Corporate name : Inqui-lab Foundation
Number of beneficiaries : 2000 students
Duration : 1 year
Communities : Urban and rural
Location : Telangana, India
SDG :
4 – Quality Education, 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Area of work :
Education, Digital Literacy, Children Education
Problem
Data from various studies suggests employability of Indian youth is very low. For example, the World Economic Forum suggests that 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist. Skills like Problem Solving and Creativity are rated as some of the top skills required in the industry. An IBM Global study of 1500 CEOs has identified ‘creativity’ as the #1 leadership competency of the future. It becomes certain that being innovative and creative and related skills are needed in schools . Yet in schools today, students are often limited to their textbooks without any opportunities to creatively or critically engage with the real world. Their creative, innovative, problem-solving potential remains untapped. In spite of these skills being important for self-reliance, meaningful contribution to their everyday spaces of life and work, such capacity building does not happen in schools today.
Objective
In every community there are pertinent social, economic and environmental challenges to overcome and it is the duty of education to ensure that students are taught to think critically about the world around them and instil a belief that they can influence change by engaging with problems and attempting smalls acts of agency. We want to: 1. Provide an opportunity for students to identify and engage with the contextual problems around them. 2. Build increased awareness of self and community among students. 3. Provide an opportunity for students to express, prototype and test their ideas. 4. Build the following problem-solver skills and mindsets that are essential for future success Mindsets: Empathy, Creative confidence, Collaboration, Agency Skills: Problem identification, basic research, design thinking, planning, prototyping and digital skills. 5. Advocate for student ideas, problem-solving potential and promote youth-adult partnerships in schools and communities with the help of partner organisations. 6. Enable networks of student problem-solvers for increased collaboration
Description/Summary
The proposed project is aimed at designing interventions that focus on 21st century skills such as problem solving, creativity, collaboration, social innovation and design thinking in children while building important mindsets like empathy and creative confidence.. The objective of the Inqui-lab programme is to help kids work on problem statements, imagine and submit original ideas and build prototypes – thereby nurturing creativity, problem-solving and innovation.