The Parliament’s Finance Committee has today released its statement on next year’s state budget. This involved deciding on the allocation of the government’s extra budgetary sum of around EUR 50 million. The Chair of the Swedish Parliamentary Group, Anders Adlercreutz, is particularly pleased about the additional resources directed at youth entrepreneurship education.
“Entrepreneurship education gives young people important skills for their working lives. It allows them to test their wings; to succeed or to fail in a safe environment, without taking financial risks. They acquire financial knowledge, but also learn the value of creativity and collaboration. These are lessons that children and young people will benefit from when they later join the labour market,” Adlercreutz says.
The budget includes additional funding for, among others, organisations offering free entrepreneurship programmes for schools.
“The extra funding will help these programmes reach more young people. It is hard for kids to become interested in something of which they have no knowledge,” says Adlercreutz.
Adlercreutz points out that there has been a significant increase in the younger population’s interest in running their own business. This is evident for instance in the outcomes of the annual youth and future report by Economy and Youth (TAT), which also demonstrates that entrepreneurship education in schools contributes to increasing understanding in business and commerce.
“Attitudes have changed swiftly. Today, nearly 50% of young people say that they could imagine themselves running their own business. It has been found, for instance, that pupils who had visited an Yrityskylä business village (a programme that is in place in most larger cities and municipalities) understood the meaning of business and entrepreneurship better than those who had not. These are concrete investments in the future,” Adlercreutz explains.
