Entrepreneur Doesnt Need Formal Education: Really? Tedy J.

Sitepu

The importance of formal education in creating entrepreneurs has been debated among the experts recently. There is a growing thought that school is not necessary for the success in business. It is an important to clarify this issue since many people believe in that statement. Some of them even decided to quit from school. There are many arguments that denying the formal education role in creating entrepreneurs. However, there are some strong evidence that formal education is significant to build entrepreneurial skills. Many of the businessman claimed that formal education does not have correlation with their success in business. This argument based on the fact that they got less formal education. Therefore, they recommend people who want to be entrepreneurs should quit from school. Edy Zaues in his book stated If you want to be rich why should go to school?i Zaeus claim that schools provide skills that nothing to do with business. However, Mario Teguh -- a well-known motivator, said education is important for success in business. He argued, if a businessman can achieve his success with only limited formal education, so he will achieve more if he got better education. Many studies have found that todays young entrepreneurs are generally more educated and career-oriented than their predecessors." Numerous studies have demonstrated the link between education and higher rates of successful entrepreneurs. Educational and training programs that encourage entrepreneurship can help entrepreneurs learn valuable business skills (Aronnson, 2004).ii The opponents of formal education in creating entrepreneurs also argue that school kills creativity. According to them, schools treat every student in the same way, same theory, same question, and the same result. That is how the creativity is killed. When there is no creativity, there is no entrepreneurship. However, this argument is only valid for school with traditional systems where the teachers stand up and talk. Now, many of schools implement studentcentered learning which is acknowledges the student voice as central to the learning experience for every learner. For example a class that I visited recently. Students are asked to choose a kind of Indonesian traditional food. Then, each of them is assigned to learn its historical background, ingredient, and the possibility of the improvement. Each student came up with different ideas how to explore, how to develop, and how to market the end product. The teacher guided them as a person who discussed their ideas, revealed it weakness, gave clues for solution, and challenged for further improvement. It means creativity can be nurtured for all students based on their needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles with the teacher as a facilitator of learning. Another argument of the opponents is schools make people do not want to take risks. As we know, risks taker is one of the requirements as an entrepreneur. Bob Sadino recently stated: School is poison for the entrepreneurship.iii His statement based on the fact that schools teach too many theories. In effect, according to Sadino, people who got the school degree will be afraid to jump into the business. What Sadino said is not completely true. Many of the modern teaching methodologies provide the students with risk taking ability. For example, some of the schools gave their student business case as final assignment. In this case, students have to create products or services then bring it to the market. How good they can sell it will determine their

final score. Schools not only teach about the risks but also give the students ability to identify and mitigate them. In conclusion, we cannot ignore the role of formal education in creating entrepreneurs -as many opponents suggest. Formal education is important to everybody, especially for those who want to be an entrepreneur. With current systems, schools can provide valuable business skills, creativity, and ability to mitigate the risks. Provoking people to quit from school to be entrepreneurs is not wise and should be stopped.
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Zaues, Edy, Kalau Mau Kaya Nagapain Sekolah, Gradien Books, 2007 , M., Education mattersBut does entrepreneurship education? An interview with David Birch, 2004. iii Sadino, Bob, Mereka Bilang Saya Goblok, Kintamani Publishing, 2010.
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