How entrepreneurship projects are gaining pace in education industry

Education plays a vital role in everybody’s life. Good education does not only mean a credential and a position in a respectable and well-known organisation, but it also means a good and a social lifestyle. Technological innovations have a considerable impact on all levels of education systems. Online courses, teaching aids, educational software, social networking tools and other emerging technologies are disrupting the traditional classroom environment. Technology-based solutions are used in the education sector widely so it opens new opportunities for students to learn and grow.

With good technological inputs, we get tremendous ideas. So here at this level, the education industry has introduced a concept of Entrepreneurship Development.

Entrepreneurship Development Cell (EDC) in educational institutions is formed to develop an institutional mechanism to create an entrepreneurial culture in academics and to foster technology-based entrepreneurship for the generation of wealth and employment for students.

To harness brilliant ideas of students and to promote self-hosted successful business projects, colleges such as ITS Engineering College, Amity and Galgotias are spending tons of money on Research as well as Seed Funding, Entrepreneurship Development and Project-based and Technology based learning. Even the Indian government has also formed separate ministries for Entrepreneurship skills enhancements such as Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and New Generation Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre (NewGen IEDC)  to cater innovative and impactful ideas and help students to move ahead in their career and achieve their dreams. If the student has an impactful idea that meets the threshold set forth by this bunch, then Seed funding is a no strings attached grant under MSME guidelines. Only a few selected colleges in North India are under this scheme.

If the student has an impactful idea that meets the threshold set forth by this bunch, then Seed funding is a no strings attached grant under MSME guidelines.

Highly motivated young graduates and post-graduates, who want to start companies while still in their colleges, have such an increasing number of resources to tap into that exist just for them. Students who want to learn how to build companies, can apply to an increasing number of fast-track programmes that allow them to gain valuable early-stage operating experience.

Investing in technology for universities in India may conjure up images of laptops and tablets being delivered to masses, but the greatest ROI in higher education technology comes from software rather than hardware. So to cater to this side of technical education, colleges have a technology-based Industry Oriented Labs, also known as Centre of Excellence, to support students for technical aspects which they will need to introduce fresh ideas. Some of the top companies that have set up such labs are Apple iOS, R Systems, Syscom, ITB & SALT and National Instrumentation.  Entrepreneurship Development can assist students in the early stage development of your business start-up or social enterprise, invest in market research or to develop a prototype.

Investing in technology for universities in India may conjure up images of laptops and tablets being delivered to masses, but the greatest ROI in higher education technology comes from software rather than hardware.

So in Nutshell, the objective of Entrepreneurship Development Cells in Colleges is to develop the spirit of Entrepreneurship among the Students, Creating Awareness Programmes, Mentoring Students, Assisting in getting financial support for Start-ups.

About the author

Saurav Kumar is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator NewGen IEDC, Incubation Head by DST Government of India at ITS Engineering College.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha