Great economic minds throughout history have identified the link between entrepreneurship and development. Lately, India has implemented several structural reforms to promote private sector development and entrepreneurship. India’s economy has grown considerably during the past few years and the country is poised to become the youngest workforce in the world by 2020 with 64 per cent of its people belonging to the working-age bracket of 15-64. This demographical advantage gives India an unprecedented edge to emerge as a global economic leader. Experts believe this vast young pool, if skilled well, can lead to an additional 2 per cent GDP growth rate in the coming year. With the emergence of the start-up culture, this is the perfect time for India to train its workforce and inspire people towards entrepreneurship or self-employment.

Entrepreneurial learning is a growing area in education and many schools in India, including Global Indian International School (GIIS) Chinchwad, have begun including it in their curriculum.‘Quest’ is one such flagship program introduced by GIIS where the young creative geniuses can pitch their potential ideas for an innovation to experts from relevant industries. Panel discussions of the likes “Building entrepreneurship skills and mindset: Is it now a requisite for future readiness?”are focused upon to familiarize and prepare students to set them in the right direction for understanding entrepreneurship at a young age.

GIIS understands that developing entrepreneurial skills can propel students into building successful business in the future. Hence, entrepreneurial workshops are also held in collaboration with organizations that offer ‘Kidspreneur Program’. Students brainstorm on innovative start-up ideas, observe social problems, design and offer feasible solutions so as to develop an understanding of creating a new venture. Programs such as this, encourage project-based learning through which students learn critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Another benefit of including entrepreneurial learning in schools is that it helps prepare students for their future workplace. Many of the job profiles that are present today did not exist ten years ago. Considering this, introducing students to entrepreneurship helps them not just predict future trends in the market, but also gives them the tools to dictate the same.

Our dynamic framework of 9 (Nine) Gems holistic teaching methodology takes care of honing entrepreneurial skills in students.

Shaping their thinking to process ideas and generate solutions which would contribute to the making of successful entrepreneurs. GIIS mentors, supports and equips students with the necessary skills to help them understand the significance of the entrepreneurial world. Activities like ‘Lemonade Making’ and ‘Healthy Food Restaurant’ teach them how to run a small business of one’s own. These activities teach them team work, managing finance, business related terms and concepts etc.,while providing a first-hand experience of running a business by allowing them to set a stall inside the school premises. Thus, they learn to design their business models, launch and execute it and at the end, they learn how to count their profit that they generated based on the incurred cost and expenses.

Apart from these, students at GIIS gear up for the Real World Challenges Convention (RWCC) which is held annually at Singapore. Students participate in activities and competitions fusing the themes of innovation and creativity in entrepreneurship to create business models that propose solutions to global challenges. Such activities make students future ready.

That being said, there are a variety of ways institutes can use to integrate entrepreneurial learning for their students. This can be done through:

Brainstorm Bins:
Teachers can setup a year-long project for which they introduce ‘brainstorm bins’ in the classroom, a box in which students can put in their business ideas to be worked on during the year. This would make the students think of creative ways to execute their vision in real-time as well as encourage them to work on their problem-solving skills.

Solution Boxes:
Every now and then students complain about various aspects in school. Institutes can convert this into a proactive process by encouraging students to present solutions to these real life problems. This helps students cultivate relationships with their peers, while providing a boost to their self-esteem, and encourage problem-solving instead of complaining.

Shark Tank for kids:
Following the concept of the popular TV show Shark Tank, institutes can conduct a similar process for their students. Judges for the same can be local entrepreneurs, which will also give students a chance to network with actual entrepreneurs who can impart practical knowledge and solutions.

Reach out to organisations that specialise in entrepreneurial learning:
Just like the previously mentioned ‘Kidspreneur Program’, schools should reach out to organisations that specialise in conducting programs for entrepreneurial learning. Big Idea Week and Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship are among the organisations which offer the same.

Smart Failure:
While it is important for teachers to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in students, it is equally crucial for them to not to be discouraged by failure. Students should be taught to learn from their failures and understand that willingness to start over from scratch is one of the key traits of successful entrepreneurs.

Students should also be motivated to work on developing skills such as personal branding and building professional relations. Entrepreneurial learning is thus a novel way of developing students, not just for future employment, but also for their personal growth. This will help transform the young minds into well-rounded individuals who can be prepared for the challenges to come. India needs to pay more attention to the skills required for entrepreneurship but most importantly, improve the education system through a greater focus on entrepreneurship courses.