Building entrepreneurship skills in students
Entrepreneurship Skills play a very important role in the life and success of an Entrepreneur. It is important for the faculty members to understand that building of Entrepreneurship Skills in students should be on the top of the agenda in their mind to make the student's successful professionals and entrepreneurs.
Methods for Building Skills
Case study method
(For Building Creativity and Innovation Skills) the faculty members adopt the case study method with the students to discuss various business-related cases/problems with intent to develop the skill of thinking creatively among the students.
Success story method
(For Building Confidence and Personality) The faculty members share the success story of various leading and successful Entrepreneurs to ignite the spirit of entrepreneurship in the mind and heart of the students. This motivates the students to think of becoming an entrepreneur.
Idea generation contest method
(For Building out of Box Thinking Skills) The faculty members call the students together to do brainstorming and ask them to think/generate an idea to launch a new product or service which is not available in the market.
Business plan method
(For Building Holistic Planning Skills) The students are advised by their faculty members to prepare a business plan on the business idea of their interest. The students prepare a word file to describe their proposed business idea. They also prepare an Excel File to prepare the projected financials. The students prepare a PowerPoint presentation to explain their business idea with the help of a multimedia projector.
Simulation method
(For Building Problem Solving Skills) The faculty members use the Business Simulation Method to create a real-world situation wherein the students learn to solve the business problems in a simulated environment.
Project management method
(For Building Project Management Skills) The faculty members use the project planning method by using the Microsoft Project Software so that the students are able to learn the nitty-gritty of Project Management so as to maximize the output and minimize the input with an intent to optimize the resources and maximize productivity.
Designing project method
(For Building Designing Skills) The faculty members use the Designing Project Method wherein they assign a designing project to an individual or group of students to hone their designing skills.
Digital marketing project method
(For Building Digital Marketing Skills). The students are given a Digital Marketing Project with intent to enable them to use the various social media marketing and digital marketing channels to maximize the sale of products and services. This helps the students to develop their digital marketing skills.
Mission, vision, goals and
objectives development method
(For Building Goal Setting Skills) The students are trained to develop and script the Mission, Vision, Goals and Objectives of the proposed organization. This enables the students in setting the goals of the various functional departments, teams, and individuals which ultimately contributes to achieving the organizational goals and objectives.
IT project method
(For Building IT Skills) The students are assigned a multi-dimensional IT project wherein they are required to do planning, implementation and control of all aspects of IT functions including hardware, software, networking, website, social media marketing, digital marketing, etc.
Communication assignment method
(For Building Communication Skills) The students are given multiple assignments pertaining to verbal/non-verbal, oral/written methods with an intent to develop their oral as well as written communication skills.
Managerial games method
(For Building Managerial Skills) The faculty members develop various managerial games to develop the managerial skills of the students. The students in the process of playing the games are able to develop their managerial skills of Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Leading, and Controlling.
Accounting and financial
modeling method
(For Building Financial and Accounting Skills) The students are given an opportunity to learn about finance and accounting with the help of financial modeling using spreadsheet software like Excel. This enables the student to learn about Finance and Accounting.
Conclusion
To summarise, the faculty members should adopt various methods mentioned above to build Entrepreneurship Skills among the students to enable them to become a successful entrepreneur in their life.
(The author is Executive Director, Sanskriti University)