PRESS RELEASE - IMMEDIATE
June 29, 2004
Contact: Cathy Ashmore, Executive Director,
The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education
614-486-6538 cashmore@entre-ed.org
"LEARN" TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR
Can you learn the entrepreneurial skills of Bill Gates or Donald Trump? A national organization thinks so. The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education has just released National Content Standards for Entrepreneurship Education. The list of 'Standards' is what a person needs to know and be able to do to enter the exciting and rewarding world of business creation and ownership. But are these skills inherited or acquired?
"Successful entrepreneurs demonstrate a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes that they can learn through the experiences of their lives", says Dr. Cathy Ashmore, Executive Director of the Consortium. "These new Standards will help those not fortunate enough to have family members who are entrepreneurs see business creation as an option, plus help develop the skills all entrepreneurs need to be successful once they start a business." The standards will serve as the guide for those who operate entrepreneurial development programs at all levels from kindergarten through adult education.
Entrepreneurship has come to the forefront of economic development as cities and states, the federal government, foundations, and the educational system move to support an economy changing from manufacturing emphasis to the more agile, innovative global economy of the 21st century. In fact the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a group of industry and education representatives which has come together to help schools address the educational needs of the 21st century, includes entrepreneurship as an important subject for all students.
The Standards are based on real world entrepreneurship. "We asked entrepreneurs throughout the United States to tell us what they do as an entrepreneur and what they needed to know to do it", said Ashmore. "The result was three interlocking curriculum areas that are the gears that will keep our entrepreneurial culture strong and our economy moving forward into the future." The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation supported development of the standards.
Can you really learn to be an entrepreneur? Adam Gonzalez, a member of the National Entrepreneur Advisory Council, offers himself as proof that it can be done. Gonzalez, a son of migrant workers who learned business and marketing skills while in high school and through his local DECA chapter, started with one restaurant in the 1980's and now owns a chain of 50 restaurants in Texas. "People need to know how to get into business, and what it takes once you get there. Everybody wants to be Emeril, but most fail in the restaurant business because they don't have the skills to run the business." The Content Standards will help people understand what it takes to be successful.
A complete list of the standards and access to a "toolkit" to help with implementing the standards can be found free of charge at the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education's website
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For further information contact:
Cathy Ashmore
cashmore@entre-ed.org
614-486-6538
1601 W Fifth Ave. #199, Columbus, OH 43212
www.entre-ed.org
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