Cottage and small industries constitute about 95 percent of the businesses in the country and the government must revive the economy by supporting young entrepreneurs. However, such an initiative may be futile unless we first create enough entrepreneurship awareness among the youth.
This is because entrepreneurship awareness among youths is “very low” as indicated in our latest survey report, Human Flourishing and Youth Entrepreneurship in Bhutan, published by the Centre for Bhutan and GNH Studies (CBS). Over 60 percent of young people have low awareness of entrepreneurship prospects. Given such limited awareness about entrepreneurship, it would be impractical to expect young people to pursue entrepreneurship as a career option despite various programmes initiated.
The awareness is crucial because higher entrepreneurial awareness is linked to a greater intention to start a business. As indicated in the findings, 45.4 percent of those who reported low entrepreneurship awareness showed interest in starting their own business as one of the options for employment in the next few years. Another 72.8 percent of youth who had high entrepreneurship awareness expressed the same. This is a clear indication of young people’s interest in entrepreneurship.
Funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, the survey assessed entrepreneur awareness by asking whether the youth were familiar with the term ‘entrepreneur’ or ‘entrepreneurship’, awareness related to training, programmes, and competitions held in schools and institutions, and government policies facilitating entrepreneurship. The survey interviewed 2,269 school-going youth and 133 out-of-school youth selected based on random sampling. The data was collected through face-to-face interviews using a Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) method.
Signifying the disparity in the levels of entrepreneurship awareness in terms of region, youth from the Eastern and Central, and those enrolled in the Arts and Science courses showed lower entrepreneurship awareness than the rest. “Students enrolled in the Arts stream believed that entrepreneurship was irrelevant to them.” Not only the awareness of entrepreneurship but there is also a need to familiarise youth with the availability of various financial incentives and low-cost financing mechanisms to support entrepreneurial activities.
Most youths seem to have low awareness about the availability of low-cost financing services extended by the government through financial institutions to branch entrepreneurship in the country. In addition, mentorship programmes for potential future entrepreneurs will further inspire the upcoming generation of business leaders. Interventions in the mindset shift from employment to entrepreneurship are deemed necessary.
Although, appeal of TVET programs remains low among youths, those currently enrolled in TVET showed a positive outlook regarding future employment and entrepreneurship prospects. The survey results reveal that 31.9 percent of the youth are highly motivated to pursue entrepreneurship. Key factors driving this motivation were the desire to prove their ability, the flexibility to increase their salary, and the need for self-achievement and growth. The education ministry must come up with strategies or initiatives that introduce and support entrepreneurship in the schools while this motivation is at its peak.
If not considered, there is already an indication that a sizable proportion of youths (21.2%) who plan to look for employment in the next five years are planning to move abroad in search of better employment opportunities.
Youth well-being indicators
The research on human flourishing and youth entrepreneurship provides foundational data on various well-being indicators for young people. This study offers detailed insights into the well-being and happiness of youth, assessed through different measurement tools like the GNH Index, Flourishing Scale, and Subjective Well-being Measures.
The CBS recommends a requirement for policy intervention because of the prevalence of unfavourable social conditions such as social isolation (with 12.4 percent reporting no confidants and 24.5 percent having just one, putting them at risk of isolation), and experiences of bullying (29.8 percent experiencing some form of it).
The survey also saw experiences of discrimination or negative treatment (reported by 15 percent), and a lack of connection to school (24.5 percent feeling little to no sense of belonging to their school or community). For instance, the average days spent attending social and cultural activities in the community was 5.0 days in the past year. Males (5.3 days) spend slightly more days participating in social and cultural activities as compared to females (4.8 days).
Even a meagre of 1.5 percent of mental and physical bullying by school staff reported is still a concern. Any form of bullying and harassment can significantly impact the cognitive abilities and educational achievements of young people. The discriminations reported were based on one’s gender, age, ethnicity, health condition, religion, physique, or language or accent. The mental health index revealed that while 79.2 percent of youth experience ‘normal mental well-being,’ 6.5 percent suffer from ‘severe psychological distress,’ with this condition being more prevalent among female youth. In terms of perceived change in the observance and practice of Driglam Namzha, three in five youths (60.9%) believe that the practice has declined over the last few years.
The survey also saw that about 95 percent of day scholars in the Eastern region and only about 46 percent in the Western region walk to the school. Access to public transportation services is deemed very low in the Eastern and Central, including ownership of a private vehicle within the family. This may explain why a higher proportion of day-scholar students from the Eastern (94.9%) and Central (78.3%) still need to walk to school. The walking time differed from 15 minutes to more than an hour of walk.
It is interesting to note that over two-thirds of the youths rated the government’s performance relatively favourably (rating ‘very good’ or ‘good’) in providing health and education facilities, but only one-third of the youths rated the government’s performance ‘very good’ or ‘good’ in creating jobs (36.5%) and reducing the gap between rich and poor (30.2%).
The CBS hopes that these findings will bridge the current information gap on the issues of youth well-being, entrepreneurship, and employment. The insights from this study will drive further research and inform policy development to create conditions that enhance well-being and promote entrepreneurial knowledge among youth. It is time we implement strategies to improve employment opportunities for Bhutanese youth by taking up evidence-based reports.
