Education Partnerships has recently been working in the highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) with Entropolis and UNICEF Australia to upskill primary school educators to embed entrepreneurship in their schools.
Starting with seven pilot schools, we trained 35 primary school educators on the Teen Entrepreneur program materials. Additionally, 25 Head Teachers and the PNG Department of Education participated in our Train the Trainer program to support the ongoing implementation of the program throughout PNG. The long-term aim of the program is to expand Teen Entrepreneur to all provinces in PNG. Through this expansion, students will learn to cultivate their entrepreneurial mindset and skillset.
Why is the PNG Department of Education committed to entrepreneurial education?
The PNG Department of Education cited that to succeed in the workforce in the future, they need to build capacity and capabilities in students to be agile thinkers, critical and creative thinkers to define problems and ideate solutions, self-directed learners, and thoughtful of how they can be productive citizens with the resources readily available to them.
It has been such a powerful experience to work within a different culture to create tailored program materials for their schools and to build confidence in their educators in delivering a style of education that gives such agency to students.
Key takeaways
- The best way to embed programs into different communities is to work collaboratively to design the program.
- To listen to their needs, their strengths and the opportunities that may be very different to what is familiar to us.
- To ask lots of questions and actively listen to responses.
- To employ an entrepreneurial mindset – no idea is a bad idea until we have explored all the options. One ‘different’ idea can form the basis of a brilliant new idea!
We look forward to watching Teen Entrepreneur empower students to be active learners and innovators in PNG and also see how entrepreneurship transforms education in Australia as well as other countries. It is truly an exciting space to be working in!
Image: Students growing crops as part of the Teen Entrepreneur Program.