A Royal Visit for Club Kidpreneur

If there was ever evidence of the importance of fostering entrepreneurship in our schools, then Club Kidpreneur’s recent royal visit should be a huge eye opener to all levels of government here in Australia.

A few months ago at the request of The Royal Hashemite Court, our humble Club Kidpreneur Foundation was invited to demonstrate our in-school entrepreneurship program to Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan during her state visit to Sydney this past week. After seven years of little support or acknowledgement, state and federal government departments scrambled to find out who our organisation is, what work we have been doing and more importantly, why someone as internationally influential as the Queen of Jordan cared so much about embedding an entrepreneurial mindset in the next generation that she approached us to be a part of her trip Down Under.

It turns out Her Majesty is a decade ahead of our elected leaders in driving innovation in schools by establishing a centre for entrepreneurship in 2004. She’s also used her business acumen to bring teacher training to the fore – the key to developing the next generation of innovators and employees. Queen Rania should be as much of a role model for those leaders responsible for diversity and inclusivity, job growth and education as she is a shining light for her 6 million Twitter and 10 million Facebook followers throughout the Muslim world and beyond.

Her Majesty’s visit was hosted in partnership with Fort Street Public School - a Club Kidpreneur Hero School where year 6 students have spent the last six months learning about entrepreneurship and gaining skills in critical thinking, problem solving, social justice and financial literacy. Imagine the delight for these eleven and twelve year olds when their first customer of the day was one of the world’s most iconic women. I can already see the “by Royal Appointment” signage popping up at the next market day held by these overzealous business brains.

A huge thanks to the Prime Minister’s Office, the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, NSW Department of Education and of course Fort Street Public School for helping us make this experience so amazing for the entrepreneurial kids of Fort Street.

With this much needed visibility now generated, the next step is for governments at all levels to work in partnership with organisations like Club Kidpreneur to bring Australia up to speed with innovations in entrepreneurial education around the world. CK was the first to lead this charge when we launched 7 years ago. We’ve since reached over 10,000 primary-aged students in 600 primary schools nationwide and we’re eager see Club Kidpreneur’s program spark students’ entrepreneurial spirits in the remaining 7,500 primary schools across the country.  

While Club Kidpreneur is not by royal appointment – we're certainly taking Queen Rania's visit as royal encouragement to continue fostering the future of Australian jobs, business and innovation.