Starting a business can feel like trying to go through a maze blindfolded. For a young person, there’s the added struggle of walking into a room and worrying no one will take you seriously because of your age. But in this fast-moving world with so many new problems that need our solutions, we need young people with new ideas more than ever to help address these challenges.
My own journey to entrepreneurship was never a straight path. I wasn’t exactly a straight-A student. But, from hawking dried seed pods to my neighbours at five years old to co-founding The ASE Group at 21, I’ve always loved doing business: talking to people, inventing things, and monetising them. I’ve always loved working with kids too, so it was a natural pairing to create a vehicle in ASE to deliver life skills education, entrepreneurship and employment programs to Australians of all ages through our programs and workshops.
We teach young people the essential adulting skills not taught in traditional classrooms through our Australian School of Entrepreneurship. And through our partnership with the federally-funded Academy for Enterprising Girls, we deliver free school workshops to girls aged 10 to 18 to cultivate their skills in design thinking, entrepreneurship and business. I love that it reaches out to the kinds of girls I used to be – the very same ones we need to engage to contribute to our innovative future in this country.
We all know girls are underrepresented in this field. Entrepreneurship was never really a path that was presented to me during school. It’s funny to me now when I think of how I would fail maths year after year only to go on to teach myself accounting skills like bookkeeping and invoicing — the kind of life skills I think should be prioritised for kids. We are good as a society at holding up the high-achieving unicorns — but I was never the golden child, I never even knew what I wanted to do. And honestly, that’s exactly the kind of story some kids need to hear. Not everyone’s cut out for the traditional path, and that’s more than okay. It’s about finding your own path, even if it takes a few detours.
Girls walk into Academy for Enterprising Girls workshops with a mix of nerves and curiosity, not sure what to expect. One even thought I was there to give “the talk,” which gave us all a good laugh.
Often I’ll begin talking about “business” or “entrepreneurship” only to be met with blank stares. But that’s exciting for me because I know that, over the next few hours, I get to introduce a pathway they might not have considered possible before. It’s very special to see the dots connect throughout the workshops as we discuss societal problems and start exercising our lateral thinking to culminate in confident, innovative ideas that have the potential to impact the world. Girls have great problem-solving skills, and we need them to realise that as they start thinking about their career possibilities.
Conversations I have with some students remind me that some girls don’t grow up in a reality where girls can do what they want and be the boss. When they see other girls like them taking charge and dreaming big, it’s like a switch flips. I hope they leave feeling confident in their ideas and potential — and knowing the girls and their teachers and parents are further supported by Academy for Enterprising Girls online resources to continue to challenge their thinking.
It’s quite special that it was the same Academy for Enterprising Girls’ resources and video modules that helped my co-founder Gabi Parker and I understand business concepts in a simple way when we were beginning our own business journeys. It’s very cool to now deliver the same program that was so foundational for us to girls around the country.
Recently, I had the pleasure of delivering an Academy of Enterprising Girls workshop at my old primary school in Wondai, in regional Queensland. Growing up in a small regional school, I know it’s easy to feel overlooked and to think your dreams don’t matter as much because you’re not in the big city. But they do, which is why we so heavily focus on prioritising regional and rural communities. These kids have just as much potential, just as many dreams, and it’s our job to make it easier for them to navigate whatever maze life may have in front of them.
Tionne Young is the co-founder and general manager of The ASE Group and runs life skills education, employment and entrepreneurial programs, including Academy of Enterprising Girls workshops in schools across the country.
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Tionne Young is the co-founder and general manager of The ASE Group and runs life skills education, employment and entrepreneurial programs, including Academy of Enterprising Girls workshops in schools across the country.
