Establishing an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in West Virginia
By Samantha Cart
Across West Virginia, a simple idea has taken root. For the Mountain State to become a place where startup companies and innovators thrive, entrepreneurship must be taught at every level of the education system and supported by state and local government and the business community at large.
While traditional businesses and large investments that create hundreds of jobs are something to be celebrated—especially in a state working to define itself outside of its longstanding energy identity—the fact remains that 96% of employers in West Virginia are small businesses. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, the state was home to 113,410 small businesses in 2019 and saw an increase in business startups in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic created job losses that forced people into a creative survival mode.
While the seed for this idea was planted long ago—seemingly inside the very DNA of Mountaineers—it is finally starting to bear fruit and has grown into a network of partners working together across demographic and geographic lines to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem in West Virginia.
Empowering the Emerging Workforce
If the first time a student is introduced to the concept that they are able to start their own business is in college, it might already be too late. The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) empowers the state’s emerging workforce every year with career technical education (CTE), providing academic and technical skills, knowledge and training in a variety of categories.
In 2019, 7,690 students in West Virginia completed state-approved CTE programs, and the number grew to 8,812 in 2020. There are 152 CTE locations in West Virginia, including 121 high schools and 22 county centers. CTE gives students the power to explore potential careers in a variety of hands-on, technical training programs, including agriculture, construction, communication, education, finance, government, health sciences, hospitality and tourism, information technology, manufacturing, mathematics and science, among others.
One such CTE category is referred to as entreag, and students in this program are required to complete an immersive supervised agricultural experience (SAE), which can range from an internship, entrepreneurship experience, research to school-based enterprise, or service-learning opportunity.
Experiential and work-based learning in agricultural education allows local programs to extend beyond the classroom and into the community and students to consider different careers and occupations, learn expected workplace behavior and develop specific skills within the industry. In addition, each student is required to complete an SAE project, many of which include coming up with an agricultural business concept. In this course, students plan, implement, operate, and assume financial risks in a product or service of agriculture. In 2018, 6,072 West Virginia students completed SAE projects, which had a $5 million economic impact statewide.
All secondary CTE programming in West Virginia is overseen by Clinton Burch, senior officer in the WVDE’s Division of Technical and Adult Education.
“My job is really about connecting the dots between education and industry,” says Burch. “One of my favorite things to do is connect people that then create new opportunities for individuals seeking career training or career placement. It is a wonderful feeling when working with people across the state who want to create these opportunities and do not expect anything in return other than a better prepared West Virginia workforce. This passion has been in me for as long as I can remember.”
Building a Collaborative Network
Burch is part of the growing network of government agencies, educational institutions and businesses working toward promoting entrepreneurship across the state. This work started for Burch when he joined the WVDE 10 years ago and consulted with Dr. Kathy D’Antoni, who was serving as assistant state superintendent of schools at the time, on the Simulated Workplace Initiative.
“That initiative is now a nationwide model and is also used in Australia, so we have taken it international,” he says.
Simulated Workplace pathways are currently used in elementary, middle and high schools in West Virginia and create high-quality business and industry learning environments inside the classroom. Since 2010, 41,421 students have participated in more than 1,200 simulated workplace companies across the state.
Since taking on the role of senior officer, Burch has tripled the department’s budget in the area of entrepreneurship.
“The WVDE Division of Technical and Adult Education has always dabbled in the world of entrepreneurship, but over the last year, our focus has been on not only expanding entrepreneurship but work-based learning opportunities for students,” he says. “The budget for these activities has more than tripled to ensure schools and students are supported in these ventures. We have built an entire system that will hopefully bring education, businesses and entrepreneurs together.”
Part of forming this collaborative work has been the development of a formal entrepreneurship pathway for high school students, which is currently being piloted during the 2021-2022 school year.
In order to achieve this, the WVDE partnered with West Virginia University (WVU); Marshall University; The EdVenture Group, Inc.; West Virginia business teachers; and other key stakeholders as part of an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization, or POWER, grant project called Simulated Workplace Entrepreneurship Education Pathway.
According to Tara St. Clair, director of operations for the Encova Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at WVU’s John Chambers College of Business and Economics, the four-course pathway is designed to support students from business ideation to launch.
“It gives West Virginia high school students access to a college-level entrepreneurship program,” she says. “These students will be equipped with entrepreneurial skills many college graduates do not receive. As a policy-adopted pathway, this formal program leads entrepreneurship education innovation across the nation.”
While entrepreneurship programs are typically offered as electives or standalone courses, this initiative brings entrepreneurship to the forefront of school curriculum and provides a new career pathway for students, according to St. Clair.
“As a development partner, we facilitate a collaborative team of subject matter experts from Marshall University and West Virginia University in designing, testing and implementing a college-level entrepreneurship pathway for career and technical education students,” says Amber Ravenscroft, manager of innovation for The EdVenture Group. “We also lead capacity building, technical assistance and educational coaching for participating schools throughout this process to ensure our educators are provided the support and resources necessary to build a successful program that is sustainable and impactful in our local communities.”
For Tricia Ball, associate director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, or iCenter, at Marshall University, the partnership aligns perfectly with the center’s mission to reframe the economic future of West Virginia from one of generational poverty to one of generational prosperity.
