India as a country is developing at a great pace and has an enviable population. But, with this large population comes the need for ever-increasing job opportunities. Today our country has more job seekers than employers and the need for entrepreneurs is increasing by the day. With the advent of our Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, the scope for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) has become wider, leading to an increased number of opportunities for entrepreneurs in India.
The 21st century requires students to have skill sets that are very different from the previous era. Two of the vital skills that students need to develop through their formal years of schooling are creativity and innovation. An Entrepreneurship course for high school students will help them enhance their ability to think out of the box, looking at unconventional ways to solve problems that we face as a society or identify needs that haven’t been met.
It is about developing an aptitude that helps students throughout their lives, enabling them to bring to the organisation skills to innovate and make a constructive difference. As entrepreneurship is the individual’s capability to decode ideas into action, it encompasses creativity, innovation and risk-taking, and an ability to map and accomplish goals.
Often a question arises whether an enterprising aptitude can be inculcated or not in students, and even if it can be, only a minute percentage of students flourish as entrepreneurs. Hence, it would be deceptive to encourage students on to this path. However, exposure to entrepreneurship is not only about creating successful businessmen, but also creating excellent thinkers and planners who could exceed at their jobs if not businesses. These skill sets, like any other form of learning, only add on to a student’s capabilities in some form or the other.
Entrepreneurship schooling aids students from all socio-economic backgrounds because it helps cultivate unconventional talents and skills. Early exposure to an environment that hones their penchant for innovation, plays an important role in developing the characteristics that are critical to become successful business magnates.
Students will develop analytical skills and core competencies which will help them become future tycoons. They will also develop practical skills like identifying business opportunities, making business plans, applying and coordinating the business growth.
Today, teenagers are surrounded by businesses of all sizes, from large multinational corporations to local ventures. Children, who wish to be business owners, have to wait until college to get formal education in management studies, to be equipped to run their own enterprise. However, the wait is not a necessity and in fact, it probably shouldn’t be that way. Becoming a successful business owner is a long, demanding process, and providing children and teenagers with the required tools at a young age can help them realise their dreams and move in the right direction from the very start.
Another trait that our education systems aren’t able to effectively develop in students is risk-taking. With a host of activities and varied project work, this course helps develop this trait in students. Taking calculated risks is important in any domain or field and the course is a perfect platform for students to develop the same.
Within our education system, entrepreneurship should be transversal competent. By developing a common description of entrepreneurship as a competence, one can fill in the gap between the world of education and the professional world.
Through these courses, students need to be taught about Mind Mapping where they create their own mind maps to identify a viable business idea (based on the product or service category of their interest). Today there are millennials who choose to put in 100 per cent efforts and skills for themselves as opposed to working for someone else, be it starting a blog, a YouTube channel, an e-store to a full-fledged start-up. Students will be introduced to eminent personalities and successful business persons who they can look up to.
Keeping all the above factors in mind, an Entreprenuership course for the students is the need of the hour. In the initial part of the course, the curriculum should discuss about business ideas (whether an idea worth pursuing or not). This is followed by real life examples of how achievers from the different fields have used their creativity to come up with viable business ideas. Through a course of this kind, one will be able to create some brilliant future entrepreneurs in our country.
(Opinion piece by Husien Dohadwalla, academic director at Fazlani L’Academie Globale, Mumbai and academic director and guidance counsellor at DY Patil International School Network, Mumbai)
Source: dailypioneer
