PROMOTING THE CULTURE OF INNOVATION THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP WITH MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

Modern scholars uphold entrepreneurship is the force pushing innovation forward. Thus, a way to sow the culture of innovation into the new generation mindset is through the development of entrepreneurial skills in teenagers. Our research explores this premise aiming at the proposal of an educational methodology to promote the innovation culture through the development of entrepreneurial skills in high school students. In this work, we consider the term entrepreneurship directly linked to the capacity to do something new that leads to innovation in practice. So, we present a proposal based on practical workshops, composed of seven meetings to foster the ten personal entrepreneurial characteristics advocated by David McClelland. For their capstone project, students have to present creative interventions to improve their local community. In this sense, we promote the innovation and entrepreneurial culture by nurturing teenagers’ interest in entrepreneurship as well as exploring the development of skills that seek to bring innovative solutions to society. This initiative has been carried out in the context of a university extension project conducting in partnership with entities representing the business environment and the city’s public education system. Results show the proposal achieves its goal, but many challenges, especially regarding students’ sensibilization in the recruiting process, remains. Keywords—Development of entrepreneurial skills, Entrepreneurship, Innovation through entrepreneurship, Workshops for teenagers.