"Youthepreneur" is Republic Polytechnic and the National Library Board's latest project. This project is (in their own words) "essentially a real life platform designed to engage enterprising youths and social groups in authentic learning via a structured entrepreneurship education program." Very nicely padded mission statement if you ask me.Normally I would just sigh and shake my head but I think this deserves a dishonourable mention on the following few grounds of uttter lack of creativity (ironic as this is suppose to promote it, I think )
- Pushcart Competition - concept used so many times that it just doesn't cut it anymore. Uncreative and tired idea. Somehow might have been due to strange notion that pushcart retail is entrepreneurial as it has one of the lowest startup costs.
- "am Student, pm Boss" - way to go, now everyone is going to fall in love with the concept of being self-employed (note choice of words). Already when there are people looking at self employment for all the wrong reasons like dreaming of striking it rich suddenly and not enjoying the pride of being known as boss, further punching this twisted notion into young impressionable minds is, to put it lightly, regretful. Time for quick revision on the differences between the words "Self-Employeed" and "Entrepreneur"
- Studenpreneur, Youthepreneur - Haven't we screwed with the suffix "preneur" enough already? 'Nuff said.
- Why have contests / competitions instead of just encouraging youths to just take a plunge outside? Still trying to spoonfeed them entrepeneurial skills? (which to me is an absurd notion by itself, read it again if you don't get me). Do we want to just train more pushcart vendors or do we sincerely want to create and promote a culture and mindset where the truely innovative and driven flourish?
As you can guess, I'm not exactly an avid fan of such events. The effort and funding behind these often-duplicated events could have been better in other ways then to jerk up publicity for the organisers, which seems to be the main idea in the first place. Why not just go use the funds to back some deserving student enterprise instead of just playing safe and sticking in back into some over-used event format?
[ via : Youthepreneur ]
2 comments:
Dude... easy on the teenage angst.
I'd rather be spoon fed to be a Youthepreneur than spoonfed on the dole.
Give 'em credit for trying to encourage a different way of thinking. You don't need to be supportive but maybe you can offer an alternative suggestion if you think this is bad.
I come from a family where my dad failed in business and finances are tight. I have a lot of respect for anyone who puts themself out on a limb like that. What's wrong with starting small?
Thanks for the comment!
Don't get me wrong -- I do strongly encourage one and all to take a plunge to start a meaningful venture. Not only for personal benefit (financial freedom) but hopefully to also contribute back to society in one way or another. Likewise I also support programmes that aim to foster such risk-taking attitudes in students and beyond.
Only thing that I think is that this concept is overused (as the blog post suggests). There have been umpteen variants of this kind of pushcart-apprentice contests. Tired concept.
Also, isn't creativity and innovation what entrepreneurship is all about? Ironic then, that this was not injected into the overall concept.
Finally, you are right that this project spoonfeeds students into thinking they can be entrepreneurs. Is this meant to be a good thing or are we just robbing them further of the sort of exposure to risk that they need to succeed?
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