GEM 2023/2024 Launch Report in Casablanca, Morocco

It’s been 25 years since GEM began assessing the state of the art of entrepreneurship in the world. Over that time, entrepreneurship has taken its place on the global stage as a key component of the health of economies worldwide. However, some indicators like entrepreneurial education, have not changed much over time, thus requiring further action from policymakers and other stakeholders.

The entrepreneurial education scores were rated as the weakest framework condition in 31 out of 49 economies. Entrepreneurial education at school was assessed by national experts as satisfactory or better in just five out of 49 economies. The GEM global authorship team – consisting of 10 academics located around the world – noted the following in the report: "Many new businesses may never come to fruition because a generation of schoolchildren grew up unaware that starting a business was a possibility."

Change is possible

Between 2021 and 2023, both Qatar and the United Arab Emirates showed substantially improved ratings for entrepreneurial education at school. India had the most improved ratings over the same period, from “less than satisfactory” to “much better than satisfactory.” Based on GEM observations over 25 years, some ways to improve entrepreneurial education at school are to ensure the curriculum includes soft skills (creative thinking, problem solving, opportunity recognition and how to assess risks, etc.); invite entrepreneurs into schools to talk about their experience; and introduce small business projects where pupils collaborate to compete around an entrepreneurial project.

At the college/university level, possibilities include introducing courses on how to start and run a business; encouraging students to start micro-enterprises; inviting the local business community to mentor individual students with project ideas; and creating space where students can collaborate on business ideas (innovation hubs).

Women entrepreneurs deserve more support

Experts in 37 out of 48 economies rated the social support for women as unsatisfactory. However, in a majority of economies (28 out of 48), women entrepreneurs’ access to resources, as compared to that of men, rated as satisfactory or better. Experts in only six economies assessed the social support for women entrepreneurs and their resource access compared to men as satisfactory or better.

Would-be entrepreneurs fear of failure still remains a formidable obstacle to the creation of new startups, especially for women. At least two in five adults seeing good opportunities would not start a business for fear it might fail in 35 of 45 participating economies. In 37 of these economies, a higher proportion of women than men that see good opportunities would not start a business for fear it might fail.

GEM 2023 2024