With a growing demand for the jobs and economic growth that entrepreneurs bring to their local and national ecosystems, there is an accompanying need to better prepare the next generation of risk-takers. Unfortunately, that is not an easy task as entrepreneurship requires a mix of soft skills and hard skills in the individuals themselves -- not to mention the right blend of policies and programs to support an encouraging startup culture.
Dr. Ir. Ciputra, a billionaire real estate developer in Indonesia, has made it his mission to help others in his country start and scale new firms. In 1986, he created the Ciputra Foundation and has since worked to transform the largest economy in Southeast Asia into one powered by millions of entrepreneurs.
The Ciputra Foundation -- and its Universitas Ciputra Entrepreneurship Center -- has been leading the GEW Indonesia campaign and reaching millions since the early days of Global Entrepreneurship Week. It has also been working throughout the year in promoting entrepreneurship education at all levels of the country's education system.
Earlier this week, I wrote a piece for the Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship about the efforts of Ir. Ciputra and his foundation in the realm of entrepreneurship education.
Simply put, entrepreneurship education is a fluid phenomenon, such that schools become part of the startup ecosystem. The Ciputra Entrepreneurship Foundation has become a world pioneer in developing an entrepreneurship curriculum for primary, secondary, and tertiary schools, as well as non-formal education programs. With the motto “Inspire - Educate - Incubate”, these education interventions cover the full spectrum, from the cognitive aspects of entrepreneurship to the mindset and the very experience of being an entrepreneur. As the Director of the Ciputra Incubator & Accelerator, Ivan Sandjaja, explained to me recently, the entrepreneurship education philosophy is such that at Universitas Ciputra “every graduate must have had the experience of starting up a real venture which generates real profit.
The full story is available through the Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship.