with next steps to bring forward the proposals for eco-system building and the road-testing of the curriculum reform recommendations, including the use of learning technologies, as a driver of innovation in entrepreneurship education.

2. Aim and Objectives

Faced with rising concerns about youth unemployment, the aim of this project is to formulate a systemic response by the vocational education community in Massachusetts as a pre-condition for sustainable employment of its young people and a more developed entrepreneurial economy.

More specifically, and by way of example for other education systems, the objectives are: a) to advocate entrepreneurship promotion in vocational education in the State of

Massachusetts with particular reference to the education eco-system; andb) to recommend how technology applications could enhance the teaching and learning

process, as a pre-condition for employability of young people in Massachusetts and a more developed entrepreneurial economy.

3. What is Entrepreneurship Education?

Interestingly, despite increasing interest by policy makers, practitioners and academia, no hard-and-fast definition of entrepreneurship education exists. Commentators point to a plethora of terminology and divergent definitions (Garavan & O’Cinnede, 1994) underlining the comparative newness and evolving nature of entrepreneurship education. For the purposes of this project, the following definition of entrepreneurship captures a number of critical factors which allow for a better understanding of how and why the education system has an important contribution to make to a community’s entrepreneurship drive:

Entrepreneurship refers to an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action. It covers creativity, innovation and risk taking, and the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives. This supports everyone in day-to-day life at home and in society, makes employees more aware of the context of their work and better able to seize opportunities, and provides a foundation for entrepreneurs setting up social or commercial activities. (European Commission, 2009).

4. Socio-Economic Context

This section briefly reviews the socio-economic context to the project.

Firstly, a review of US and EU unemployment data (both areas addressed in the project) underlines a growing convergence in terms of joblessness with young people under 25 years particularly hard hit (20% in the EU and 19% in the US). The data also demonstrate that at 10%, the share of youth joblessness in the US as a function of total unemployment, eclipses EU figures of 9% (Kiiver & Hijman, 2010). Most recent unemployment data for US teenagers are more grim

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with 23.5% out of work (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). Massachusetts-specific data point to some 14% of under 25 year-olds out of work (Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center, 2012).

Secondly, the issue is not only one of economic crisis. The global economy is playing its hand in the employment concerns with estimates that up to 29% of all US jobs within the next decade being potentially ‘offshoreable’ (Blinder, 2007). Local solutions therefore need to be found to fill an employment gap consequent to production and services shifting overseas.

Finally, technology advances are rapidly replacing labour once performed manually and opens a third pillar of threat to employment for upcoming generations (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2012).

All three issues prompt strategic reflection as to how young people are prepared for a changing employment scenario. More developed entrepreneurship promotion through education is one part of the solution.

5. Determining Relevance: Focusing on Young People’s Interests

To ensure relevance of the project to young people in particular, the project team undertook two consultation initiatives to determine interest and concerns of youth in more strategic developments in entrepreneurship education.

Firstly, in Massachusetts, a school-based electronic survey (www.polleverywhere.com) was administered targeting 16-19 years olds (See Annex 1). A total of 40 young people responded to a number of questions elaborated by the project team and customised to the local environment by a teacher who was part of the project team. The survey was administered by the teacher. Pupils received and responded to the survey on their mobile telephones. Results were immediately available and visible to both the teacher and students. The survey generated high interest from students underlining the value of consultation and the survey method with the young people on the entrepreneurship theme.

The key findings of the survey were as follows:

a) the majority of the student’s surveyed felt that they would benefit from more education related to starting their own business (see Figure 1) and, in particular, from additional teaching of entrepreneurship as part of the vocational curriculum.

Figure 1.

Student interest in entrepreneurship education.

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A further concern for students’ was access to finance: they felt that the major impediment keeping them from starting a business was the issue of acquiring the necessary funds to begin their venture.

Figure 2. Barriers to business start-up

b) while nearly 7 out of 10 young people worried about finding a job upon graduation, one-third felt confident about finding work on completion of their vocational studies (see Figure 3). This data approximates the actual employment statistics in Massachusetts where over 23% of young people are out of work (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). Interestingly, in terms of future job security, some 72% of respondents considered owning ones own business as the key determinant of sustainable employment.

Figure 3. Concerns about employment after finishing school

Secondly, two young people’s focus groups were established (one in Poland and one in Washington, USA) to determine young people’s understanding of entrepreneurship, the challenges to youth entrepreneurship and the role and contribution of education in promoting a more entrepreneurial society. Each focus group was administered by a member of the project

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team and comprised 8 young people (average age 19 years and 6 months). Questions used to gather information are listed at Annex 2 along with a summary of the overall results.