“To me, innovation and entrepreneurship are two of the key pieces of that equation,” she says. “We all hear people talking about West Virginia’s problems, how we’re at the top of all of the bad lists and the bottom of all of the good lists and how we need more jobs. Business is problem-solving. Through an entrepreneurial ecosystem, I think we can get people to stop thinking of these problems as things to complain about or reasons to leave and instead view them as challenges to be solved. If we are successful in that mindset shift, I believe people will begin to create startups that solve the state’s challenges. I think the true transformation, though, is one step beyond that. If people in our state innovate scale-up startups that solve our greatest challenges, we will change our future, and West Virginia will change from a place people want to leave to find meaningful work, to a place where people move to get it.”
Many successful entrepreneurs have played an important role in giving feedback to help construct the pathway program and identifying additional opportunities for students. This group has become known as the West Virginia Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (WVEE) and is made up of small business owners, entrepreneurs and resource providers working to build and showcase the story of entrepreneurship in the state. The group was co-founded by St. Clair and Bill Woodrum, West Virginia Entrepreneurship Network coordinator for the West Virginia Development Office, in 2019.
“The goal of the WVEE is an intentional system of support for entrepreneurs, including planning, regulation, commercialization, development, finance and beyond,” says St. Clair. “Our work aims to bring together key providers in the state to illustrate best practices in supporting entrepreneurs. At its core is the creation of an intentional system of support for entrepreneurs from ideation and visualization to regulatory submissions and into support for sustaining businesses throughout the difficult first years and beyond. The WVEE leverages a variety of local, regional, state and federal government resources alongside education, foundations and nonprofit organizations.”
While WVU, Marshall and The EdVenture Group serve as
the development partners for the entrepreneurship pathway, resource partners on the project include the ARC, Intuit Education, The Education Alliance, The National Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education, West Virginia Department of Commerce and the West Virginia Manufacturers Association.
The inclusion of so many influential groups across the state has led to many opportunities for students to further their knowledge and skills by participating in activities and events focused around unique entrepreneurial competitions, including Bridging Innovation, the Classroom 2 Career Summit, EntreEMERGE, the Governor’s School of Entrepreneurship and the West Virginia High School Business Competition.
“The entrepreneurial mindset is moving to the forefront of the educational setting in West Virginia and is now being viewed as a way of thinking, partnering and instructing students, teachers and their communities on ways to impact the economy of West Virginia through education,” says Burch. “The West Virginia Department of Education’s Division of Technical and Adult Education is creating statewide partnerships to assist with initiatives to continue promoting the entrepreneurial way of thinking.”
Introducing Entrepreneurship at Every Level
To create an ecosystem that spans age and education level, entrepreneurship education must be found in every classroom.
“The state would like to see entrepreneurship as a pre-K to an adult type concept,” says Burch.
The WVDE is working with its partners on implementing entrepreneurship curriculum at every level with programs like Discover Your Future, which was created for grades 6-8 to introduce students to all 16 national career pathway clusters. The development will expand to include local opportunities for students to see the careers near them. E-Ship Program of Study is a high-school program being built by WVU and Marshall to ensure students have opportunities and resources that include dual credit, mentors and university level access.
Burch’s reach also extends beyond CTE and into adult basic learning for West Virginians working toward their GED, studying English as a second language or simply brushing up on computer skills, perfectly positioning him to extend the entrepreneurial ecosystem beyond the traditional classroom and into the existing workforce.
He is particularly proud of the James Rumsey Technical Institute, which is being established as a pilot makerspace location to offer adults in the Martinsburg area a place to explore entrepreneurial opportunities, small business ventures and product fabrication. This initiative will also offer training to high school students who are interested in exploring these types of career pathways. A partnership of the WVDE, WVU and Marshall, the goal is to have as many resources available to local communities to expand entrepreneurial enterprises as much as possible.
This is echoed by the work of the Encova center, which offers strategic business consulting, facilitating mutually beneficial partnerships between WVU students and West Virginia businesses through student experiential projects. The center is also currently in the process of hiring a business coach dedicated to supporting veterans and their families to start or grow their businesses in West Virginia. This position will offer one-on-one coaching, host workshops across the state and establish a veteran business ecosystem to connect these individuals.
Moving the Mountain State Forward
In order to make the most of this entrepreneurial movement, the concept will need buy-in and support from every level of government, education, business and industry.
West Virginia’s business community can offer its support and create and empower its future workforce in a variety of ways, including volunteering to judge a business competition, offering to serve as a student mentor or classroom speaker, participating in the Classroom 2 Career Summit, attending job fairs, becoming part of a CTE advisory council and becoming involved in the Bridging Innovation events.
“West Virginia is a state rooted in entrepreneurial history,” says Burch. “Small businesses serve as the powerhouse of our economy. By equipping the next generation with entrepreneurial aptitudes and skills, we’re building a sustainable pipeline of entrepreneurial talent to support our local communities. West Virginia has the largest population decline in the nation, with youth and younger adults accounting for most of the outmigration. Entrepreneurship gives students the skills and, most importantly, the hope to empower them to stay and make a difference in our state. Entrepreneurship can often be perceived as an independent pursuit, but entrepreneurial endeavors are often not successful in isolation. With an ecosystem of support from youth to retirees, our state can set a precedent of collaboration and support to empower all ideas.”
