Young entrepreneurs can help rev up R.I. economy

Startup America, the new Obama administration initiative to promote entrepreneurship and high-growth startups, is a major step in the right direction. Besides driving economic growth and job creation, entrepreneurship is a smart career option for many young people, who are competing for employment alongside seasoned professionals, including the recently unemployed and underemployed.
“Entrepreneurship could be the most underexploited means of reducing youth unemployment,” according to a Feb. 2 Bloomberg Businessweek cover story “The Youth Unemployment Bomb.”
Overall U.S. youth unemployment is 21 percent, with minorities facing higher percentages. Compare that to the world’s highest youth-unemployment rate – 24 percent – in the Middle East and North Africa. Granted, young Americans do not suffer from political oppression and related quality-of-life issues, but the lack of opportunity can generate a loss of self-esteem, apathy and delay in leading an active and responsible adult life.
So, how do you effectively communicate the self-employment option to the youth of America, inspire them to develop their potential and, as the cliché goes, pull themselves up by their own bootstraps? Relevant education and mentoring are key. That’s why Startup America is so timely. The initiative is part of a national innovation strategy and is designed to be a nonpartisan, catalytic effort that engages CEOs, universities, foundations, organizations and other leaders who support the entrepreneurial spirit in the United States. Hands-on education, like the experience provided by Junior Achievement, a partner in the Startup America initiative, helps young people acquire the business skills needed to compete in the 21st-century global marketplace. JA of Rhode Island empowers young people to own their future economic success through participation in classroom-based programs such as JA Company Program and JA Be Entrepreneurial. Focusing on entrepreneurship, work-readiness and financial-literacy skills, Junior Achievement also helps develop “soft” skills, such as leadership, creative thinking, problem-solving and decision-making, that prepare them to be self-employed.
Statistics show that young people who have the benefit of the Junior Achievement experience are much more likely to have the confidence and ability to start a business. In a recent JA alumni study, 20 percent of respondents indicated that they own their businesses, as opposed to 7 percent of the comparison group and 10 percent of the general population. Rhode Island’s economic health can only benefit from being the home of a new crop of innovative, business-savvy, young entrepreneurs. Free-market development plays a pivotal role in sustaining local communities and revitalizing the economy. •

Lee Lewis is president of Junior Achievement of Rhode Island.