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The findings underline how young people’s understanding of entrepreneurship across both constituencies were similar and involving a mix market interest (money-making), and psychological and behavioural traits (e.g. resilience, creativity, risk-taking). Barriers to entrepreneurship highlighted by young people again were similar across both groups. These are categorized as internal barriers (e.g. self efficacy, fear of failure, lack of practical experience and skills e.g. finance management) and external barriers (e.g. poor access to finance, weak contribution of formal education and negative societal attitudes to youth entrepreneurship).

Overall, the results from the Massachusetts survey and the Washington and Poland focus groups underline the interest of young people in a more developed entrepreneurship promotion drive in education.

6. The Vocational Education Eco-System in Massachusetts

An effective vocational education system, ‘fit for purpose’ in an economy which is constantly changing as result of technology advances, more open global markets or responding to crisis, requires a more developed cooperation framework between all partners co-working developments against a set of common objectives: growth and jobs. Building a comprehensive, cooperation framework for its vocational education system (and broader learning environment) will be important for Massachusetts as it grapples with the challenges of a dragging economy and unemployment.

A mapping of existing and potential partners for vocational education with a view to a more strategic promotion of entrepreneurship is available in Diagram 1. The range of institutions and interest bodies underlines the complex environment for a 21st century vocational school but where cooperation and exchange provide opportunities not only for the vocational school community to deliver on its mandate, but to additionally allow for leveraging innovation into the schooling system through networking, expertise sharing and good practice exchange which an well developed eco-system can offer.

This project has only been able to draw up a mapping of key stakeholders many of which have no functional relationship at this point with vocational schools. A proposal is to build a networked eco-system, possibly supported by a web-based platform with two functions. Firstly, to ensure that all partners are engaged and updated on all developments in vocational education, including a common area for co-working innovative projects. Secondly, to provide an outlet where vocational schools can post requests for support (e.g. call for mentors for specific projects) but additionally where the schools can highlight good practice and share expertise and know-how both within Massachusetts, and beyond.

Next, the project team considers an evolving and visible community of education technology companies in Massachusetts as an opportunity for next-step developments in entrepreneurship education. By directly engaging with the companies individually or collectively as an association2, vocational schools can ensure that their curriculum and learning development needs for entrepreneurship education are known and understood by the education technology community. This in turn may allow for technology ideas and solutions to be put forward for integration into the school environment.

2 See more information on the Boston education technology incubator. https://www.edsurge.com/n/2012-12-11-learnlaunch-east-coast-education-technology-incubator

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Finally, an effective vocational education eco-system requires commitment by all key stakeholders (public and private) and importantly a clearly defined leader institution. In this regard, the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators (MAVA) could be considered as a potential organisation to bring forward more strategic cooperation for entrepreneurship promotion in vocational education. Structured linkages with stakeholders responsible for wider education issues (STEM developments), employment and business support services, the education technology community and the business world will be critical. Ensuring a better interface between schools and the banking sector, specifically to look at options for improving young people’s access to start-up finance, could also be considered set against the findings from the survey and focus groups referred to above. The issue of access to finance is returned to at Section 8.

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7. Rethinking Entrepreneurship in Vocational Education

Entrepreneurship promotion in vocational schooling in Massachusetts is presently governed by ‘Standardized Strand 5’ of the Vocational Technical Education Framework, entitled ‘Management and Entrepreneurship’ (see Annex 3.) The curriculum framework has been in force since August 2007. ‘Strand 5’ provides a good basis for entrepreneurship promotion addressing primarily knowledge and skills in business administration as well as the regulatory framework for businesses (e.g. federal and state requirements on workers’ rights). Other important features of the existing curriculum include issues such as business-community relations and business ethics. A number of improvements to ‘Strand 5’ are proposed here in the bid to maximise the employment potential of Massachusetts’ vocational students and their contribution to a more entrepreneurial economy.

Entrepreneurship as a key competenceMissing in the present curriculum framework is the notion of entrepreneurship as a key competence – the contribution of education to developing the entrepreneurship mindset which comprises the inter-personal and self-development skills that businesses and the wider economy require to ensure improved performance in an increasingly competitive business environment. While the team recognises that the concept of the entrepreneurship key competence is new, and still very much undeveloped, the issue for Massachusetts is a) whether it waits for tried-and-tested good practice to be made available and against which curriculum, teaching and assessment arrangements could be borrowed; or b) that it seizes the opportunity to develop the entrepreneurship key competence areas itself; and ultimately provide leadership and guidance on this area of entrepreneurship education for other states both within the USA, and beyond.

