Here is a programme to create tomorrow's innovation leaders and entrepreneurs

The world has always been rapidly changing, and in such a fast-paced world where robotics and artificial intelligence could replace human workforce, the competition is only getting tougher. The world could do with more innovation leaders and entrepreneurs and that is exactly what EdgeMakers is offering.

This San Francisco-based company founded by John Kao, a former professor at Harvard Business School, aims to empower young students at the school level with the tools and skills needed to become the innovators and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. "By the time they finish college, the world will be very different and not everyone will have access to the jobs they want. So, we need to nurture this generation to create more jobs," says Ramit Bhatnagar, Country Head – India, EdgeMakers.

Fun time: Students during one of the sessions of EdgeMakers

This standalone programme has its own pedagogy and hence can be taken up with any syllabus. The programme starts as early as the fourth grade and continues till the twelfth grade, with focus on different aspects such as creative thinking, storytelling, design thinking etc. It is usually 60-90-minute sessions every week, and 30 such sessions every year. It is currently operating in New Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Jaipur and Udaipur.

Ramit Bhatnagar

In the Indian educational system, you have a student who can score 98 per cent and get into the best colleges, but lack communication skills and critical thinking during interviews. They only know what they’ve learnt from their textbooks. EdgeMakers grooms them from the school level to mould their minds uniquely

Ramit Bhatnagar, Country Head - EdgeMakers

Ramit has big plans for the company, with their infiltration reaching three new cities — Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata — and their plans to proceed with other cities in the coming years. More importantly, he says, "Infiltrating rural India by 2018-19 is in our plans. Our first step is to tie-up with at least 35-40 State Board syllabus schools. Currently, we are in some of the premium CBSE, ICSE, IB and Cambridge schools. But we need to connect with schools where the underprivileged study." Ramit points out that they are taking it slow because they don't want to compromise their quality when they grow.