Education Landscape helps Entrepreneurs

Changing education landscape is helping entrepreneurs!

While the jury may still be out on whether entrepreneurs are born or made, the changing educational landscape has meant that entrepreneurial spirit is being channelized in the right direction. Apart from empowering students with the basic skill set, the educational system today is rapidly evolving allowing for a real time promotion of business skills. Here is a look at how the Indian educational landscape is helping drive the entrepreneurial spirit of the young and old alike.

Rising number of adult students

Unlike in the past where students meant someone who was yet to start earning or working, adult students with working experience are on the rise. What’s changing is also the fact that colleges and universities are no longer the only source to avail quality education. While many professionals with rich experience of over a decade are now opting for courses that could help them redefine their career goals, others are also looking at short- term courses options for enhanced skill set while taking a plunge to the self employment route.

Entrepreneurial opportunities for students

Student startups have taken off in a big way as changing mindsets along with changing educational landscape has been promoting entrepreneurism. Popular newspapers and business magazines today have dedicated columns for student startups. Various initiatives like NEN Tata Star Dot competition which is a pan India platform for student entrepreneurs have been witnessing increasing entries with each passing year. The fact that youngsters want to try entrepreneurial journey first knowing should they fail, their degree is sufficient backup to land them a well paying job is promoting entrepreneurial opportunities.

Student startup policy across various states

Educational courses in India traditionally were devised with a safety first approach. Colleges and universities prided themselves on their placement records. Things are now changing as institutes are promoting students to turn entrepreneurs and not walk the traditional job route. For example Gujarat has recently introduced a student 'Startup and Innovation Policy' offering grants worth Rs 200 crore to students to come up with innovations. Kerala has a state startup policy aiming at generating 10,000 student startup ideas every year and many other states are following suit for such student-centric polices.

Customized short-term courses for employees

Educational institutes across India are today offering multiple short-term courses that are ideal for students and employees looking to upgrade their skill set. Institutes today have a dedicated short-term course program for working professionals that could help them enhance their skills without having to commit for a long-term program. Institutes like National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology, New Delhi are for example offering such short-term courses ranging from two weeks to nine weeks covering digital literacy, multimedia, electronics and various IT courses. Old generation employees that are not too tech savvy could get a boost while attending such courses honing their skills sets at par with new generation employees helping enterprises boast of a technically upgraded employee force.

Indian education system is slowly moving away from traditional stereotypes offering incentives for self employment and entrepreneurism.

Do you agree with the view that Indian education system now teaches entrepreneurial thinking?