Assuming that the education authorities in Massachusetts, acting alone or in partnership with other stakeholders, decide to bring forward more strategic developments in entrepreneurship education, the team has pre-identified a number of areas considered important for inclusion within an entrepreneurship key competence framework (see below). The reform and development effort would work towards creative solutions where Massachusetts schools promote the cognitive, behavioural and social traits associated with entrepreneur. This would involve specialised teams (curriculum specialists, teachers and other pedagogic experts, education technology specialists as well as direct engagement and contribution of small and medium-sized businesses) working on curriculum, teaching and learning processes as well as assessment arrangements.

The recommendation here is that the Massachusetts Department of Education, with the support of the Massachusetts Association for Vocational Education Administrators, create a partnership with the business community, teachers and young entrepreneurs associations (and possibly the education technology community) and agree to establish an action plan for the strategic piloting of entrepreneurship as a key competence. The piloting would involve a sub-set of Massachusetts vocational schools. Given that the entrepreneurship key competence is not vocational-specific, pilot efforts could also engage general secondary schools. Supported by a dedicated entrepreneurship education task force for vocational education, the objective of a strategic pilot should be as follows:

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Factors making up the entrepreneurship key competence

Learning Outcome Teaching and Learning Processes

Assessment arrangements

Learning technology

Ability to assess and manage risk

Case studiesBusiness simulation games

Self-assessment, teacher assessment, peer assessment

Business game (e.g. Simventure)

Ability to work in a team Case studies, individual portfolio, business simulation

Teacher assessment, peer assessment, assessment by community/business partner of school

Virtual project management environment (e.g. Asana)

Demonstrates leadership skills

Case studies, group work, guest speakersRole modelling, role play

Peer assessment, self assessment, teacher assessment

Young entrepreneurs leaders sharing their enterprise story (local young entrepreneurs stories available on U tube )

Table 1.Examples of learning outcomes which could support the entrepreneurship key competence

to develop and agree on a set of learning outcomes for the entrepreneurship key competence;

for each learning outcome, clearly articulate a set of guidelines, with examples of good practice developed through the piloting drive, to ensure that the teaching and learning processes effectively deliver on the pre-defined learning outcomes;

for each of the learning outcomes articulate formal assessment modalities. If the key competence developments are to be integrated eventually into the Massachusetts curriculum they will need to be subject to formal assessment. Only when formal assessment in the learning environment is required by the school or examining authority will scale in key competence promotion be assured;

draw on existing education technologies to support the teaching, learning and assessment processes.

While the teaching, learning and assessment processes to evolve from the pilot project could be enhanced through technology applications, the administration, execution and management of the pilot project could additionally engage technologies to support the system-building process. Consideration could be given, inter alia, to:

a virtual project management environment (e.g. Asana) to ensure efficiency in planning and delivery schedules for range of measures (e.g. teacher training) foreseen within the pilot operation;

facebook or similar networking applications to maximise the value of exchange between school leaders, teachers, curriculum specialists, students and the education administration in the execution of the project;

technology-supported monitoring and evaluation of participant stakeholders in the pilot (e.g. Pollweverywhere, Surveymonkey) to ensure changing interests and needs are addressed;

borrowing on SMILE (Stanford Mobile Inquiry based Learning) allow for student-specific technology applications to generate critical reflection and direct inputs to an evolving curriculum; and in so doing, empower students for a 21st century learning environment where ownership of an student-centred curriculum maximises commitment to learning.

Finally, how the learning outcomes for entrepreneurship education at vocational level interface with those from earlier and later levels of the education system should be considered with an

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objective of establishing a lifelong entrepreneurial learning framework for Massachusetts. The objective should be to create a sequence of entrepreneurship promotion up though the education system as a pre-condition for an entrepreneurial society.

Again, there are no existing lifelong entrepreneurial learning models to borrow on. However, assuming a Massachusetts partnership arrangement were to take this proposal on board, separate task forces could be established for elementary, middle and high school, community college and university education. Their task should be to broadly follow the same piloting arrangements as advocated for vocational education but where the overall result would be:

a) a Massachusetts taxonomy for entrepreneurship education following Bloom’s (1956) incremental learning stages;

b) an approved, Massachusetts lifelong entrepreneurship education curriculum and assessment framework; and

c) a ‘joined-up’ entrepreneurship education framework (all schools, colleges and universities3) starting in early education and progressively promoted in subsequent education levels.

Business knowledgeThe ‘Strand 5’ curriculum and learning environment could be upgraded to ensure young people’s awareness and understanding of business in its socio-economic context at municipal, state and national levels. This should also include preparing young people to appreciate how local businesses are impacted by globalisation and the challenges and opportunities this brings particularly to more ambitious small businesses operating in a global trading system.

Further development lines for the ‘Strand 5’ curriculum could additionally address business-community relations, social responsibility and environmental accountability reflecting current concerns for more transparency, ethics and accountability of businesses.

