Cameron Thorn: Entrepreneurial skills will give our young people the tools they need to thrive

Investing in entrepreneurial education at school is a great way to show we’re serious about creating a global hub of invention, entrepreneurship, investment, innovation and impact here in WA.

We could start by decluttering the curriculum our teachers are expected to deliver, crafting resources that will help students develop entrepreneurial traits and creating meaningful assessment tools so that our educators measure the growth of self-starter mindsets in our next generation.

The Young Entrepreneurs Academy of Western Australia (YEA WA) is thrilled the State Government’s expert review of senior secondary pathways is tackling these issues, recommending a rethink of how “complex competencies could be delivered, assessed and certified through course content” and “for this package of reforms to be fully funded”.

If the Pathways to Post-School Success recommendations are implemented, chair of the expert panel behind the report, Emeritus Professor Bill Louden, says it will enable the school system to more fully recognise student diversity and achievement.

We know curious, resilient problem-solvers with a can-do attitude will be best placed to thrive in a fast-changing world. And we understand that the initial focus is on changes to ATAR, including greater flexibility, less duplication and encouraging students to tackle “hard subjects”.

But the report also raises practical issues about the purpose of secondary education.

It says learning goals should dictate course design and assessment; that student diversity and achievement should be captured and acknowledged more broadly; that students from diverse backgrounds should be better supported; that WA’s education system should be “responding to new opportunities in the world of work” and should incorporate “contemporary modes of assessment”.

We believe supporting young people to reach their full potential in an innovation-positive ecosystem is crucial to diversifying our economy in the longer term and may well provide an incentive for them to keep their talents in WA.

The Pathways report points out the next generation of WA school leavers will enter a world of accelerating technological change, globalisation and automation.

These students need a broader and different mix of skills, in information and communications technology, critical and creative thinking, intercultural understanding and problem solving.

Skills that support imagination, discovery, innovation, empathy and the ability to develop creative solutions to complex problems.

Importantly, delivering those skills to our students was also one of the aspirations of the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration signed by all education ministers, State, Territory and Commonwealth.

That is the reason YEA WA is working on developing a shared understanding of how to help our secondary students build these attributes and crafting an intelligent way of measuring growth and development of these traits.

YEA WA, backed by the Malka Foundation, Curtin University and other benefactors, was established a year ago to advocate, connect and empower WA educators to deliver our state’s next generation of innovators.

YEA WA has been collaborating with WA’s entrepreneurial stakeholders to exchange ideas and build a culture of innovation in schools that will create greater long-term diversity in WA’s economy.

We have forged a partnership with Curtin University to run a pilot innovation and entrepreneurship post-graduate unit for teachers — Creativity and Innovation in Learning and Teaching.

We are building networks to encourage shared ideas and collaboration between teachers and WA’s thriving innovation ecosystem. We are working with education and innovation stakeholders to create a consistent set of entrepreneurial traits and capabilities and robust assessment methods.

We believe entrepreneurship should be a top-10 career choice for secondary school students.

YEA WA has also committed to supporting and celebrating young WA innovators by sponsoring the Young Innovators Award at the 2025 WA Innovator of the Year Awards.

The Young Innovators Award is the first of its kind in the country. We think it’s important that we showcase the gains that our young people are making in this space. The prize includes a chance for the winner to share their ideas at West Tech Fest, join a bespoke accelerator program and to forge relationships with like-minded peers.

We believe that the Pathways report gives us an opportunity to build momentum for a robust entrepreneurial curriculum that will give our young people the tools they need to thrive.

Cameron Thorn is the director of Young Entrepreneurs Academy of Western Australia