E CITY is the Cleveland licensee of The Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE -- pronounced "nifty"), founded in 1987 and based in New York City. NFTE is an international nonprofit organization that introduces low-income and at-risk youth to the world of business and entrepreneurship by teaching them how to develop and operate their own legitimate small businesses. NFTE has reached more than 186,000 young people, has programs in 21 states and 13 countries outside the U.S., and has trained over 2,400 individuals as Certified Entrepreneurship Teachers (CET).
E CITY CETs use NFTE’s award-winning, standards focused curriculum, How to Start and Operate a Small Business in our after-school, in-school and summer programs. Students learn how to recognize business opportunities, market their business ideas, keep good records, develop an income statement, and calculate their return on investments. They also meet local entrepreneurs, tour businesses, receive grants to purchase products for their businesses, develop business plans with the help of volunteer business plan coaches, and present their ideas to a panel of business leaders from the community.
View the NFTE Table of Contents here
www.nfte.com
NFTE Mission:
NFTE provides entrepreneurship education programs to young people from low-income communities.
NFTE History and Overview:
NFTE is widely viewed as a world leader in promoting entrepreneurial literacy among youth. Founded in 1987 by Steve Mariotti (a former business executive and entrepreneur) while he was a public high school teacher in New York City’s South Bronx, NFTE began as a dropout prevention and academic performance improvement program for students who were at risk of failing or quitting school. Combining his business background with his desire to teach at-risk students, Steve discovered that when low-income youth are given the opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship their innate “street smarts” can easily develop into “academic smarts” and “business smarts.” Through entrepreneurship, youth discover that what they are learning in the classroom is relevant to the real world.