WHY EARLIER INTERVENTIONS ARE JUSTIFIED

A wide range of research suggests that educational interventions are more effective when they are targeted at an earlier stage of education.

Earlier interventions have two key benefits. First, they expand options and allow students to build on their knowledge at a later stage. 21 Second, earlier interventions have a greater effect on the development of non-cognitive skills, which are an important aspect of entrepreneurship. Researchers studying the positive influence of early-years interventions (i.e. preschool) on earnings, find that while academic benefits fade, the noncognitive benefits such as teamwork, self-esteem, and self-control last. 22 This is important in the case of entrepreneurship as psychological traits such as self-efficacy (an individual’s belief they can solve problems) and tolerance for risk-taking positively influence entrepreneurial intention. 23

There is also evidence that role models play an important role in determining whether or not an individual starts a business. Our polling of young people in the UK found that those who have thought about starting or started a company are more likely to have a family member or friend who is a business owner, with seven in ten stating that having a family member or friend who is an entrepreneur has made them more likely to consider starting a business. 24 A study of 292 entrepreneurs in the Netherlands found that over half had a role model and that one-third believed they would not have started up their venture without this role model. 25 The research also found that so-called entrepreneurial icons with large profiles had little impact on entrepreneurial activity, with entrepreneurs placing a greater emphasis on business-owners they know personally.

Similarly, multiple studies find that the children of self-employed parents are more likely to be self-employed. Kare Moberg of the Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship finds that these studies generally show that parents mainly influence their children through socialisation. 26 Research on exposure to innovation finds that children who grow up in areas with more inventors are more likely to become inventors themselves. 27 Furthermore, exposure to innovation at an early age affects the fields they will

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27 European Commission (2015). Entrepreneurship Education: A Road To Success. Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., Hilger, N., Saez, E., Schanzenbach, D. W., & Yagan, D. (2011). How does your kindergarten classroom affect your earnings? Evidence from Project STAR. The Quarterly journal of economics, 126(4), 1593-1660. Newman, A., Obschonka, M., Schwarz, S., Cohen, M., & Nielsen, I. (2019). Entrepreneurial self-efficacy: A systematic review of the literature on its theoretical foundations, measurement, antecedents, and outcomes, and an agenda for future research. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 110, 403-419. Dumitriu, S. (2019) Future Founders: Understanding the next generation of entrepreneurs. The Entrepreneurs Network. Bosma, N., Hessels, J., Schutjens, V., Van Praag, M., & Verheul, I. (2012). Entrepreneurship and role models. Journal of Economic Psychology, 33(2), 410-424. Moberg, K. (2020) Online-based entrepreneurship education - its role and effects - A randomised controlled trial about the effects of an online entrepreneurship programme based on role models. Bell, A., Chetty, R., Jaravel, X., Petkova, N., & Van Reenen, J. (2018). Lost Einsteins: who becomes an inventor in America? (No. 522). Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

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OF ENTREPRENEURS HAD A ROLE MODEL WHEN THEY STARTED. ¹ ³ BELIEVED THEY WOULD NOT HAVE STARTED UP THEIR VENTURE WITHOUT THIS ROLE MODEL.

Source: Entrepreneurship and role models, from the Journal of Economic Psychology.

“If the aim is to target students just before they enter the labour market, then in many countries intervening earlier will be necessary.”

go on to innovate in. For example, people growing up in Palo Alto are more likely to innovate in computing, even if they move elsewhere.

As scale-ups are responsible for a disproportionate share of job creation and productivity growth, it is important to understand why some entrepreneurs pursue aggressive growth strategies. In their paper Motivations to Scale, innovation foundation Nesta interviewed 64 European start-up and scale-up founders to understand why some entrepreneurs scale their business, while others do not. 28 They found that entrepreneurs that intended to scale their businesses tended to have four main mindset features: a desire to create a positive impact on society, to innovate, to become a dominant player in their field, and to create value. As mindsets are easier to influence the younger a person is, Nesta argue that entrepreneurship education can influence the type of entrepreneurship (e.g. high-growth) that young people pursue. If the aim is to improve the quality of entrepreneurship, as opposed to merely producing more entrepreneurs, then this is a reason to intervene at an earlier age. Part of the rationale for the existing policy of targeting entrepreneurship education at university students may not apply outside of developed economies. For instance, while half (50.2%) of young people in the United Kingdom have participated in higher education, access to a university education is limited in many parts of the Commonwealth. 29 In SubSaharan Africa, only 46.6% of young people have completed secondary education and just 9% are enrolled in tertiary education. 30 As a result, a policy of targeting students in higher education will miss a large proportion of the next generation of entrepreneurs.

If the aim is to target students just before they enter the labour market, then in many countries intervening earlier will be necessary. Limited options in the labour market mean a high proportion of young people in regions such as Sub SaharanAfrica will pursue entrepreneurship because other options are not available to them. According to a GEM and Youth Business International report, one-third of new businesses in these regions will be created out of necessity. 31 It is therefore important to create entrepreneurship education solutions that can be accessed by this group.

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30 31 Reypens, C., van Blitterswijk, D,. and Haley, C. (2019) Motivations to Scale: How European entrepreneurs think about growth and finance. Nesta. Even within the UK, a singular focus on teaching entrepreneurship in higher education institutions would have problematic implications for entrepreneurial diversity as young people from economically-disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to attend. School Enrollment, Tertiary (% gross), UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Kew, J., Herrington, M., Litovsky, Y., and Gale, H. (2015) Generation Entrepreneur? The state of global youth entrepreneurship. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and Youth Business International.