Mexico, failed in business education: GEM

Mexico has a high entrepreneurial spirit; however, at the education level the country fails, according to data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

The report, which is carried out every year and monitors the entrepreneurial index at the international level, highlighted that the evaluation of Mexico in business education declined in 2022, because it went from a qualification, already bad in itself, from 2.7 to 1.7.

The result places Mexico as the penultimate country with the worst qualification in entrepreneurial education, just above Togo. While Switzerland has the best rating 3.6, although it is still deficient.

“Year after year, entrepreneurship education at school is consistently ranked as the worst of all business framework conditions. With a small number of notable exceptions, most countries are missing the opportunity to increase their entrepreneurial potential,” said Stephen Hill, lead author of GEM.

Meanwhile, José Ernesto Amorós, Associate Dean of the Faculty at EGADE Business School and leader of the study in Mexico, commented that in the basic education, that is, at the primary and secondary level, there is absence of entrepreneurship programsintroduction to economics and the market, especially in public schools.

education higher level

The situation improves at the higher level, since in universities, both in public and private institutions, there are subjects related to economics and entrepreneurship.

“It has been seen that subjects related to entrepreneurship are beginning to be more common in almost all university study plansbut we are a little lame in the part of basic education”.

The lack of business education from the basic levels opens up gaps, because “if young people are not trained in basic skills from a young age, such as: critical capacity, teamwork, leadership, problem solving, which entrepreneurship requires, can’t go fareither”. details Amorós.

Meanwhile, the outlook looks more encouraging outside of school, due to the fact that the entrepreneurial education outside the institutions shows a rating of 5.3, that is, there are programs that promote the entrepreneurial spirit.

An example of this are the strategies that the federal government has created, such as the Mipynmes.mx program of the Ministry of Economy that provides training in business and digital skills for entrepreneurs and micro, small and medium-sized companies and entrepreneurship programs created by various companies. and organizations.

Other failing grades

The report also detailed that Mexico has failing grades in entrepreneurial financing, obtaining a score of 3.5; government policy, with 2.3; government entrepreneurial programs, with 3.8 and research and development transfers with 2.8.

According to Amorós, it is not so easy to obtain financing to start a business and Mexicans perceive the lack of support from public policy to undertake, likewise, the steps to formalize a business are long, which prevents undertaking formality.

Despite this panorama and the fact that the 9% inflation that Mexico registered in September 2022, impacted credit and made it more expensive, representing an obstacle to entrepreneurshipMexicans have not stopped and have opted to create new businesses.

“As in 2019, almost half of adults in Mexico knew someone who had recently started their own business, and more than two-thirds of adults believed they had the skills and experience to do it themselves.”

That is, the percentage of adults in Mexico who started or managed their own business was practically the same in 2022 as in 2019, 13%; however, those who are entrepreneurship do so informally.

Faced with this panorama, Amorós highlights that more initiatives are required to promote the creation of new businesses and promote the entrepreneurial spirit from basic education.