Learning outcomes, and teaching and learning processes to ensure that the learning outcomes are achieved, will need to be defined for the business knowledge pillar of the revised curriculum. This should include options for including technology applications and where specific considerations could be given to student-centred, student-directed learning in line with the proposals outlined for the entrepreneurship key competence.

Business skills‘Strand 5’ curriculum should continue to build young people’s capacity to eventually move towards self-employment or business start-up. A critical issue here in how the business environment interfaces with the school environment to ensure more effective learning outcomes for young people as they join the labour market and for businesses seeking skilled workers. An international study on workforce preparation finds that in most countries education and businesses work in parallel universes (Mourshad, Farell & Barton, 2012). The worlds of business and education must partner up to ensure mutual interests are met. The starting point for business is to co-work and validate a set of learning outcomes which the schools and young people need to deliver on.

3 Given the autonomy of third-level education institutions, a separate dialogue, consultation and development framework may need to be considered.

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The proposal here is to reinforce those learning outcomes already identified in ‘Strand 5’ but to give specific consideration to:

a) how the teaching processes could be improved and where the role of the teacher evolves towards one of mentor and coach as young people take more responsibility for the learning process;

b) mainstream readily available, low-cost technologies into the teaching, learning and assessment processes associated with the course

c) maximise the potential of the wider entrepreneurship eco-system by ensuring that this feature of the curriculum is co-worked with the local business environment.

By way of example, Table 2 provides examples of how more specific learning outcomes for the business skills pillar of the entrepreneurship curriculum and learning support environment could be reinforced. Note that this listing is not exhaustive and the examples would need to be adapted to the specific circumstances and resources of the vocational school network.

Ensuring entrepreneurship education interfaces with wider vocational curriculumThe proposals put forward for more strategic development of entrepreneurship education in this paper should be considered as an integral part of the overall vocational education curriculum which include development of occupational or trade skills for the range of professions covered by the 80 vocational schools in Massachusetts. More specifically, while the entrepreneurship key competence pillar has a dedicated pillar in the curriculum framework (see Diagram 2), as a key competence, it will need to be promoted transversally across the curriculum – all students, all classes and all teachers involved.

Secondly, with increasing policy interest in developing young people’s interest in science and technology in Massachusetts through more concerted STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) developments,4 the proposal here is to include entrepreneurship as a fifth priority area for Massachusetts education. Integrating entrepreneurship with STEM will provide a more comprehensive basis to generate innovation and market potential through education.

4 More information on the Massachusetts Governor’s STEM Advisory Council: www.stemconnector.org/state-by-state/massachusetts

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Business Skills

Core Areas

Learning Outcomes

Teaching and Learning Processes

Assessment Arrangements

Learning Technologies

Star

t-up

Starting a new business Ability to research, draft,

revise and complete a business plan

Ability to effectively explain key business concepts (e.g. profit, loss, production, quality assurance etc.)

Understanding of role of range of start-up support services operating in entrepreneurship eco-system

Ability to determine most effective solution for start-up finance

a) Lectures, tutorialb) Self-directed exploratory researchc) Multi-school environment and feedback loop;d) Site visits to small business support servicese) Invited speakers from entrepreneurship eco-system

a) Self-assessment, b) teacher assessmentc) peer assessment (multi-school environment)d) Assessment by school business partner mentor network

a) Social media: Facebook networking of vocational schoolsb) Business game (e.g. Simventure)5

c) Business speakers ‘skyped’ into school-based learning environmentsd) web-based research facilities (e.g. google)

Esse

ntial

Bus

ines

s Sk

ills

Sales & Marketing Understanding core concepts

of marketing and sales Appreciation for local nature

of marketing and appropriate measures to operate effectively in local economy.

Ability to develop a marketing communications plan

Ability to construct written sales

Ability to collect, process, and analyze market/consumer data to make informed marketing decisions

Ability to analyze marketing problems and provide solutions based on a critical examination of marketing information.

Ability to apply knowledge and skills within real-world experiences in an internship.

a) Lectures, tutorials, roundtablesb) case studies of successful marketing plans (including use of social media)c) Self-directed market researchd) individual portfoliose) Group projects: multi-school environment; f) Site visits to small business support servicesg) Invited speakers from entrepreneurship eco-systemh) business simulation i) Internship

a) Teacher assessment, b) Fellow-pupii peer assessment, c) Assessment by business partner of schoold) Assessment by internship supervisor

a) Virtual project management environment for grup and multi-school projects (e.g. Asana)b) Facebook networking on group/multi school projectsb) Business game (e.g. Simventurc) c) Business speakers ‘skyped’ into school-based learning environmentsd) Skype follow support for interns by business supervisor on completion of internshipe) web-based research facilities (e.g. google)

