Lessons in Education and Entrepreneurship: A Conversation with Asheesh Advani of Junior Achievement (JA) Worldwide

As part of my work with the Chick-fil-A Foundation, I am privileged to meet with extraordinary changemakers who are improving the lives of children and youth around the world. With back to school season upon us, I recently spoke with Asheesh Advani, CEO of Junior Achievement (JA) Worldwide about the lessons in education we can take away from other nations and the role entrepreneurship plays in preparing the next generation. 

JA’s scale allows the organization to make a difference for young people worldwide. It’s back to school season here in the U.S. What are some of the things you’ve learned from the way other countries handle education?

JA now serves over 11 million kids in 118 countries with learning experiences and programs in the areas of entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and work readiness. In my role, I have the opportunity to travel a lot and meet educators and young people. I sometimes wish I could take school administrators, teachers, and policy makers with me on school visits in other countries so they could see what I see!

In Canada, I recently met with a team of high school entrepreneurs who created an online tool to get other kids interested in data science careers. Kids teaching kids. Peer learning has become one of the significant macro trends in education and seeing it applied by young entrepreneurs to prepare for data science jobs in Ontario is timely and innovative. In other parts of Canada, we are enabling underserved populations – including indigenous youth – to access entrepreneurship education. Kids from all backgrounds are eager to learn about business and see real-world applications of what they study in school. We just need to give them the time and access to mentors and volunteers from the workplace to help them visualize what their future can be.

Any more innovative education methods that we should adopt from other countries?

We have found that “job shadow” experiences that allow kids to spend part of day visiting office buildings, start-up incubators, or factories allow students to visualize future career opportunities. This added enrichment makes school assignments come to life and more relevant to children.  A ninth-grade girl recently told me she now pays more attention in chemistry after visiting a cool tech “wearables” company that is developing fabrics for the future. Before seeing the practical application of chemistry in a job that interests her, she thought chemistry was impractical unless you planned to go to medical school. We want to create more experiences like this. That’s why JA organized over 700,000 job shadow experiences in over 70 countries last year!

And technology is allowing us to bring the job shadow experience to exponentially more students. For example, our team in Singapore is developing a way for kids to have an immersive job shadow experience using virtual reality. By partnering with employers to create virtual experiences accessible through VR goggles, kids can experience multiple work settings and careers. This is just one example of how emerging technologies will continue to transform the possibilities for education around the globe.

In handling such a large-scale, global network, JA engages with many partners, including schools, businesses, and local nonprofits on the ground. How do you navigate this complex landscape?

No organization can create meaningful change in the world without working with partners. Going it alone just doesn’t work – and working in a hierarchical setting is outdated. At JA, we are organized as a global network of teams ranging in size from 2 to 25 people who all share the same mission, operating agreements, and guidelines. Education policy is sometimes managed nationally (like in Kenya) and sometimes locally (like in the US). Our network of teams allows us to remain nimble to create local, provincial, federal, or even regional and global partnerships as needed.

For example, the European Union supported JA in bringing entrepreneurship education to schools across the continent and encouraged us to provide local and national awards to the most innovative business teachers. The best teachers deserve to get recognized and we are doing our part to elevate the teaching profession around the world.

Partnerships that bring different groups together – such as businesses, policy makers, and school systems – will be increasingly important as automation changes the jobs landscape. For example, Google is working with us in the Middle East to help bring digital skills to kids. The program is called Maharat min Google and offers lessons in topics such as search engine marketing, social media, and data analytics. At one level, this is a win-win for both the kids and Google. At a deeper level, this is good for all of us in society to avoid high unemployment in the future. Disengaged youth are not only a risk to stability and safety; it’s failing to capitalize on one of our greatest global assets – the ingenuity and potential of our youth.

Entrepreneurship is one of the centerpiece themes of JA’s educational programs – including the initiatives that the Chick-fil-A Foundation supports. How can creating a sense of entrepreneurship in kids foster career-building skills for their future?

In the US, when we hear the word “entrepreneurship,” it often makes us think of Elon Musk or Oprah. But these visionaries comprise just one small aspect of what entrepreneurship is about. In reality, entrepreneurship drives all the self-employed people worldwide, including the people who work in creative pursuits such as art and music who need to make a living by selling their work to others.

Entrepreneurship also plays a major role in the lives of people who must take ownership of their own personal development so they can navigate between careers and employers College graduates today will have on average over 20 jobs in the course of their career, and they may need to change professions along the way. That likely means they will have at least a few “involuntary” transitions. Put another way, our kids may get fired 3 or 4 times in their future careers! They may want or need to be self-employed – and they will need the resilience to deal with change and develop new skills. Learning entrepreneurial skills early helps prepare kids and adults for a life of change so they can be the agents of their own success.

What methods have you found to be the most effective in nurturing this entrepreneurial spirit and how do you bring these methods to scale when you operate in countries around the world?

At JA, we foster the entrepreneurial spirit in kids by helping them develop “self-efficacy,” a concept similar to self-confidence and self-esteem. Self-efficacy essentially boils down to the idea that people who believe they will succeed are much more likely to achieve a particular goal. It’s a core characteristic that can be learned at a young age.

Self-efficacy can be developed, in part, through hands-on learning experiences. When kids learn by doing, they are able to get a better sense of things they’re capable of achieving. Another way is simply by allowing kids to observe role models who exemplify self-efficacy – a good role model will lead by example and inspire kids.

We’ve also seen self-efficacy built through direct feedback. It’s much easier for kids to see themselves achieving their goals when they are given clear instructions and steps toward those goals. And lastly, we like to make sure that we reroute our kids’ negative thoughts into positive ones whenever possible. Self-efficacy depends on an optimistic outlook -- seeing the silver linings in difficult situations will go a long way in overcoming the challenges that come with ambitious goals.

We’ve incorporated these methods into many programs, because we believe that self-efficacy creates a powerful foundation for the sense of entrepreneurship we want our kids to walk away with. Put simply, young people who are confident in themselves are more likely to take productive risks, come up with original ideas, and share those ideas with others.