Tuesday 28 October 2014, 1pm-2pm

UNE Business School Lecture Theatre 3 (LT3)

 With several large businesses closing or restructuring to reduce their size by automating production processes or outsourcing to smaller more efficient firms, it is becoming evident that economic development models based on large firms are no longer able to deliver the outcomes expected for economic growth. Economic growth now lies in small and medium entrepreneurial firms. The challenge of developing the skills and knowledge required to meet this changing trend from large to small firms extends beyond individual business owners to the education systems within countries. An education system, designed to develop process-driven skills, conformity, advancing by hanging on the coattails of superiors, and other traditional attributes suitable for employment in large firms, is no longer adequate to provide the skills and attributes required to meet this changing trend. Reforms are required that focus education and training on skills such as creativity, self-reliance, self-confidence, achievement orientation and initiative.

The need for greater depth and breadth in the traditional education system to prepare the youth for work in the changing current and future economic environment has emerged as a critical issue around the world. Within the European context, the initial World Economic Forum model has provided a basis for ongoing development and debate around questions of ‘what, how, who and where’. Several European countries have taken the initiative to develop programs from primary through secondary and tertiary educational levels that aim at instilling students with the attributes required for entrepreneurial initiatives. At the university level, entrepreneurship programs are no longer confined to business schools and business students but are being extended to all disciplinary areas.

In the 3 July 2014 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald, Featherstone notes “As much as I hate to say it, Australia is being left for dead by other countries that are fostering an enterprise culture among young people and grooming their next generation of entrepreneurs and small business owners through the school system”.

Tõnis Mets is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Tartu and Marie Curie Research fellow at the Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research. He was a Member of Board of the European Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (2008-2010) and served on the OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme. He has a chapter in the book ‘Entrepreneurship and Higher Education’ published by the programme. An engineer and manager in various high-tech companies, Professor Tõnis Mets is himself an entrepreneur and author of 15 patents and more than 40 chapters and articles in highly ranked journals.