Busi

ness

Ope

ratio

ns

Demonstrates leadership skills Ability to draw up and

maintain a business inventory Ability plan, schedule and

revise

a) Case studies,b) Team projects,c) Guest speakersc) Simulation and role play

a) Peer assessment, b) Self assessment, c) Teacher assessmentc) Assessment by business world

a) Young entrepreneurs leaders sharing their enterprise story (local young entrepreneurs stories available on U tube )b) use of office technologies for business administration (e.g. spreadsheet)

Table 2.Business skills: examples of learning outcomes and teaching, learning and assessment proposals,

including technology applications

5 http://www.simventure.co.uk/

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8. Young People’s Access to Finance: Road Blocks and Solutions

A recurrent theme through this paper is the need for all those with an interest in education, employment, enterprise and entrepreneurship to sign up to more structured cooperation and partnership arrangements (the eco-system). A particular gap in the existing institutional support framework for education and youth entrepreneurship is how the banking associations and other actors providing finance to young entrepreneurs formally connect into the education system. The findings of the school-based survey in Massachusetts, as well as the outcomes of the focus groups in Washington and Poland referred to earlier, clearly point to the concerns of young people on access to finance which is a significant roadblock to developing youth entrepreneurship. The assumption is that such barriers already create the ‘can’t do’ mindset. First and foremost, legislation works against young people entering into contracts with minors. Young entrepreneurs under the age of 18 will need to have parental guarantees on loans with banks and other institutions. Although this roadblock exists, there is still support for young entrepreneurs. The United States Government’s Small Business Administration website has an entire section dedicated to teen entrepreneurs. It provides resources for necessary documentation to start a business and financing approaches. What is missing is hard data to demonstrate the availability of public and private financing support for young people’s start-ups set against demand. More specifically, the question is should individual schools providing entrepreneurship education be more engaged with the banking and other financing intermediaries to ensure that worthy business plans and young people’s motivation to move forward with an entrepreneurship career are effectively followed up on completion of their formal education system?

Lessons could be learnt from one bank’s efforts to connect in with the education system. In Germany, a public bank (L-Bank) in the region of Baden Würrtenburg provides micro-finance to school-going entrepreneurs.6 What is innovative here is how the school, the bank and the young person work together on a financing agreement, which forms an integral part of the entrepreneurship learning process.

Other barriers to funding include the lack of experience youth have with money management and business experience. Strong active mentorship in this area to young people directly within the curriculum (on-site and/or remote access by way of Skype, for example) as well as systemic support to the education system by way of an active advisory board and fiduciary board will give credibility here. The critical issue is that banking and other financial operators for micro and start-up finance should be integrated into the curriculum and learning process.

The private sector is becoming more creative with financing instruments. For example, revenue based financing is a combination loan/equity instrument with a buy back clause based on a percentage of top line revenue. The investor receives a small amount of equity, which are redeemed by the company at 2-3x the original investment. The pay back amount is calculated as a percentage of top-line revenue. The term of the lending instrument (pay back calendar) is usually quite long. Could such creative and responsible approaches to banking services be further customized to accommodate the young entrepreneur?

Additional funding options, such as crowd funding and friend and family loans, could also be utilized by young entrepreneurs. The challenge is the extent to which the entrepreneurship 6 www.l-bank.de/lbank/inhalt/meta/presse/presseinformationen/detail.xml?ceid=100147&id=1621&dyn=true

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education framework should directly engage in promoting access to finance. Should schools work with informal lenders (families and friends) to support a ‘loan learning’ process? With many schools already delivering on an overloaded curriculum, one solution is that the banking sector, as a key stakeholder in the wider entrepreneurship eco-system, takes responsibility for bringing forward this area, in partnership with schools.

A first step in the case of Massachusetts would be to open a structured dialogue between the education system and banking associations to look at access to finance options, including how the banking sector directly contributes to areas of the curriculum (e.g. financial literacy, skills for loan requests, negotiation and management etc.). Other key partner institutions (e.g. the state representation of Small Business Administration, Startup Massachusetts, the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council) in the entrepreneurship eco-system could facilitate the dialogue ensuring their better integration into the entrepreneurship education eco-system.

9. Leveraging Impact for Other Education Environments

An advantage running through the project development phase was the opportunity to cross-refer to other education environments both inside the United States and other countries represented on the team. What was particularly clear in the exchanges was that in all countries the entrepreneurship education agenda needs a radical rethink set against a number of weaknesses common to all countries:

a weak education-economy cooperation culture; education system still not responding sufficiently to economic crisis; entrepreneurship promotion confined to a market model with limited curriculum; poor public image of vocational education; limited resources to ensure improvements to vocational curriculum.

