Focus on ideas to implementation and employability skills a must to create enterprising minds of students – Experts 

Gurugram, April 25, 2022: To encourage teachers with an entrepreneurial and professional mindset, to develop effective ecosystems for entrepreneurship in the HEIs and to equip teachers with skills and knowledge that are essential for inculcating entrepreneurial skills in students and guiding and mentoring them towards an entrepreneurial career, the  Amity Academic Staff College at Amity University Haryana is organizing a five-day online Faculty Capacity Enhancement Training Workshop on “Role of Teachers in Fostering Entrepreneurial Skills in Students for New India” from 25th April to 29th April 2022.  The program was inaugurated on 25th April 2022 by Shri Rajesh Aggarwal (IAS), Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India, in the august presence of His Excellency Shri Manish Prabhat, Ambassador of India to Uzbekistan, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Prof PB Sharma, Deans, Heads of Institutions, large number of faculty members and research scholars registered from forty-two (42) various universities and institutions from across the country.  
 
Dr. Victoria Levinskaya, Head of International Collaboration, British Management University, Tashkent in her keynote address share the emerging trends in entrepreneurial educational training that include a major shift in the mindset from Wage Earned Population to Entrepreneurial way of life. She emphasized upon the strategy for new teaching methodology that involves engaging students in learning by doing and teachers facilitating mentoring of students to imbibe entrepreneurial values, develop critical thinking and collaboration with the industry and investors.

In her Special Address Prof. (Dr.) Snigdha Pattnaik, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University, New Delhi said that the number of Start-ups has almost doubled, but failure rate is also very high and only about 40% of the successful startups only become profitable. Therefore, the role of Educator in developing Entrepreneurial mindset need to focus on preparing entrepreneurs with a robust business plan. 

His Excellency Shri Manish Prabhat, Ambassador of India to Uzbekistan in his highly inspiring address shared various programs and initiatives taken under Indo-Uzbekistan partnership to foster an environment of higher education in Uzbekistan that focuses on Employability and Entrepreneurship. Indian entrepreneurs are working on joint projects to strengthen IT infrastructure and establishment of IT park in Uzbekistan. The universities from India such as Amity University in Tashkent have performed remarkably well to produce quality manpower and enterprising mind of graduates, opined the Ambassador Shri Prabhat. The year 2022 is the landmark year for Uzbekistan as it coincides with 30 years of creation of Republic of Uzbekistan from the earlier USSR and thus invited the Indian Higher Education institutions to forge stronger collaborative partnerships in Uzbekistan.

Inaugurating the program, the Chief Guest, Shri Rajesh Aggarwal (IAS), Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India said that the focus of education should now onwards be on employability skills and entrepreneurship so that the positive environment that prevails in the country could be utilized to give rise to startups and new age enterprises from the university campuses in India. The younger minds require less tutoring and more mentoring. The mantra for success requires abilities of Learning to Learn, ability to unlearn and relearn and remain innovative and creative. Best teachers are those who promote creativity and encourage questioning, which builds confidence in the students and shape them as successful entrepreneurs.  “The new thinking of GOI is that the “Skills must get embedded in education” and revised credit system to suit entrepreneurship are in the pipeline” added Shri Aggarwal. 

Prof. P.B. Sharma, Vice Chancellor, Amity University Haryana in his welcome address shared the best practices in Amity University Haryana towards creating enterprising minds of teachers and students under the visionary leadership of Founder President of Amity Education Group Dr Ashok K Chauhan and inspiring leadership of Hon’ble Chancellor Dr Aseem K Chauhan. It was emphasized that it is important to make teachers enterprising and engage them in industry and society relevant R&D and IPR creation, patenting and its commercialization. Education cannot remain confined to creating job seekers in the new age of knowledge and innovation. The power of mind and the power of ideas have emerged as the strongest currencies in this new age. However, it is important to act on the ideas and translate them into innovative products, services, and startups. It is also important to foster startups and new age entrepreneurship in areas beyond IT and IT portals to cover the larger canvas of new age entrepreneurship in areas like green energy, green mobility, circular economy, high-tech agri-tech, herbal drug design and drug discovery and whole lot of new enterprises in the area of sustainability sciences and sustainability engineering entrepreneurship  said Prof Sharma.

Prof (Dr) Vikas Madhukar, Dy Pro Vice Chancellor & Dean - Faculty of Management Studies, Amity University Haryana shared the accomplishments of AUH Innovation Incubator and presented 5 capsules for fostering entrepreneurship in universities and colleges. These included focus on curriculum innovation, strong industry integration, mentoring by successful entrepreneurs, support of innovation incubator and a major change in the mindset of teachers to produce job creators rather than job seekers.
 
Chief Coordinator of the event Dr. Sanjna Vij, Program Director, Academic Staff College, Amity University Haryana said during her opening remarks that The NEP 2020, has emphasized a lot to build up an ecosystem of Entrepreneurial Skills in Higher Education Institutes throughout the country. Although the Higher Education Institutions are imparting their positive role in developing entrepreneurial intention among potential aspirants but teacher’s entrepreneurial competences and a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship must be the prerequisite for enhancing entrepreneurial learning among students. Hence teachers play an important role in promoting the development of students. 

 Rear Admiral KK Pandey (Retd.), HR Director, AUH whilst delivering the Vote of Thanks, highlighted that in a rapidly changing world scenario, the role of Teachers assumes utmost importance. 
Prof Gunjan M Sanjeev, Director, International Affairs, Prof U N Singh, Dean – Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Prof. Rajendra Prasad, Director, AIB, Prof. I. S. Thakur, Dean Environment Sciences, ASEES, Prof S K Jha, Director, ASL, were also present together more than 110 faculty participants and research scholars from 42 universities who had registered for this maiden Faculty Capacity Enhancement Program from across India and abroad. Excellent IT support for the program was provided by Shri Sandeep Singh, Dy OSD to Vice Chancellor AUH and the Amity IT Team headed by Dr JS Sodhi.