Entrepreneurship Mindset Index

Objective

To provide young people from low-income communities with entrepreneurship education that inspires them to stay in school, recognize business opportunities and plan for successful futures.

Overview and Main Activities

Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) works with schools in low-income communities globally to provide entrepreneurship education programmes delivered in-classroom, summer “bizcamps,” tech programmes and online learning. The programmes teach a curriculum conveying the importance of career-readiness skills in the context of building a business plan, enabling students to not only learn the ABCs of a business start-up, but also to acquire an entrepreneurial mindset.

By teaching the entrepreneurial mindset, NFTE provides young people with tools and attitudes to overcome adversity and address future personal, economic, community and global challenges.

Entrepreneurship Mindset Index (EMI) survey:

Before and after students participate in a NFTE programme, most students take the EMI survey that measures how much and in what ways the programme has had an impact on the their mindsets. The survey measures students’ non-cognitive abilities (e.g. initiative and self-direction, risk-taking, flexibility and adaptability, creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving) as they relate to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial action. Survey results provide them with:

1. Personal measure of the skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur
2. An indicator of their skills necessary for success in future study and work
3. Information that will help them make effective educational and career choices

Survey results provide NFTE staff and teachers with critical information to inform teaching and learning in the classroom, professional development and programme implementation. All programmes are led by teachers trained in a project-based learning curriculum, and participants are supported by volunteers and mentors providing an engaging and motivating learning experience for students.

Since 1987, NFTE has taught and inspired more than 550,000 young people to pursue educational opportunities, start their own businesses, and succeed in life. NFTE has programmes in 19 United States communities and 12 countries.

Success Factors and Challenges

Most critical success factors:

• Committed individuals who take ownership to solve community challenges
• Recognition of the importance of an entrepreneurship mindset
• Investment in entrepreneurship job creation

Main challenges:

• To enable expansion to more control groups and non-NFTE participants, a coordinated effort with interested sector partners is required

Recommendations for Others

Building the EMI into programming took time, especially since there were no similar efforts to replicate. Subsequent organizations will be able to use NFTE research and experience to develop similar, real-time mindset testing and iteration programmes.

Replicability and Scalability

How easily could other organizations implement this initiative?
Difficult: Implementation takes diverse programmes, strong central control and high-quality, academic-level research standards.

How easily can this initiative be expanded to include a larger number of participants?
Easy: As NFTE programmes expand in the United States and internationally, it will be easy for refinement and expansion of the EMI to follow.

About the Organization

Website: www.nfte.com
Sector: Non-Profit
Size (number of employees): Up to 1,000
Headquarters: New York, United States

For Further Engagement

Contact name: Shawn Osborne
Contact position: CEO
Email: [email protected]