Entrepreneurship Enrichment for Business and Marketing Students

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

Due to the downturn in the economy and the recent and prevalent outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries, the need to encourage young people to become entrepreneurs and local business owners has increased. A strong economy begins on a granular level—with the local, small business owner willing to produce, hire, and sell locally. Career and Technical Education (CTE) students currently learn about job opportunities specific to the course in which they are enrolled but a concerted effort to focus students’ attention on converting their job opportunities to local small business ownership and entrepreneurship has not been a priority. Therefore, the Young Entrepreneurs’ Symposium and Marketing Conference initiative was created as the first step in enhancing CTE’s entrepreneurship education by encouraging students to redirect their job focus to that of an entrepreneur. Henrico County Public Schools’ marketing teachers hosted at the second-annual Young Entrepreneurs’ Symposium and Marketing Conference for 200 marketing students and 86 middle school students at Virginia Center Commons. The purpose of this round-table format symposium provided several levels of opportunity for Henrico County Public School middle school business-FBLA and high school marketing-DECA students.