While the project and recommendations focused specifically on Massachusetts, three issues particularly stand out for consideration by other countries:

a) the need for eco-system building: financial support, training and technical assistance in the eco-system developments would be important for countries where capacities of public institutions is weak;

b) entrepreneurship key competence: given the relative newness of the concept of the entrepreneurship key competence, less developed economies stood to gain by cooperating with education environments in advanced economies which were already working on the policy and institutional arrangements, including curriculum innovation and teacher developments;

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c) drawing on available, low-cost technologies: a critical issue when considering options for improving Massachusetts entrepreneurship education environment was to identify low-cost and (potential) high-impact technologies which were already publicly available to support a learning environment. The proposals for reinforcing ICT applications in the Massachusetts vocational learning environment were specifically modest set against broader concerns of public budgets. However, the team’s view is that modesty (efficiency) and effectiveness can work well together. In this regard, with information and communications’ technologies increasingly available in less developed economies, the proposals elaborated for Massachusetts could equally be considered for developing and transition economies.

Finally, on the assumption that a) this project paper will be brought to the attention of education decision-makers in Massachusetts; b) that there is a positive policy response there involving the wider stakeholder community, and c) support (financial and political) is made available to bring forward strategy building on entrepreneurship education (all parts of the education system), other countries keen to move forward with their own developments could be associated to the Massachusetts developments. The international donor community (e.g. USAID) could facilitate this process.

10. Conclusions and Next Steps

The leitmotif for this small project has been one single word: opportunity.

In coming together as a virtual team we were all convinced that entrepreneurship education represented an opportunity for communities world wide, no matter their level of development, to promote socio-economic development, stability and prosperity. With governments, the business world and civic interest groups scrambling to find to solutions to economic malaise and critical unemployment, particularly for young people, this project – the questions it asks, the issues it raises and the recommendations it makes - should be seen as catalytic. Our intention was to use the opportunity through the Venture Labs course to put a number of ideas together that could prompt strategic reflection and dialogue on how education can play a more strategic role in economic turn around and the rebuilding of sustainable and inclusive economies.

Through our ‘skype’ discussions and wider exchanges through the project management area, we also saw political opportunity through the project. Unlike other areas of public policy where progress is frustrated by political ideology, the entrepreneurship education presents a political opportunity in that it uniquely satisfies both a social agenda (employment and inclusion) and a market agenda (competitiveness and growth). The question is how important it is for different parts of society (economic, political, civic) to take a bold and ambitious decision to move forward with building learning systems where entrepreneurship education is an embedded feature of the teaching and learning process?

While the thrust of the paper has centred particularly on Massachusetts, the issues raised and recommendations put forward have equal relevance to other education environments: partnership, commitment, piloting, reviewing and mainstreaming.

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We close this project with two recommendations, which assuming if followed, could be one building block towards a more competitive and inclusive economy in Massachusetts and where the economic and employment potential of its young people is a driver for education reform. Both recommendations are geared towards improving the eco-system for entrepreneurship education:

a) a cross-stakeholder group should consider this paper as a basis for opening strategic dialogue on how entrepreneurship education could be more systematically promoted in Massachusetts. This dialogue should be led by the education authorities;

b) until a strategic framework is in place for systematic promotion of entrepreneurship in vocational education, the Massachusetts Association for Vocational Administrators should consider options for improving ‘Strand 5’ curriculum and where the arguments and ideas shared in this paper could be a starting point for discussion.

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Annex 1.

Questionnaire for Massachusetts Vocational Education Pupils

1. As part of my preparation (education), I wish that I had been able to take more courses

related to starting my own business.

2. Do you think teaching entrepreneurship should be part of the vocational curriculum?

3. What would prevent you from starting you own business?

4. I worry about not having a good job when I leave school.

5. Do you feel that your education has prepared to start your own business?

6. Do you think there is more job security owning your own business or working for someone

else?

Student Survey Results in Massachusetts

Summary:This poll utilized mobile technology in the classroom in real-time in which students were given a series of questions and responded through their mobile phones with their answers. Results were immediately available and visible to both the instructor and students.

The results of this survey suggest that students have a strong interest in taking part in coursework that would provide them with a more robust business background and a focus on the knowledge, skills and key competencies that would provide further opportunities for entrepreneurship. Results also suggest the high level of anxiety our youth have today as they approach the job market. Recent figures in the State of Massachusetts suggest that 1 out of 7 young people aged 16-24 are unemployed.

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Annex 2.

Guideline Questions for the Focus Group and Synthesis of Issues Raised

Focus Group Questions

ObjectiveThe objective of the focus group is to determine young people’s understanding of entrepreneurship, the challenges to youth entrepreneurship and the role and contribution of education in promoting a more entrepreneurial society.

