Entrepreneurship
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course helps students gain an understanding of the business principles necessary to start and operate a business. They will develop an awareness of the opportunities for small business ownership and develop the planning skills needed to open a small business. Students will explore the traits and characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. Students gain an awareness of knowledge needed in research, planning, operations, and regulations affecting small business. They will learn strategies of business management and marketing and the economic role of the entrepreneur in the market system. Entrepreneurship is designed for students who have an interest in developing the skills, attitudes, and knowledge necessary for successful entrepreneurs.
National Content Standards for Entrepreneurship Education
Summary:
There are fifteen major standards, which are divided into the following three major sections:
Entrepreneurial Skills
The unique traits, behaviors and processes that differentiate an entrepreneur from an employee or manager.
Ready Skills
The business, or entrepreneurial, knowledge and skills that are prerequisites or co-requisites for the study of entrepreneurship.
Business Functions
The business activities performed in starting and running a business. Overlying the Ready Skills and Business Functions are the Entrepreneurial Skills, the processes and traits/behaviors applicable to new ventures and ongoing ventures that create/drive/change economic activity - new markets, new products, new businesses, etc. These non-sequential, often overlapping, stages of the entrepreneurial process are:
Discovery - The stage in the entrepreneurial process in which the entrepreneur generates ideas, recognizes opportunities, and determines the feasibility of ideas, markets, ventures, etc.
Concept Development - The stage in the entrepreneurial process in which the entrepreneur plans the venture, identifies needed resources using a business plan, identifies strategies to protect intellectual property, etc.
Resourcing - The stage in the entrepreneurial process in which the entrepreneur identifies and acquires the financial, human, and capital resources needed for the venture startup, etc.
Actualization - The stage in the entrepreneurial process in which the entrepreneur operates the venture and utilizes resources to achieve its goals/objectives.
Harvesting - The stage in the entrepreneurial process in which the entrepreneur decides on the venture's future (growth, development, demise). These five stages of the entrepreneurial process, along with the individual traits and behaviors associated with the successful entrepreneur, comprise the set of "Entrepreneurship Skills" listed in the National Content Standards for Entrepreneurship Education.
National Business Education Association Standard: Entrepreneurship
US Department of Labor: Youth Entrepreneurship Education