Innopreneurship – How to develop future job creators?
Innopreneurship – From Job Seekers to Job Creators
The current job seekers should become job creators at an early age. This requires grooming teenagers on innovation and developing an entrepreneurial mindset through Innopreneurship. This is particularly relevant in the context of the devastating impact of the pandemic on school students.
Impact of the Pandemic on Schooling
The academic year 2020-21 has been a tumultuous one for everyone due to the pandemic and especially so for the students. Not only did they have to adjust to the new normal, but also get used to the new online mode of learning. The situation is a bit more challenging for the high schoolers who are preparing for the entrance exams despite the uncertainty looming around their feasibility and their dates.
So what is the solution to these problems?
Change in Mindset: From Job Seeker to Entrepreneur
In my opinion, a change in our mindset to become entrepreneurs rather than job seekers is the remedy. We need to catch them young and enable them to acquire soft skills that are relevant in the New Normal. The children need to start early, right from middle school, where they should get the opportunity and the environment to innovate by leveraging modern technology.
This is not just a plan on paper, but something that has been put to action by the Government of India in line with it’s vision of cultivating one million children as neoteric innovators. Under the flagship initiative, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), around 7,000 schools are promoting innovation and entrepreneurship through Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL).
Related Read: Entrepreneurship Summit to Help Startups – Uttishtha ’21 – The Entrepreneurship fest at IIM Kashipur
My Mentoring Journey
My journey with the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) began three years ago, as a ‘Mentor of Change’ and has been a fulfilling one. The interaction with the students of various schools fills me with energy and enthusiasm and I now serve as the Regional Mentor for Karnataka.
The school students have enjoyed the learning journey of tinkering and creating innovative solutions using technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented / Virtual Reality (AR/VR) and 3D printing.
However, the sailing has not been smooth from the early days and the path was trodden with various challenges.
The Challenging Path to Innopreneurship
As we often say, it is all in the mind and that is the origin of the challenges, too. Since implementation of these concepts required a change in mindset, we did face resistance from both parents and their wards. However, the engagement of the stakeholders wore down the resistance and the mindsets did change gradually.
The ensuing set of challenges were more functional. The nature of innovation and tinkering is iterative and this implies dealing with successive experiments that do not yield the desired results. We have been conditioned to call such attempts as “failures”. However, these tinkering labs have helped the students take these failures in their stride.
The next set of challenges are around spreading the word and scaling these initiatives. In order to achieve the mission, the impact needs to extend beyond the schools that host these tinkering labs. The benefits of these tinkering labs need to percolate to more children and more schools across the length and breadth of the country.
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney
The Need for Innopreneurship
The need for innopreneurship has never been more acute. The employment opportunities are shrinking and the conventional employment model is itself being questioned. In addition to the demand-supply gap, there is a massive mismatch of skills too.
Tough times never last, but tough people do.
Robert H. Schuller
Innopreneurship is a great way to change our mindset from job seekers to job creators. These three category of skills require the following 9 important traits based on the employability reports of the World Economic Forum:
Top Nine Traits of an Innopreneur:
The top nine traits of an innopreneur can be broken down into three traits each of an entrepreneur, innovator and an inspiring leader.
Traits of an entrepreneur :
- Developing a Growth mindset
- Being empathetic
- Creativity for all
Related Read: How to stay motivated as an Entrepreneur
Traits of an innovator :
- Seeing problems as opportunities
- Risk taking capabilities
- Mindfulness & Meditation
Related Read: Mindfulness and Me
Traits of an inspiring leader:
- Celebrating mistakes
- Encouraging & embracing Collaboration
- Impactful Communication
Related Read: Effective Leadership in a Crisis
Your Innopreneurship Journey
I hope the above has inspired you to think differently and you would now aspire to join the league of great job creators rather than merely being a successful job seeker. All the best in acquiring the top nine traits of an innopreneur mentioned above and good luck for your innopreneurship journey!
Related Read: Top 10 Young Voices on International Youth Day
About The Author
Deepesh Goel is an IoT consultant with 25+ years of corporate experience. An Electrical & Electronics Engineer from BIT Mesra and MBA from IIM Kolkata, he is an author and poet by passion and has authored two books.
Currently he is the Regional Mentor of Change for Karnataka under the Atal Innovation Mission. As a consultant, Deepesh works with Industrial IoT startups to match their solution to Industrial applications.
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