Ideate

"The air is full of ideas. They are knocking you in the head all the time. You only have to know what you want, then forget it, and go about your business. Suddenly, the idea will come through. It was there all the time." -

Henry Ford

A passionate , driven recruiter of a multinational

organisation needs a way to bridge the gap between ace institutions and corporates with

meaningful education that would make graduates work-ready from day one!

Problem statement

Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate."

1. Expose children to a wide variety of experiences including music, plays, sports, museums, travel, reading, dance, games, food, puzzles, ethnic activities, etc. One never knows how what exposure may influence future life choices

2. Encourage kids to ask questions3. Play "thinking games". These are games where there is not just one

answer like scrabble and chess are examples. 4. Emphasize the value of thinking & thoughtfulness rather than the

importance of winning.

Kids – changes at home

5. Put them through all the streams of learning and do not restrict them

to few subjects 6. Help school kids pick their area of interest while learning7. Let children pick their stream of subject for specialisation based on

what they enjoy 8. Conduct guided reflective sessions to help them understand what

they want 9. Educate school children on job opportunities10. Run “know your career “courses11. Each school to be afflicted with a college in the same city12. Group of final year school students to be buddied by a college grad of

the same line of interest13. Each group to work on a project assigned by college buddy

Children – changes at school

14) Help students understand themselves – their strength / weakness with

self assessment tests 15) Common work based curriculum – with all self learning modules 16) Industry-academia tie-up. Each college to be affiliated to a local industry

partner for learning 17) College professors should have a minimum of 2 years of industry

experience and 5 years of research background to be able to handle a subject at a college

18) Every college to have technology transfer office – A council that will help colleges cope up with technology upgrades and industrial trends

19) Development of new benchmark evaluation criteria to encourage grads to apply knowledge rather than just score in the exams

Adults – changes at college

20) Complete 2 projects to clear a semester

Work on industry problem statements project Colleges identified application based research projects

21) Train people on life/ soft skills for the last year at college22) Every student to be active part of Form life/soft skills club 23) Competition and opportunity to win industry recognised workshops

for key work-skills 24) Group of final year grads to be 3 month mentorship program-

mentored by an industry employee

Adults – changes at college

Workplace environment 25) Think about new innovative opportunities about how

corporate and industry can interact more - Promote a positive image of the company

26) Industry to sponsor postgraduate studentships 27) Industry to angle invest college generated impressive

projects 28) Industry to identify employees mentor final year grad groups

for 3 months 29) Industry employees to train in collages at least for 6 months 30) Continued life skills clubs – for sustain learning and support 31) Provide access to company knowledge and resources

Professionals – Changes at workplace

Pre hire phase / standards

32. Ability to spot and recruit the brightest young talent based on projects 33. Folks who have completed impressive projects for the industry should be

given preference while hiring 34. Folks to be evaluated & hired based on simulations -clearing stress / life

skills workshop to become eligible for hiring

Post hire – pre on board phase35. Self study curriculum + projects 36. Trainee mentorship program to help them in seamless transition37. Interactive website to experience work at hiring organisation

Post on board training phase38. Trainees to spend the first week in observation – will be sent to project

floors and would observe(with observation pointers) people in action 39. Every group of 5 trainees to be tagged to a mentor manager 40. Work attitude module with built in 270 degree feedback 41. Train managers to be mentors – esp deal with college grads / company

entrants

Professionals – Changes at workplace

Parents:

42. Oriented on how to encourage questioning , thinking and give less emphasis on making it right and wining

43. Be more open to explore un conventional learning / employment opportunities

School teachers: 44. Qualified to teach rather than qualified on a subject 45. Should encourage children to make mistakes and learn46. Provide a on threatening learning environment

College professors 47. Qualified to work rather than qualified on a subject 48. Encourage students to apply learning rather than score marks

Recruitment policy 49. Look at projects rather than scores 50. Look at learning / coping capacity

Influencers -Mind-set change

Collaborating with people

51. School: Invite collage grads to orient school final years to help them understand / prepare themselves for college

52. College: Invite industry experts – Visiting professors for regular project coaching

53. Industry: Have industry to invite academics who may have an interest in a common problem to spend time at their facility, interacting with researchers and practitioners

54. Sponsored and honorary posts for industry best contributors at institutions and for professors at corporates

55. Dual appointments – employment at both industry & institutions

Collaborating instances 56. During research for future of work - Provide institutions a flexible and cost-

effective extension of the R&D resources (expertise, equipment, facilities) available to the company

57. During solving current industry problems

Collaboration check points

Interactive website for newly hired resources to experience

work-life at hiring organisation Context – what :

A end to end interactive website depicting the culture and work life of an organisation

A walk thro that will provide complete understanding & learning experience

Why: This would help fight anxiety of a new entrant and get him familiarised with

the organisation Help understand an organisation culture before joining

Process – how:

Every hired candidate to be given access to this website The candidate to take a walkthrough of the website ; complete all the required

milestones Walkthrough will have learning checkpoints – that will prompt / teach

organisation way of work

Most practical idea

School-college-employee continuous buddy program

Context – what :

Every school in a locality to be tied / affiliated to a college Every college to be tied / affiliated to a corporate / company

Why: Use the buddy system to help juniors to understand how a college / corporate

works Orient juniors on what can be expected & what to look forward to Buddy mentors to help in project execution / guidance

Process – how:

High School group to be buddied by college graduate from the affiliated college Final college grad group to be buddied by employee from the affiliated corporate

Most disruptive idea

Entrants of corporates spend the first one week observing on project floors

Context – what“Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action."-Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory, 1977

Why: Harness on learn by observation Facing the project world first and then providing them with corporate training ensures

entrants aware of what they don’t know This awareness builds agility to learn – later when sent to corporate training they will

know why they are learning what they are learning

Process – how: Trainees to spend the first week in observation – will be sent to project floors and would

observe(with observation pointers) people in action The observation pointers will help associates motivated & look for opportunities to learn

My favorite idea

"If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it." - Albert Einstein