One of the things I appreciated, just after I graduated from college, was that my school employed teachers who had “real world” experience. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard a teacher say, “Okay, that’s what the textbook tells you. Now let me tell you how it works in the real world.”
Textbooks just give students a foundation to build on later in real work. Often the real world does not follow established procedures or look/act anything like textbook models, making adjustment difficult. You expect one thing in a new job but discover another, feeling at a loss as to how to proceed.
Florida Schools, in partnership with the National Foundation for Entrepreneurship Education (NFTE), is bringing something of the “real world” to Florida schools. Beginning in the 2007-2008 school year, high school students in Florida schools will be able to enroll in a major course on entrepreneurship at participating schools.
In June 2006, then-Governor Jeb Bush signed the A++ Education Act, which provides an additional 442 major courses in Florida schools. The entrepreneurship course is one of these offers.
Businesses across the country that complain that high school graduates are not prepared to enter today’s workforce upon graduation do not miss the importance of teaching such a course to Florida high school students. The Florida Schools Entrepreneurship Course will teach students vital business skills that will benefit the entire community and economy. Since business is primarily knowledge-based, knowing how to use technology and employing critical thinking skills are essential for graduates of Florida schools. In addition to providing this training, the Florida New Schools Entrepreneurship Course will create a new awareness among students.
The NFTE was instrumental in developing the entrepreneurship program for Florida schools. The group is committed to providing entrepreneurship education to low-income and minority youth. They believe that introducing high school students to entrepreneurship gives them greater motivation to stay in school in order to do more with their lives after graduation. Entrepreneurship offers hope and opportunity for many students, who feel there is nothing for them after high school except minimum wage jobs. It gives them the knowledge and confidence that they can do more.
NFTE’s national program has shown that entrepreneurship courses at the secondary level decrease the dropout rate and increase the number of students going to college. His claim has been documented by the Harvard Graduate School of Education in a multi-year study of the influence of NFTE courses on school engagement. NFTE currently has high school course programs in 47 states and 16 countries with more than 150,000 courses worldwide, and there are 23 Florida schools within the Miami-Dade County Public School District already successfully using the entrepreneurship program.
With the signing of the Act in 2006, Florida schools have become the model for school boards across the country. Florida school officials have been receiving phone calls from as far away as Arizona and California. Other states want to emulate Florida’s schools and their new entrepreneurial program to bring the “real world” to their high school students as well.