Educating builders: Teaching entrepreneurship is good for the economy
By Eduard Panteleev, Co Founder & Co CEO of ANNA Money
One of the biggest issues with how we talk about business in the UK is that we rely on definitions that don’t make sense in real life.
Take “small and medium-sized enterprises”, or SMEs, the term used to describe businesses with fewer than 250 employees. SMEs account for over 99 per cent of all UK businesses, from one-person operations like freelancers and contractors to construction firms, restaurants, or manufacturers with 200 employees.
Most people running these businesses don’t identify with the term SME at all. An independent graphic designer who has been running a studio for 20 years will just say, “I’m a designer.”
A professional musician making a living from music doesn’t think of themselves as a business owner, even though technically that’s exactly what they are. Their identity comes from their craft, not from an abstract economic classification.
Independence is the common thread
What unites these people isn’t their industry or revenue – it’s independence, a determination to create value on their own terms. At its core, this is about agency, the confidence and capability to shape one’s own path.
Historically, independent professionals built towns and cities, formed guilds and trading networks, and helped create the conditions for modern democracy. Today, they’re still everywhere, quietly keeping the economy moving, but rarely presented to young people as something to aspire to.
Ask a classroom of teenagers what they want to be, and many will say influencer or TikTok star, a narrow, lottery-style vision of success.
Meanwhile, building a sustainable, independent livelihood is barely part of the conversation. That’s not a failure of ambition. It is a failure of education: young people aren’t taught how to recognise opportunities, create value, or pursue projects independently, the very skills that underpin entrepreneurship. So how can we begin to change that?
What entrepreneurship really means
Entrepreneurship is often mischaracterised as a personality trait or a risk appetite. That’s unhelpful. One of the clearest definitions I’ve found comes from Harvard Business School professor Howard Stevenson:
“Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.”
This definition captures the essence of what entrepreneurs do. They see opportunity and refuse to be constrained by what they don’t have yet. They focus on creating value rather than taking risks, and they learn to make things happen with limited resources.
Understanding entrepreneurship this way reframes the conversation. It’s not about creating tech unicorns or chasing venture capital. What I’d like to see in classrooms is students learning practical tools to enable them to pursue opportunity, adapt and solve problems – skills that apply in every sector.
What tech has learned and everyone else could use
The tech sector has developed practical methods for pursuing opportunity under uncertainty. But concepts like product–market fit, rapid experimentation, iteration, and customer discovery are just as relevant outside tech as they are within it.
Accelerators like Y Combinator teach a disciplined way of learning, adapting, and moving forward without perfect information or lots of resources. This process-oriented approach could be applied more broadly, helping students learn to test ideas, deal with complexity, and create value where none previously existed.
Education that prepares people for reality
Much of the current school curriculum reflects a world that no longer exists, one where linear careers, predictable industries, and stable roles were the norm.
Students are still largely assessed on what they can memorise rather than what they can do. Meanwhile, the modern economy rewards adaptability, digital fluency, financial confidence, and critical thinking. Coding, data literacy, and money skills are often optional extras, not core foundations.
That is why I was encouraged to hear about emerging models like Gen Evolve, which will experiment with real-world learning, enterprise education, and scale-up hubs where students can explore side projects openly rather than hide them under the desk.
Crucially, this isn’t about turning every student into a startup founder. It is about teaching the process of opportunity pursuit and the essence of entrepreneurship in a way that applies to many different futures.
A curriculum ready for the future
From a hiring perspective at ANNA, the people who stand out to me are not just those with strong exam results. They’re the ones who understand how value is created, can think independently and aren’t paralysed by a lack of resources.
Enterprise education equips students with those skills. It teaches them to price a service, manage cash flow, market themselves, pay tax, and deal with customers. It shows that starting a small business isn’t a risky last resort.
It is a realistic, respected ambition. Even for students who won’t start a business, these skills increase adaptability and confidence, helping them navigate a labour market reshaped by automation, AI, and new forms of work.
A future worth building
We don’t need every student to become an entrepreneur. But we do need more people who know how to pursue opportunity, solve problems, and create value. Aligning education with this reality could boost resilience, growth, and confidence across the country.
If we get this right, education won’t just prepare students to pass exams. It will prepare independent thinkers and builders with skills that endure, people capable of shaping their own futures, and in doing so, strengthening the economy we all rely on. That is an ambition worth taking seriously.
Parents, business owners or industry leaders, If this vision speaks to you, can join the conversation and find out more about the Generation Evolve movement here www.genevolve.org
Eduard Panteleev is the co-founder and co-CEO of AI-powered ANNA Money, the auto accountant app that handles business bank accounts, invoicing, payroll, taxes and daily admin for small business owners & freelancers. ANNA is offering free MTD Self Assessment quarterly filings forever to sole traders and landlords.