Are people born with business sense or can be nurtured? We explore the issue in Uganda, Spain and Jordan in this edition of Learning World.
ADVERTISEMENTNature or nurture; there has long been a debate over whether people are born with a business sense or whether it can be nurtured. More people are running their own businesses and SMEs are a vital component of economies across the world (particularly in Europe). So developing business skills and entrepreneurial talents has never seemed so important and that’s the focus of this edition of Learning World. Maha Barada and the team of Learning World reporters explore the issue in three stories from around the planet; in Uganda, Spain and Jordan.
Uganda: Social Skills Challenge
Tapping into the business skills of young people is seen as key to accelerating development in places like Uganda.
The School Enterprise Challenge is a competition giving students and opportunity to turn their ideas into business reality and a possible future livelihood. In this report we meet students from the Standing Tall Training Centre whose ingenuity and hard graft earned them a top award in this innovative contest.
Spain: Prototype Entrepreneurs
Some believe entrepreneurial skills can be fostered from a very young age. At a school in Madrid we meet pupils taking part in very special project, Creamos Nuestro, that exemplifies that view.
The programme was launched in 2011. Since then, almost 4,000 children have developed their entrepreneurial skills, improving their empathy, creativity, self-awareness and confidence. And those aren’t the only benefits, as can be seen in the report.
Jordan: Lighting up lives
Entrepreneurship and business talent can flourish even in the most challenging circumstances given a little encouragement, as we learn in our third story. We meet one incredible woman engineer who has defied conservative social conventions to literally light up the lives of those around her. Rafea has brought solar electricity to a remote village in the Jordanian desert. She has become a role model for other women and now runs training courses for women to pass on her knowledge.