Learning innovator EtonX develops teenage entrepreneurship skills

Live online courses help young adults develop a new business idea while gaining crucial soft skills for their future career

Teenage students can develop and pitch their own business idea in a virtual classroom, gaining vital entrepreneurial skills for their future career, through a unique live  online Entrepreneurship course from learning innovator, EtonX.

In contrast to the panel-based pitching seen in TV series like The Apprentice, Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank, the new EtonX Entrepreneurship course takes small teams of students through a learning process – identifying a business idea, developing a value proposition, refining the concept and making the final pitch.

The new course harnesses ideas from Eton College’s very active Entrepreneurship Society, the College’s track record of producing successful entrepreneurs,¹ and company founders’ own experiences of setting up their business, to help young adults develop entrepreneurial skills that are increasingly seen as crucial to their future lives and work careers.

Through seven live online classes, interactive content, project work, and video advice from entrepreneurs, the course’s practical, collaboration-based approach helps participants to generate and develop their business proposition as part of a team. Students quickly learn transferable skills such as creativity, analytical thinking, adaptability, commercial awareness and persuasion.

EtonX’s new Entrepreneurship course will not only appeal to teenagers with definite ambitions to start a business but also students who appreciate that entrepreneurial skills are in demand from traditional employers too. Delivered through EtonX’s bespoke virtual classroom, the course covers key business concepts like user personas, value propositions, minimum viable product and pivoting, in an accessible and exciting way.

EtonX is a London-based education technology company and Eton College subsidiary that provides soft skills courses for teenagers across the world. It developed the Entrepreneurship course through discussions with the College’s teachers and boys from its Entrepreneurship Society who benefit from  a remarkable range of business competitions, activities and insights from guest speakers that many schools’ timetables and co-curricular programmes cannot match.

As they developed the course, EtonX’s digital content team and expert authors also interviewed and captured insights from UK-based startup founders to complete a highly-appealing set of interactive exercises and video-based content for the self-study sections of the course. 

The Entrepreneurship course is the latest addition to EtonX’s Future Skills Programme , a series of eight online soft skills courses accessible to teenagers and students anywhere in the world. The virtual classes, guided by the company’s experienced tutors, create a sympathetic and inclusive learning environment where no-one is left out. Students can also discuss and work together on their business or product idea between classes through the learning platform’s easy-to-use online discussion boards.

Catherine Whitaker, EtonX CEO and Head of Learning says:

“Many teenagers are thinking about starting a company or simply want to know how a business idea is developed. Our new course combines insights from Eton College’s highly-successful Entrepreneurship Society with our unique online pedagogy to help young people develop these vital skills.  

“Our virtual classroom and interactive content let students develop their idea week by week before they pitch it. They are guided by our expert tutors and gain inspiration throughout from startup founders – which will be challenging but perhaps slightly less daunting than selling ideas to Sir Alan Sugar or one of the TV Dragons or Sharks.”

About EtonX: A leading online soft skills course provider based in London and a wholly-owned trading subsidiary of Eton College. Its unique Future Skills Programme combines real world teaching insights from Eton College teachers with content development, technology and online pedagogy expertise from EtonX. Its live online learning model, featuring virtual classrooms and high-quality content, enables students to learn and practise soft skills in exciting, sympathetic and safe environments.  EtonX Future Skills Programme’s first wave of courses comprise: Making An Impact, Public Speaking, Verbal Communication, Writing Skills, Interview Skills and CV Writing, Critical Thinking and Entrepreneurship.