Fostering entrepreneurship

Recently, a documentary shared on social media created a sensation. It is about the secrets of the top students at Seoul National University. They said that they could get A+ by memorizing the lecture completely.

However, we need to think about whether this kind of education can nurture entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial spirit is the ability to find problems, capture opportunities and take an initiative. Entrepreneurship education is not limited to educating businessmen but is more about fostering pioneering spirit and creativity.

The government plans to include entrepreneurship in the general curriculum in elementary, middle and high schools from 2018. Just like the Oslo Agenda, entrepreneurship education requirement from elementary schools in Europe, interests in entrepreneurship education is growing in Korea as well.

But if a foreign policy example is followed without specific thoughts on “how to teach” the students, the entrepreneurship education is likely to follow the outdated way of memorizing lectures to get good grades.

The Asan Nanum Foundation sympathized with the needs of the reality and launched the Asan Entrepreneurship Review, AER. As a case study on Korean companies and businessmen, it deals with Korean venture companies like Kakao and established corporations.

In classes, students become the CEO of the companies they are studying to detect and resolve problems. This method would urge students to think and engage in discussions to foster leadership and creative and critical thinking, the key qualities in entrepreneurship.

From this year, Hero School, an entrepreneurship education program for middle and high schools, will open. To empower more young Koreans to understand and change the world, I hope it this initiative to be a cornerstone to change entrepreneurship education and overall education in Korea.

*Head of youth start-up team at Asan Nanum Foundation

Park Young-eun