Students can run effective businesses from school onwards: are we supporting them enough? Photo: File.
Are we doing anything to find and foster the next generation of the self-employed while they are still at school?
Schools often highlight how many of their students went to university or got an apprenticeship or did some other type of vocational training. But I’ve never seen a school that proudly brags about how many ex-students run their own business.
Our schools are normally well equipped to help their students move on to tertiary education or to vocational education, and to find work as employees in large or small businesses.
But there seems to be little place in the school system for young people who want to be independent and run their own businesses, and particularly those who take the opportunity to set up their own enterprise while they are still at school. These students are taking a pathway from school to work that is undervalued.
Does a young person not think about running a business while they are at school, but then suddenly after leaving school have an entrepreneurial epiphany and start a business? No.
I have had a theory for a long time that the true small business individual has that desire built into them as a person. I have estimated around eight per cent of any population are people who want to be their own boss.
I was part of a research project, many years ago, that investigated that idea, collaborating with noted Canberran economist Dr Kim Houghton. The project was funded by RIRDC and was called Business Operators Still at School (BOSS). Dr Houghton and I estimated that there are more than 50,000 students nationwide who are running real businesses.
We made a series of recommendations for identifying and supporting those students, but nothing came of it as the public service and the education system, at that time, didn’t understand the concept of students running a business.
I would estimate there are around 800 to 900 students in the ACT who are running real businesses and still attending schools.
But schools do not have any information on students and their businesses. We know schools are busy enough, yet all we need is the schools to identify these students and government to support the business community in providing mentoring and other support for the next generation of employers.
I once visited the old Kambah High School as part of a ‘Business Week’ and mentioned my theory to the careers teacher.
He was intrigued and turned to the 108 Year Ten students who were in the hall for my presentation. He asked: “How many of you want to run your own business when you leave school?”. Eight students put up their hands. The teacher then asked them to stand up and he said to the others: “These students will be employing the rest of you”. I thought this was a brilliant comment.
I met students from Years 8 to 12 in various schools who were running real businesses. There was the Year 9 girl in Grenfell who made and sold jewellery online. The Year 10 boy in Batemans Bay who made surfboards and sold them to others. Several who did backyard maintenance or provided paid IT support in their neighbourhood.
There was a Year 12 student in Cooma who did paid babysitting. Some would say that babysitting isn’t a business but just something young people do. Yet the girl advertised her services in supermarkets, in bank windows and in the paper; she also had different rates depending upon the age of the kids and whether they were in or out of town. Now that is business behaviour and it should be acknowledged.
This is a cohort of future leaders who are missing from any support while they are still captured at school.
An interesting finding from the research was that kids at school with behavioural problems – not learning problems – often had the same traits as entrepreneurs. They didn’t listen all the time as they were focussed on their schemes and plans, they snuck out the back when no one was looking to do their own thing, they were often disruptive and they took risks.
They are not evil kids, just mischievous and difficult to manage. Let’s identify them and help them put their energy into business. That’s good for them, good for the school and good for the community.
Maybe the ACT Government could focus more on the needs of our young entrepreneurs instead of the needs of the well funded unions? Maybe?
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