New Delhi : It is well known that a large number of teenagers dream of building innovative things, however, the supporting ecosystem is missing in schools. Not anymore, if you go by the new initiative rolled up by The HDFC School chain at their Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Pune campus. The students of The HDFC School will now learn the secrets of starting a new business. The HDFC School chain has tied up with ThinkStartup, a new age education provider in schools to run the eHub Entrepreneurship Program.
Speaking at the launch of eHub, Ms. Anita Makkar, Principal of The HDFC School in Gurgaon said, “The wave of entrepreneurship is sweeping the world. It is being discussed in our drawing rooms and our children are often exposed to this phenomenon. So, we deliberated on this issue and decided to experiment with the idea of introducing concepts of entrepreneurship systematically in our schools. Last year, our school in Gurgaon, piloted Entrepreneurship Starter Program in collaboration with ThinkStartup and all our students thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience. Our teachers were very impressed with the unique approach of ThinkStartup.”
Shivani Singh Kapoor, the Founder of ThinkStartup added, “The time for teaching entrepreneurship in schools has arrived. A modern internet age child has unparalleled access to learning, and we need to encourage them to dream big, nurture their individual creativity and equip them with critical 21st Century skills and the confidence to pursue their dreams. Our ambition is to make India the cradle for startups and innovation.”
“It is a great start by policy makers. But we have to go beyond and make this practicum based”, Sanjeeva Shivesh, Program Director of eHub said. He further added, “Our program builds the muscles to iron out the uncertainties of a startup life. We are delighted that The HDFC School has chosen us in its journey of bringing modern, real-life education for teenagers. The eHub program design is an outcome of three years of brainstorming with experts in the area of entrepreneurship teaching and of learnings from implementation in various schools.”
The eHub program is designed on the principle of ‘learning by doing’ where students work on a startup idea from ideation to design, develop and prototype a new product and sell it in a market. Anuja Singh, student of the school stated, “I am very excited about eHub. I had really enjoyed attending Entrepreneurship Starter Program where I set up a toy stall and made good amount of profit.”
eHub is a first of its kind experiential learning program for high school students in India and stands for Entrepreneurship Hub. School students get opportunity to learn secrets of hard and soft side of entrepreneurship. It is a well-designed education intervention in schools to teach entrepreneurship in a graded manner with its novel curriculum, unique pedagogy, proprietary content and engaging facilitators who simplify the nuances of entrepreneurship for teenagers.
With the rollout of NEP 2020, Ministry of Education and Central Board for Secondary Education has been pushing schools to introduce entrepreneurship as early as Class 3. Schools have been asked to set up Innovation Councils and teach concepts of Design Thinking, Innovation, Financial Literacy, Marketing and Communication.
