Dive Brief:
- The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship is pushing for the passage of a proposed bipartisan reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which currently allows students to have access to work-based learning programs like apprenticeships, leadership development activities, adult mentoring and entrepreneurial skills training.
- The proposal, A Stronger Workforce for America Act, is pending in the House and promotes activities focused on developing skills like creativity, digital literacy, critical thinking, collaboration and persistence. NFTE said those five skills are among the top 10 that employers are increasingly seeking, per a 2023 World Economic Forum survey.
- The global nonprofit is also calling for entrepreneurship programs to be required by federal law, rather than just permitted, in workforce development efforts. Entrepreneurship programs cut across industries and should be viewed as a key part of career-readiness, NFTE said.
Dive Insight:
Entrepreneurship education programs help students develop a mindset or collection of skills that help them take risks, recognize opportunities, learn from mistakes, and better communicate, NFTE said. The nonprofit relies on the Entrepreneurial Mindset Index as a tool for building awareness and boosting skills that prepare students for future careers.
A 2015 study published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization found entrepreneurship education and training programs can improve the likelihood that students will launch a business and earn a higher income compared to their peers who didn’t participate in a similar program.
Other nonprofits have found teaching entrepreneurial mindsets to middle and high school students to be extremely beneficial for helping marginalized students succeed in the modern workforce, considering historic barriers they have faced when trying to participate in the economy.
For instance, the national nonprofit Build provides programming to high school students in underserved communities. Build’s curriculum helps students design, develop, market and pitch their own business ideas.
Overall, states are increasingly zeroing in on passing and expanding career and technical education policies. In 2023, Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education found 47 states enacted 115 CTE-related laws. Industry partnerships and work-based learning were the top policy areas addressed by state legislators for the second year in a row.
The U.S. Department of Education has also kept its eye on improving career-readiness. In 2022, the agency announced that it’s using a portion of the $121.9 billion from the American Rescue Plan and funding from the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act to expand skills-based learning and training pathways into certain industries like advanced manufacturing, automotive and cybersecurity.
