The Hindu Business Line : Teaching youth to be entrepreneurs

The entrepreneurial bug has suddenly bitten Indian youth, says Dr John Mullins, Associate Professor and Academic Director, Foundation for Entrepreneurial Management at the London Business School. Last week he was in India to teach Indian teachers how to teach entrepreneurship to their students.

"I find that the Indian youth has realised that `this is a great time to take the risk,' i.e., kick off an entrepreneurial venture." The professor agrees with the new Indian mindset, "With the economy booming like never before, entrepreneurship is central to India's future." And for entrepreneurship to flourish, education is the key, he says.

Dr Mullins was in the country to skill over 60 teachers from across the country to help foster high-growth entrepreneurship among their students.

This was the second of the four-workshop course designed, developed and conducted by the National Entrepreneurship Network in partnership with Stanford Technology Ventures. The Entrepreneurship Educators Course is a year-long certification programme for entrepreneurship faculty development. Simultaneously, these teachers would roll out a whole new subject on entrepreneurship in their respective colleges.

Craving of students

Laura Parkin, Executive Director, NEN, is bullish about the initiative, "Entrepreneurship is the craving of students here today." Quoting incidents where students have opted for entrepreneurship straight after college, not just in the management stream, but also in engineering, arts and science colleges, she says that young people realise that the earlier you start, greater the advantage.

NEN studied the market and realised that there's very little formal education in this area. "We have developed programmes that will help support academic institutions in introducing a new subject in the syllabus: entrepreneurship," says Ms Parkin.

Participants are now in the middle of the year-long programme, at the end of which they will help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Stanford tie-up

"This is a brand new subject for faculty and requires brand new teaching methods." Through simulation, games, projects, internships and a lot of peer sharing, teachers are introduced to the new subject.

Apart from classroom teaching, the faculty in turn help develop student clubs, organise networking events, competitions and workshops. In fact, some of the colleges whose teachers are in the middle of the programme are already transferring all these skills in college campuses.

"The minute they sign the MoU with us, they hit the ground running," says Parkin. As this is a new subject, these teachers become entrepreneurs themselves, she explains.

NEN has partnered with Stanford Technology Ventures Program for the course development and collaborated with the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, for advice on content and delivery mechanism.

Among the 143 colleges that have tied up with NEN for the entrepreneurs' educators' programme are IIMB, National Law School, Bangalore, IIT, Mumbai, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, ICFAI Business School and St Xavier's College, Kolkota.

"Among the participating colleges, 55 per cent are arts, science and engineering colleges, 30 per cent are management schools and the rest from other disciplines," says Parkin.

Is `fresh from college' the best time to kick off an entrepreneurial venture? Dr Mullins says there is no `yes' or `no' answer for this.

"What is right for one person may not be right for the other. Successful entrepreneurs solve customer problems. In fact, they have to find a customer problem and solve that. Some young people have already found that problem. Isn't that a great time to take the `risk'?"

Ms Parkin says the NEN plan is to get people get into entrepreneurship with a bigger expectation of their future.

"If you go out there thinking I'm an employee, you'll never take advantage of the opportunities. It certainly takes time in the marketplace to gain skills. With an entrepreneurial mind, you'll be able to do it faster and much more."

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