Developing productive lifeskills in children: Priming entrepreneurial mindsets through socialisation in family occupations

Building on the premise that societal sustainability depends on mental and behavioural sustainability, this paper provides a framework within which the complex challenges of sustainable early childhood education in the majority world is discussed. The work contends that entrepreneurial mindsets priming is a viable component of early childhood education through life skills orientation within the family. It argues that historically, vocational training of children has been the primordial responsibility of the family before the advent of schooling, a source of mismatch between acquired skills and sustainable livelihood. The work considers the family a major socialising agent in early childhood, and also an enterprise for knowledge production, strategies in entrepreneurial upskilling and sustainable lifeskills. The work does not advocate for rejection, but for the deconstruction of dominant capitalist learning values, which are fraught with crisis of relevance in sustainable childhood learning and development. As a proactive measure in developing entrepreneurial minds and societies discussions are oriented towards current policies and cultures in sustainable childhood education in context.