Entrepreneurship Means Change
Vocational students come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. But, they do have one thing in common. They are all motivated to prepare for their future via a specialized route...career and technical education.
Vocational programs provide millions of young people with access to the skills and knowledge
they need for all types of work, be it agriculture, electronics, sales and marketing, computers,
child care, auto mechanics, graphic arts, and so on. To help students become competent workers,
the system uses the task analysis method to determine how jobs are mastered, and then develops
curriculum and teaching materials for the classroom. However, in the world of work, nothing
stays the same.
A wise business person knows that the opportunity for change is essential for competition and
growth in our economy. An entrepreneur was questioned once as to why he always changed
things. His answer was, "Yesterday we were stupid, today we are a little smarter."
Entrepreneurship education as a part of the vocational curriculum is an excellent vehicle for
teaching students about change...change that occurs naturally or change that is caused by
invention. Entrepreneurship education is a way to teach students to favor change rather
than to fear it.
In addition, young people need to understand that the law of supply and demand is nothing
more than a system that leads to the opportunity for changes in business, a concept that many
adults do not understand. For example, when workers are no longer needed by a business, this
may mean that the business has a greater supply of the product than customers demand for it.
Or perhaps product costs have risen to the point that the price they charge the customer is too
high, and consequently, there is less demand for the product. Or perhaps new competition has
entered the market and is offering the product at a reduced price.
How to Analyze Opportunities
Entrepreneurs look at "risk" and see opportunity for their expertise rather than opportunity for
failure. As we teach young people about potential new businesses, we must also teach them how
to analyze opportunities available to them. This might include...
- a better way to accomplish a task through inventions, new services, and new approaches.
- examining a growing segment of the population that may be open to a special version of a
product targeted to their life-style or needs.
- a cheaper product or service than is currently available.
- a new technology that enables a business to solve customers' problems in an entirely different
way.
- a business location that is more convenient to customers than your competitors' location.
Small businesses and entrepreneurs often provide needed innovations in all areas of industry when
the larger companies cannot change quickly. This kind of entrepreneurial flexibility causes a
constant fluctuation of the market, as well as pressure for businesses to be more competitive.
Thus businesses are always changing. And the jobs that go with them are changing also. For one
thing, employers often cannot continue to pay higher wages or prices will go up, making room for
new competition at lower prices.
Entrepreneurship education is a vehicle for teaching students to look for a need or a problem and
to create a solution. Entrepreneurship means change. It is the wise vocational teacher who helps
students understand their options in a free market economy, and encourages them to look for
entrepreneurial opportunities for themselves. This is the mission of entrepreneurship education in
the vocational education curriculum.
Note: This article was published in EntrepreNews & Views and may be copied for local school use.
Please reference it as follows: by Cathy Ashmore, The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education, Columbus, OH.
