Dan Pontefract

Search:

I'm not entirely certain what to make of this. I got wind of a news report from Channel NewsAsia entitled, "MBA for Children" where three to six-year olds are enrolling into a pseudo MBA program for toddlers. Over 100,000 children have graduated from this program in Shanghai alone at a cost of roughly $590 USD per student. Watch the clip below: Early on in the clip, a 6 year-old says, "I like to spend money when I was younger. Now I don't." Wow. What to make of this? It seems this MBA for Children program in Shanghai is a derivative of a company based in Colorado, USA called FasTracKids who claim "that a significant number of three to six-year-old children enrolled in FasTracKids improved their vocabulary and social skills at a rate 100% to 150% times faster than their peers not enrolled in the program." They might need help on their use of graphs as their Y Axis looks a wee bit bare. See below.

fastrackids

That aside, I was personally shocked to view the clip above. 100,000 young Chinese toddlers are being (allegedly) fast-tracked towards the components of an MBA? It seems criminal. And what of this parent company in Colorado? I'm sure Nancy Faunce, President and CEO of FasTracKids International knows what she is doing but I'm always a wee bit leery when I hear of programs (whether Nancy has a part in this or not) that are promoting the fast-tracking of young toddlers into MBA-like objectives. It's just so wrong on so many levels. What do you think?

WORK-LIFE BLOOM

PERSONAL ASSESSMENT

Find out if you’re currently blooming, budding, stunted or in need of renewal through the Work-Life Bloom Personal Assessment.

START ASSESSMENT

Testimonials

Dan Pontefract’s keynote on the importance of workplace culture in employee engagement was excellent. Dan used his vast leadership experience to provide our conference attendees with practical strategies to build teams that are engaged and committed. His relatable, real-life examples were thought provoking, memorable and very personal, creating a connection to the audience. I would highly recommend Dan as an entertaining keynote speaker who delivers content that is relevant and actionable.

Michelle Hillyard, Director SCU
We are so proud to have had you at our event. Your talk was a big hit. It moved us. We can’t thank you enough.

Malin Björnell, Salesforce
Dan challenged us to have clarity of purpose, both as individuals and as an organization. He related inspiring stories drawing on his experience in business, technology and academia. As he said, ‘There is no ownership without belonging.’

Christian Pantel, D2L
Fantastic engaging talk for our global partner summit. Thank you so much, Dan!

Barb Kinnard, CEO Response Biomedical Corp
Dan not only brought his presentation to life with his charisma, but also content, style and presentation finesse. Our members were especially interested in his thought provoking and top of mind topic on the future of work and how we’re going to be leading the next generation of leaders.

Cheryl Goodwin, CPA
Dan is a conference organizer’s ideal speaker. Not only did he inspire and energize our group, but he also masterfully adapted his content so it resonated with the audience and our conference theme. As a bonus, Dan is able to nimbly navigate to adjust to a reduced time slot when other speakers went over time without sacrificing the impact of his session.

Director and General Counsel
Dan accomplished what we set out to do, which was not only to be inspirational, but also to leave everyone with tools and food for thought / self-reflection to improve their personal and professional lives.

Hermann Handa, FCT

Media Appearances