Developing Entrepreneurship Skills in Children and Teenagers

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is commonly associated with economic growth and development. As such, there is vast literature on the topic concerning the entrepreneurship process, the entrepreneurs’ innate and acquired characteristics, and the process of teaching entrepreneurship, among other fundamental issues. The literature regarding entrepreneurship education, however, is mostly focused on adults. Yet, several studies positively relate to the probability of becoming an entrepreneur with familiar background, namely the existence of close relatives, such as parents or uncles/ aunts that are or have been entrepreneurs. This might suggest that stimuli during childhood and adolescence might have an important effect on the odds of an individual becoming an entrepreneur. Therefore, entrepreneurship education of young children and teenagers might be a relevant field of research. This paper aims to analyse how entrepreneurship is taught to children and teenagers at an international private school located in Porto, Portugal, that has an innovative approach with regard to this.