Teaching students to be their own bosses

In the past, the path was clear: graduate from high school or college, get a job, and keep that job. Health benefits were there, along with vacation and sick time. Retirement was waiting at the end of a long career. Today, keeping one job for your working life is incredibly unlikely, and even just getting one in the first place can be extremely difficult.

“Job security is not something you can count on now, that’s just not the nature of the beast,” said Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness and a nationally recognized economist in the field of business and economic forecasting. “The best you can hope for is to have a job, not lifelong job security … That’s the new reality.”

The unemployment rate for young people between the ages of 16 and 24 is 17.1 percent, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2013, a forecast hitting graduates as soon as they leave college.

As a result, people have been creating their own job security by starting their own businesses. Since the recession began in 2007, entrepreneurship has surged in the U.S.

Because of the demand for more specialized guidance and education dealing with entrepreneurship, local academic institutions are expanding programming and resources to meet the need.

Seminole State College of Florida will offer an Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management program starting in August. The two-year degree will give students the ability to recognize good business opportunities, create a business plan and market their product, think for a global market, and will connect them to local business owners as mentors.

“We decided we wanted to make it quick and hands-on,” said Hugh Moore, associate dean of the Center for Business, Legal and Entrepreneurship. “The focus is for young entrepreneurs to gain real life experience.”

Moore hopes that he can give students the tools they need to be successful and quickly head into the community to create jobs and stimulate the economy.

UCF has its Business Incubation Program (UCFBIP), which offers help to area companies that are looking for high growth and impact. The program provides a range of services, including advisers who can help with business development, local successful entrepreneur mentors and networking opportunities. And UCF will start another on-campus incubation program this fall or next year, and will – unlike the off-campus incubation program that only helps existing companies – incubate students’ ideas, said Gordon Hogan, director of the UCFBIP.

UCF also has entrepreneur-based tracks in its business program that encourage innovation and creativity, Snaith said.

To learn more about Seminole State College and the programs offered, visit seminolestate.edu. To learn about the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program and how your small business can get help, visit incubator.ucf.edu

“This is higher education responding to the needs of the market nowadays,” Snaith said.

Hogan said he could see more young entrepreneurs hitting the market and being successful because of the new incubator.

“The more that are exposed to it as students … the more start-ups there will be,” Hogan said. “It will have an effect on the number of companies that get started.”

And while both the SSC and UCFBIP programs serve a range of ages from recent graduates to those in their 40s and 50s, being a younger entrepreneur, despite a lack of experience, has its benefits. They likely have less responsibility – no mortgage or family to take care of – and have a multi-year window where they can still live with their parents, stay on their healthcare and afford to take the part-time work offered to them while spending spare time on business ventures, Snaith said.

Plus, they’ve got a determination to make it work without hang-ups of past failures.

“They’re different in the same way they’ve always been different,” Hogan said. “They dream more about what’s possible.”

That’s crucial, Snaith said, as it could be years before the economy bounces back and college job fairs are once again buzzing with employers ready to hire.