QuestionsThe following questions will help with the focus group. They may be adapted to reflect local institutional, cultural and youth mores.

a) What does entrepreneurship mean for you?

b) What barriers exist for young people who may be considering entrepreneurship as a career choice?

c) How does your school support entrepreneurship career planning?

d) Provide two recommendations as to how the education system could improve its contribution to a more entrepreneurial society.

The following is a synthesis of the key issues from the focus groups.

The Definition of Entrepreneurship:

Poland Washington State– The ability to work in a team in order to

execute positive changes– An attitude of making money– Having character traits of creativity, ingenuity,

courage, perseverance and determination– The ability to take risks

– Doing your own thing, chasing your own ideas

– The ability to make a lot of money– Creating jobs through innovation and new

businesses– The ability to take high risks for high

rewards

The definition of entrepreneurship varied from purely money making (including illegally), to the very complex. This consisted of competencies in the area of attitude, knowledge and skills.

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Barriers to Entrepreneurship:

The following opinions were shared by both regions.

Internal :– lack of self-confidence– lack of motivation– lack of critical thinking skills– fear of failure– passivity– lack of experience with fundraising and managing money– lack of credibility among adults that would fund the venture, due to the young age of

entrepreneur

External :– education

o schools are providing exam preparation courses today and kill kids/students creativity and desire to innovate

o entrepreneurship is not taught nor promoted in schoolso there is a lack of understanding of the important role entrepreneurship has for

future generations at the level of decision makers - Ministry of Education and Superintendents of Education

– cultural – society (including parents and teachers) is not tolerant of young people who think differently than those that have gone before them.

– bureaucratic and administrative – including lack of transparency– financing is difficult to acquire due to the lack of faith in the youths’ ability to execute the ide

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Remedies:

Though the barriers were very similar among the regions, the remedies spanned a broader spectrum.

Poland Washington State– utilize the natural curiosity of kids, start

entrepreneurship earlier, since 6 not 16– provide less useless theory and more practical

elements including mentoring by business practitioners

– include in the educational practices attitude and skills competencies, not only the information/knowledge elements

– educational curriculum should be linked to the market needs

– prepare the entrepreneurship curriculum by entrepreneurs, students and the best teachers jointly – not by professors working on the corporate management/strategy

– teachers should have sufficient knowledge and practice on what they talk about

– redefine roles of schools: treat students as a customer in a world of global competition

– ensure a balance between intellect, body, emotions and spirituality in the educational practice

– provide start-ups’ know-how

– provide resources, including lists of companies that are willing to invest

– bring mentors into the school, like they do for college visit days

– advertise alternative after high school options

– encourage pursuit of practical and rewarding vocations

– offer opportunities through entrepreneurship

– give options in classes to get more involved in businesses

– teach about the current business climate in class

– teach classes related to funding financing options

– provide more information on current technologies

– organize entrepreneurship fairs at high schools

– provide classes in economics and accounting

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Annex 3.30

Strand 5: Management and Entrepreneurship Knowledge and Skills 5.A Analyze basic business practices required to start and run a company/organization.

5.A.01a Define entrepreneurship. 5.A.02a Describe the relationship between suppliers, producers, and consumers. 5.A.03a Compare and contrast types of businesses, including sole proprietorships, small

businesses, companies, corporations, governmental agencies, and non-profit organizations.

5.A.04a Describe practices that ensure quality customer service. 5.A.05a Explain the value of competition in business/field. Performance Examples: 1. Prepare a business plan for a new company in your community. 2. Participate in a discussion with members of a local small-business incubator or

chamber of commerce, identifying opportunities and summarizing best practices of new companies.

3. Create an equipment list, with costs, of equipment required for doing specific tasks. 4. Identify local zoning and environmental laws that apply to businesses in your industry.

5.B Manage all resources related to a business/organization. 5.B.01a Identify a company’s/organization’s chain of command and organizational

structure. 5.B.02a Define and demonstrate leadership and teamwork skills. 5.B.03a Explain ways a company or organization can market itself, including choosing a

name, designing logos and promotional materials, advertising, and the importance of word-of-mouth.

5.B.04a Identify methods to track inventory, productivity, income, expenses, and personnel.

5.B.05a Explain the importance of written operating procedures and policies. 5.B.06a Identify professional organizations and their benefits. 5.B.07a Explain methods to effectively run a meeting. Performance Examples: 1. Create a plan to keep track of tools and supplies in your classroom/shop. 2. Work as a team to complete a project, including running and participating in problem-

solving meetings. 3. Contact a relevant professional organization and request information about its benefits,

membership requirements, and costs. 4. Clip print advertisements from local companies, identifying common themes and

contrasting different styles.

