The key ingredients of training coaching and mentoring for youth entrepreneurs

OECD Capacity Building Seminar

Supporting youth in entrepreneurship

22nd-23rd September 2014

Professor Robert Blackburn

Small Business Research Centre

Kingston University

http://business.kingston.ac.uk/sbrc

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Objectives of presentation• Stimulate thinking regarding training, coaching and

mentoring of youth entrepreneurs

• Reflect on previous interventions• Help identify specific requirements for youth training• What should be delivered?• How can this be delivered effectively?• Open up discussion: experiences and wider lessons

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Contextualising youth enterprise• Importance of understanding heterogeneity of youth• Some are already doing it!– Long-term attractiveness– Enterprise spans all economic activities

• But most are not involved– In work; education; unemployed

• A gap between entrepreneurial intentions and action (eg. EuroFlashBarometer)– Suggests ideas not been realised?

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Eg. levels of entre -engagement by youth population (Univ students, GUESSS data 2014)

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The challenges

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• Plethora of youth enterprise initiatives– Local, national, international; 50+ years (eg. Young

Enterprise)

• But how successful have these been?– Little systematic of evidence on what works

• But evidence on need to segmentation of market • Implies targeted programmes and methods of

delivery– How does this relate to youth entrepreneurship?

Stereotyping capabilities for youth entrepreneurship

• Enthusiasm and motivation• Cultural context: socialisation, education• Social & human capital?• Financial capital?• Hence, difference between entrepreneurial

intentions and action• Demographics should influence content and

delivery methods

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Career intentions: 5 yrs and immediately after studies

• Rise in interest in business ownership with time

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Variations in career interest 5 yrs by gender

• Males more likely to be interested business ownership

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Heterogeneity of ‘Youth’: influences on intentions

• Gender +ve males• Age ~• Experiences: cultural differences +ve parental• Education levels +ve• NEETs vs Education vs Employment• Shown to influence intentions

= No ‘blueprint’ for content and delivery

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And attendance on entrepreneurship courses (multi response)

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Design of youth entrepreneurship programmes

• Content and curriculum• Focus on developing entrepreneurial mindsets– Recognising and acting on an opportunity• +ve association with levels of education

• Encourage attitudinal changes– Learn by doing– Experimentation– Be prepared to accept failure and learn from it– L(earning)=O(pportunity)+C(hallenge)+H(elp)+F(orgiveness)

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Enhancing skills and competencies• Enhance the means to practise entrepreneurship– Raise youth’s ability to mobilise resources– Fill gaps in youth’s social and financial capital

• Fit with specific contexts and demographics– What is needed? What are the specific challenges?

• Identify wider cultural and social networks– Importance of socio-economic-cultural contexts– eg. Females, minority groups, low-income, high income

localities

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Trends in learning in small firms: 1980s-2000s

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Behaviour – the personWhole person development – what should the entrepreneur know? (eg. traits) Is there a recipe to be taught? - 1980s

Competences – the tasksWhat the entrepreneur should be able to do? What can they do?

Output based functional analysis - 1990s

Manager in roleFocused within the organisation and their community. Tacit understandings, input of others; group learning Current

Manager in role – the situated learner

Focused on individuals in context and their ability to critically reflect- situated learning 2000s

Components of effective entrepreneurship

• Knowledge and professional practice:– eg. Competency development finance

• Skills and attitudes: behavioural– eg. leadership technical

• Meta-qualities: – ability to reflect on self-knowledge, collect new

knowledge

• We can i/d components but how delivered?

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Types of learning approaches• Traditional ways of information transfer– Classroom; distance learning; self-study

• Behavioural development- human capital– Role plays; problem solving

• Meta-qualities– Action learning sets; learning to learn; i/d self-

weaknesses

• Many learning theories: – But need to i/d relevant balance of above

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Typical programme content

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Tacit learning through engagement with peers & networks

• Partnership involvement: meet with financiers, banks, landlords, incubators, trade and professional organisations

• Mentoring with peers– Importance of meeting and learning from peers

• Face-to-face interaction effective• Delivery – context specific. egs.• Need to connect youth with knowledge networks

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Summary• Need to identify specific requirements of youth entrepreneurs• Tailor programmes according to

– Needs within a context (eg. current labour mkt position)– Outcomes of intervention

• Encourage use of real examples from peers– Curriculum content; method of delivery– But link with learning theories and prior experiences

• Monitoring and evaluation– Ongoing– Reflective

• Feed into new programmes to increase efficacy

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Thank you

Robert Blackburn

r.blackburn@kingston.ac.uk

http://business.kingston.ac.uk/robertblackburn

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