The Karnataka Skill, Entrepreneurship and Start-ups Task Force has recommended the introduction of mandatory Entrepreneurial Mindset Curriculum (EMC) in school education beginning from Class 9 from the academic year of 2022-23.
It said the curriculum should provide opportunity to interact with entrepreneurs to learn from their journeys, take up problem-solving team projects and student-led activities to build communication skills. A web app supported by a chatbot for career explorations, micro research projects in entrepreneurship, provision for giving seed money to students in Class X and PUC to run business projects in teams were among the other recommendations.
Task Force Chairman S. Selvakumar, IAS, on Tuesday submitted the report to Minister for IT/ BT, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship & Livelihood C.N. Ashwath Narayan and recommended that a curriculum can be developed by DSERT in collaboration with NGO such as Udhyam Learning Foundation which has developed such a curriculum for Delhi and multiple other States. “It is essential for EMC to be taught for one period daily in all schools, for Classes IX to PUC, as a mandatory part of the academic curriculum”, it said.
Jobs in districts
Building entrepreneurship ecosystems at districts to drive local jobs, developing digital skills and entrepreneurship mindset in schools and colleges, and launch of future digital jobs initiative for engineering colleges beyond Bengaluru clusters are some of the other key recommendations of the task force.
It recommended the establishment of Karnataka Research and Innovation Authority (KRIA) as a nodal agency for strengthening the incubation ecosystem in the State on the lines of Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) of Israel.
“The report has been prepared after taking suggestions from all stakeholders regarding how things can be implemented practically,” Mr. Narayan told reporters after receiving the 104-page report. The taskforce was constituted in April, 2021, with an intention to support youth with skill development and entrepreneurship.
Mr. Selvakumar said, “We have prepared the report, keeping in mind the measures that need to be taken to create one crore employment in next 10 years.”
Sample survey
It also recommended conducting a sample survey to assess the status of digital skills among students in the State, introducing digital skills for schools and college students through gram panchayat libraries, and introducing mandatory curriculum on entrepreneurship mindset development from class nine onwards.
It has asked for making career guidance a mandatory part of education from class eight, and establishment of a central career guidance cell at State level to develop uniform content and curriculum for career guidance.
It also suggested setting up of Enterprise Facilitation Centres (EFCs) at district level, and ensuring EFCs facilitate market access, support in getting investment from government schemes, help in raising investment from angel investors, and soft loans from banks for budding entrepreneurs were recommended.
Pitching for digital services and tech based models, the taskforce has recommended the design and development of tailor-made skill courses for graduate students to address skill gaps and demand for skilled manpower in the emerging digital economy sector.
Internship chances
It has further suggested creating internship opportunities for graduates in future skills in companies like Infosys, Microsoft, IBM among others through Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM).
Regarding Agriculture and Agri tech, the taskforce has recommended that Agri and RDPR Universities and Farmer Produce Organisations (FPOs) should conduct regular capacity building programmes for FPO executives in association with B-schools of the State.
The Task Force set the target of creation of 2-3 million jobs by 2025 in Karnataka in the digital skills and tech-based industries.