5.C Describe methods for managing, organizing, retrieving and reporting financial data. 5.C.01a Explain the role of small businesses in the economy. 5.C.02a Extract and extrapolate data from financial documents, such as a pay-stub,

budget, tax statement, and financial report. 1. Create and follow a bud 2. Identify equipment in your shop/lab that are conside 3. From a pay-stub, determine gross salary, deductions, and net pay f calendar year. 4. Create a rate card or other list of standardized costs for services

provided, based on research of local rates and practices.

5 decisions. 5.D.01a List federal and state mandated employee rights. 5.D.02a Describe proper working conditions for your indust5.D.03a Explain the role of labor organizations. 5.D.04a Discuss the importance of diversity and diversity in the workplace. 5.D.05a Describe standard forms of employment contracts

applicable to your industry. 5.D.06a State the current minimum wage, as well as wages for common jobs found within the field. List opportunities for coPerformance Examples:

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1. Participate in and summ organization. Participate in aorganization. 3. While participating in a group project, write and follow job descriptions for each member of the team. 4. Evaluate a shop/lab in terms of safety, ergonomics, and

workflow.

5 industry. 5.E.01a Describe the role that the industry/organization plays in differcommunities. Describe the rocompany’s/organization’s decision-making process. ce Example: 1. Participate in a service

5 and decisions. 5.F.01a Identify laws that regulate businesses/organizations in your field. 5.F.02a Define the requirements for and protections given by copyright antrademark law. 5.F.03a Define the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other

civil rights legislation on your business/organization, employees, and customers. Define

ethical business practices for your field. 5.F.05a Identify trade-specific practices that support cleatechnologies and encourage environmental sustainability.

Performance Examples: 1. Research the ethical guidelines set forth by a professional organization related to your

industry and participate in a debate over how to apply these guidelines to a variety of situations.

2. Create a portfolio of a variety of completed contracts and their uses. 3. Participate in and summarize a discussion with a lawyer, consumer advocate, or other

legal professional. 4. Create a quick reference outline listing legal topics and related resources.

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Reading materials and bibliography

Blinder, A. S. (2007). How Many U.S. Jobs Might Be Offshorable? CEPS Working Paper No. 142 March 2007. Princeton University. http://www.princeton.edu/~blinder/papers/07ceps142.pdf

Bloom B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc.

Bonnstetter, B. J. (2012). New Research: The Skills That Make an Entrepreneur. Harvard Business Review. HBR Blog Network. http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/12/new_research_the_skills_that_m.html

European Commission (2009). Entrepreneurship in vocational education and training. Final report of the Expert Group. Brussels. November 2009.

State of Massachusetts (2007). Vocational Technical Education Framework. Standardised Strand 5: Management and Entrepreneurship. Massachusetts Department of Education. Malden. Massachusetts. August 2007.

Brynjolfsson, E. & McAfee, A. (2012). The Great Decoupling. The International Herald Tribune. 12 December 2012.

Garavan, T. N. & O'Cinneide, B. (1994). Literature review of problems associated with entrepreneurship education and training programmes. Entrepreneurship Education and Training Programmes: A Review and Evaluation - Part 1. Journal of European Industrial Training

Garavan, T. & O’Cinneide, B. (1994). Entrepreneurship education and training programmes: A review and evaluation - Part 1. Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 18 (8).

Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center (2012). Youth and Work in Massachusetts. Massbudget. December 3, 2012.http://massbudget.org/report_window.php?loc=massbudget_youth_employment.html

Mwasalwiba, E. S. (2010). Entrepreneurship Education: A Review of Its Objectives, Teaching Methods, and Impact Indicators. Education and Training. Vol. 52(1) pp 42-47.

Massachusetts Budget and Policy Centre (2012). Youth and Work in Massachusetts and across the Nation. 2 December 2012. Boston, MA 02108. http://massbudget.org/report_window.php?loc=massbudget_youth_employment.html

Pittaway, L & Cope , J. (2007). Entrepreneurship Education: A Systematic Review of the Evidence. International Small Business Journal. Vol. 25(5) pps. 479-510 .

Kiiver H. & Hijman, R. (2010). Impact of the crisis on unemployment. Eurostat Statistics in Focus 20/2010.

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http://www.1mayo.ccoo.es/nova/files/1018/S10Doc12.pdf

US Bureau of Labour Statistics (2012). The Employment Situation November, 2012. Friday 7 December 2012. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

WEF (2009). Educating the Next Wave of Entrepreneurs Unlocking entrepreneurial capabilities to meet the global challenges of the 21st Century. A Report of the Global Education Initiative. Cologny, Geneva. April 2009. https://members.weforum.org/pdf/GEI/2009/Entrepreneurship_Education_Report.pdf

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