Develop children’s entrepreneurial mindset for future success
Radley Private School has received enthusiastic support from prominent entrepreneurs and large businesses, many of whom have hosted school groups for tours of their facilities and premises.
A number of years ago, Allon Raiz, the founder of leading business incubator Raizcorp, sat in a client meeting with his partner and two of his staff members.
During the meeting, Raiz and his partner independently identified two massive potential business opportunities while his two staff members completely missed them.
Why was it that two of the people in the same meeting so easily spotted these opportunities while two didn’t? Having pondered the matter, Raiz concluded that it was because both he and his partner had been exposed to entrepreneurship very early in life while his two staff members had not.
Not long afterwards, while delivering a lecture at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, Raiz mentioned his intention of venturing into children’s education to provide an entrepreneurial perspective. A professor in attendance asked Raiz if he had come across a research paper by Heinrich R Greve called “Who wants to be an entrepreneur? The deviant roots of entrepreneur.”
Despite its unfortunate title, the paper had fascinating insights into how childhood context influences whether a child will pursue entrepreneurship as a career. For example, children who play solo sports such as tennis are far more likely to become entrepreneurs than children who participate in team sports.
Also in the audience that day was a double-PhD from the USA who offered to help Raiz build out a framework incorporating entrepreneurship into a standard school curriculum. Developed over nine months, the next phase was to acquire the right school at which to implement it. In December 2015, Raizcorp purchased Radley Private School in Ferndale, Randburg and began the journey of entrepreneurial education in earnest the following year.
The Radley–Raizcorp approach is to immerse children in a “marinade” of entrepreneurial thinking from grade R all the way through to matric. The marinade is an entrepreneurial fusion of curriculum, educator, classroom, learning environment and even the involvement of parents and the surrounding business community.
An important aspect of this ongoing journey is Radley’s Entrepreneurial Educator Guide or EEG programme which is based on Raizcorp’s internationally acclaimed entrepreneurial learning and guiding methodologies. Radley’s educators or guides receive training in entrepreneurship, business concepts and business language, and how to embed these into the standard curriculum through lesson plans and activities.
Radley’s has received enthusiastic support from prominent entrepreneurs and large businesses, many of whom have hosted school groups for tours of their facilities and premises. Previous fieldtrips include the Builders Warehouse distribution centre, Nando’s head office and Joe Public, while other entrepreneurs have come to the school to share their experiences, and to underscore the importance of hard work, resilience and perseverance.
Radley’s aim is to develop the creative-thinking, opportunity-seeking and problem-solving skills that are not only critical in becoming a successful entrepreneur but which will also stand their alumni in good stead in any career they may choose. With unemployment statistics at an all-time high, the school is determined to produce job creators rather than job seekers.
Details: To learn more about Radley Private School, visit www.radley.co.za or call 011 781 3647.
