ENTERPRISE Primary School pupils and Community High School students were last Monday treated to a serious pep talk about their future, courtesy of the Enterprise Youth Development Group (EYDG).This was in addition to being given a number of important school supplies, which, according to the group’s President, Samantha Sheoprashad, included pencils, erasers, highlighters, markers, paste, pens, sharpeners and notebooks.
Since it is the beginning of a new school term, she said, “We took advantage of the time to give a short talk to raise awareness on the power of education, entrepreneurship, and the use of social media network for educational purposes.”
Noting that the session was highly interactive, Sheoprashad said when asked, for instance, what they plan doing after leaving school, many replied, “Look for a job,” though others said they’d prefer to further their studies.
And, in an effort to help them develop a “create your own job or company” mindset, as opposed to a “getting-a-job” one, the children were also encouraged to find a problem within their respective schools that they can collectively work on, so as to help improve its image.
Noting that entrepreneurship is an employment strategy that can lead to economic self-sufficiency, Sheoprashad said:
“Self-employment provides people with opportunities; the potential to create and manage businesses in which they function as the employer or boss, rather than merely being an employee.”
Seeing a bigger picture in all this, she said entrepreneurship can help drive Guyana’s economy through the creation of new jobs and innovations.
And one way of achieving this, she said, is by teaching children entrepreneurship at an early age; help prepare young people to be responsible, enterprising individuals, who become entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial thinkers by immersing them in real-life learning experiences, whereby they can take risks, manage the results, and learn from the outcomes.
Another useful strategy that can be of tremendous benefit to learning, Sheoprashad said, is the teaching of how to use the Internet effectively, particularly Google and YouTube.
In closing, she said that working with the Community High section was particularly gratifying, as there’s nothing that the group likes doing better than to help children with self-confidence and comprehension issues, as well as those with learning disabilities.
“This is something we would love to assist the school with, but at this point in time, we can only manage with the area of self-confidence,” Sheoprashad said, adding:
“If there is any other organisation or person out there with the necessary expertise in these areas, we are encouraging you to reach out to us so that we can continue to empower young people in our community.”