This short paper doesn’t pretend to give a conclusive answer to these enormous questions. But it does consider the key role that social entrepreneurship could play in providing at least part of the answer. Entrepreneurship, at its root, is about creating value. At its best, it is about creating value for other people, as well as for the entrepreneur. It is about creative problem solving; about spotting new opportunities; about successfully navigating shifting sands; and about getting things done. Entrepreneurship involves many of the skills our young people and our world will need in the coming years. So, should entrepreneurship become a central part of our children’s education? Too often, the value of entrepreneurship is only considered in its narrow economic sense. It can create wealth for the individual at the expense of society or the environment. Everyone we engaged with for this paper believes this approach in education would be hugely damaging. The economic value that comes at a high social-environmental cost disengages young people more than it empowers them. If we build that imbalance into our education system, we are building it into the foundations of our society. Social entrepreneurship, by contrast, is explicitly about creating value for others: economic, social and environmental value. This is the entrepreneurship the world needs more of in order to tackle a myriad of global problems. Social entrepreneurship is slowly making its way into the education system. In universities, the concept is starting to gain some traction, and there are some dazzling examples in schools too. But the concept is still relatively new and education systems can be notoriously slow to change. We hope this paper will act as a catalyst
Toolkit
Social entrepreneurship in education | British Council Paper
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