Equipping teachers to shape future-ready students
Entrepreneurial education isn’t about creating the next generation of CEOs – it’s about giving students the skills to navigate an unpredictable world.
Tuesday 29 April 2025
Entrepreneurial education isn’t about creating the next generation of CEOs – it’s about giving students the skills to navigate an unpredictable world. As facilitators of Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship’s UpSchool teacher professional development, Pip Madden and Libby Briggs believe that fostering creativity, resilience and problem-solving in the classroom is now more important than ever.Entrepreneurship as a mindset, not a subjectEntrepreneurial education encourages students to see the world as a place full of challenges and opportunities, where they have the agency to create solutions. It fosters resilience, helping students navigate failure, adapt and try again. It sparks creativity, pushing them to approach problems with confidence and curiosity, and imagine new possibilities. Most importantly, it builds collaboration, as they work together to test and improve their ideas. These are life skills, and they belong in every classroom.Learning by doing: the UpSchool experienceOur own journey into entrepreneurial education led us to Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship, where we now facilitate UpSchool: a professional development program designed to help F-10 educators bring entrepreneurship into their classrooms.What makes UpSchool different is that teachers don’t just learn about entrepreneurship, they experience it. Over three days, participants identify a problem they’re passionate about, along with innovative ways to solve it, test their ideas, and pitch them to real entrepreneurs.Traditional learning isn’t enoughAs teachers, we believe that education should do more than just deliver knowledge, it should prepare students for the world they’re stepping into. With rapid technological advancements, AI-driven automation, and the growing challenge of misinformation, the future is more unpredictable. That means our approach to teaching needs to evolve too.When we were at school, content was king, but information can be accessed now in nanoseconds; it’s knowing how to analyse, question and be creative that matters more today.That’s where entrepreneurial education excels. It’s not about building businesses; it’s about creating the kind of adaptable, innovative thinkers the modern world demands. It cultivates a mindset of collaboration, problem-solving and critical thinking – skills that are crucial for success in any field.This hands-on experience puts teachers in the shoes of their students, drawing them into a complex problem that deliberately makes them uncomfortable. Most teachers arrive with no experience of business, and some are sceptical that entrepreneurship can even be relevant in their classrooms. But this immersive program is transformative, and teachers leave with a clear understanding of how entrepreneurial thinking can work across the curriculum.Making it work in any classroomWe know the hurdles schools face. Time and resources for professional development are often stretched thin. But investing in teachers is vital. We can get comfortable teaching the same thing the same way, but that’s not what we – or most importantly our students – need.Entrepreneurial education doesn’t have to be a full, stand-alone program. Small, simple changes can make a meaningful difference. Just applying the principles – like starting a lesson in a playful, unexpected way – can inject fresh energy into any class. The goal is to help students learn by doing. The idea is to look at the world as entrepreneurs do – as a set of problems and opportunities – and develop vision, resilience and creative confidence.For students who struggle in conventional academic settings, this approach can be a game changer. It’s a way to showcase out-of-the-box thinking and innovative ideas. We’ve seen students completely immersed in their projects, staying back at lunchtime to refine their ideas. Not because they had to, but because they were genuinely excited by the process.We’ve seen ideas ranging from jars of “unicorn poo” to solutions for homelessness. It’s a safe space to take risks, learn from failure, and put ambitious ideas into practice. What are these if not skills for life?The future of education is already hereAs education continues to shift, the emphasis on ATAR scores is lessening, while employers are looking for graduates who are better prepared for the real world. Schools that prioritise future-ready skills will be the ones that set their students up for long-term success. The future may still be unwritten, but we can empower our students to have a confident, creative hand in writing it.
It fosters resilience, helping students navigate failure, adapt and try again.
Ready to bring entrepreneurial thinking into your school?