The Entrepreneurial Pipeline

I share a lot of information about today’s entrepreneurs and those who are just beginning their entrepreneurial journey.  But what about those in the entrepreneurial pipeline? 

Junior Achievement just released a survey of teenagers about their hopes and dreams for their future careers.  What do they see in their future?  Entrepreneurship.

They want their schools to help them learn how to become entrepreneurs.  An amazing 92 percent believe that entrepreneurial skills should be taught in school – and 46 percent believe that during grades K-12 is the best time to learn entrepreneurial skills.

The survey also found that even in the face of uncertainty in the U.S. job market, more than half of teens – 51 percent — are interested in starting their own companies.

Here are more highlights from this survey:

  • 23 percent of teens who want to start a business said they were interested in starting a business that “helps the environment” or that “deals with the problems or challenges of our society.” The growing demand for our new Social Entrepreneurship major here at Belmont is evidence of this trend.
  • The top reason cited by teens (26 percent) for wanting to start a business was wanting “to take control of your destiny and set your own career path.”
  • Respondents were almost evenly split between feeling there was more job security in owning their own business (47 percent) versus working for a company (49 percent). 

The times they are a changin’….