Making Innovation Flourish

Risk-taking for the future

In the latest of our essays on how best to prepare young people for the future, Donna Miller, Human Resources Director, Europe, at Enterprise Rent-A-Car asserts that the developing the skill of risk-taking in young people is crucial.

She says: “Young people need to understand that risk underpins many facets of life, including workplace skills, creativity, enterprise, decision-making and problem-solving.”

An informed attitude to risk-taking is also fundamental for innovation as it requires experimentation, endeavour, the ability to overcome fear of failure and the competency to weigh up different options and, when necessary, to invent one’s own opportunities. 

NESTA’s Future Innovators programme is currently working with a range of partners on new ways of developing an awareness of risk-taking in young people or those who support them. Our pilots include a project to examine how this skill can be embedded into the curriculum for Design and Technology, a scheme to encourage adults working with young people to manage their own reactions to risk and an online psychometric tool to encourage young people to think about the risks they take and face in daily life.

We’re interested in learning about other projects that aim to develop risk-taking in young people.

Can you teach enterprise?

In the latest essay from our series on ‘Preparing for the Future’, Claire O’Halloran from Microsoft poses the question: “Can you teach enterprise?” Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, Director of the National Entrepreneurship Observatory for Wales argues that “you can’t teach it, but you can learn it.”

What you do think?

Claire goes on to argue that developing entreprenuerial skills requires people to be open to learning and to try to think “more like an entrepreneur”. She believes that, in many cases, this is about giving people confidence.

But how do we learn these skills and gain this confidence?

The confidence to succeed

In this week’s essay, 15 year old student Leila Thompson expresses her concerns about the future world of work.

She says: “I do worry about getting a job in the future. Jobs and placements seem to be getting much more competitive; even finding a week’s work experience is proving to be difficult for me.”

Leila concludes that, in her opinion, providing opportunities for young people to develop confidence, independence and initiative, is as important as qualifications and early stage careers guidance.

Policy changes, such as the introduction of 14 to 19 Diplomas and plans for raising the school leaving age in England; and the Determined to Succeed initiative in Scotland, will dramatically increase the demand for effective and relevant methods of work-related learning.

Given Leila’s concerns about current provision, how do we enable the system to meet this increase in demand and how do we ensure that the opportunities available support young people to develop the attributes she identifies?

We must think creatively about how to tackle the issue of meeting demand without sacrificing learning opportunities and quality. At NESTA, we’re currently exploring new models of work-related learning which will, in part, attempt to address this.

As always, we welcome your comments.

The Future is a Shared Responsibility

In the latest essay from our series on ‘Preparing for the Future’, Karen Halford, Head of Resourcing and Development for Vodafone UK, argues that the future is a shared responsibility. This requires employers and education to work more closely together to instil in young people leadership, interpersonal skills and teamworking, together with an understanding of the role of technology in business.

The difficult question is how do you do this? Most schools and colleges would welcome closer links with employers and, similarly, a lot of businesses recognise the benefits of engagement. But there are cultural and logistical barriers that need to be overcome.

NESTA is currently exploring new models to address these challenges in three different sectors: the creative industries, third sector and rural economy.

What do you feel are the best ways of bringing education and business together for mutual benefit?

If students were in charge of the curriculum...

In our next essay on equipping young people for a rapidly changing world, academic Bill Law refers to a recent piece of blue-skies work commissioned by QCA which recommends having slots when the timetable is put aside so that students and teachers can work together on topics of shared interest. In this ‘set aside’ time, academic and wellbeing specialists can work with motivated students on the ‘knowing how’ as well as the (more traditional) ‘knowing what’.

Allowing students to shape their own learning in this way has the potential to help them develop their capacity for decision-making, critical thinking, risk-taking and enquiry skills. It is also likely to make their learning much more relevant to their current lives and interests. As Bill says, we need to ensure that “learning reminds students of their lives and, conversely, that their lives remind them of learning”.

But if the students were in charge of the curriculum, what would they study? And would their choices help to prepare them for a rapidly changing world?

As always, I’m keen to hear your thoughts.

Making Connections

In the latest essay from our series on how to equip young people for a rapidly changing world, entrepreneur Ben Way argues that making connections is key. He notes “the challenge is to learn from the theory and make it work in reality. One way to do this is by ensuring children have more exposure to the real world at a younger age. They should spend time in businesses and the workplace to see what the world is really like.”

This view echoes current policy thinking and Government initiatives, such as the 14-19 reforms (including the introduction of the Diplomas, the review of the Framework for Career and Work-Related Learning 11-19, and Enterprise Education).

Ben’s essay raises a number of questions. In particular, what types of ‘real-life’ experiences encourage young people to develop the skills and attitudes necessary to succeed in the future? How do we ensure that the experiences provided are relevant, and encourage learning and reflection? In what ways can the system facilitate effective connections between young people and employers?

We are developing a strand of work that is exploring these questions. We believe that for young people to appreciate the challenges and opportunities that the future world of work will present, they need to become familiar with the ever-increasing variety of careers, ways of working and emerging sectors of the economy.

Working closely with the DCSF, we are developing projects that will test how to deliver work-related learning in a way that will provide this. To inform these pilots, we have commissioned some studies to examine how businesses in the creative industries, the third sector and rural economy can become more engaged in education in a way that will be mutually beneficial.

Another approach to making connections is through interdisciplinarity. The world of work is not compartmentalised into subjects, so why does the education system encourage young people to learn in this way? There are a number of projects attempting to address this. For instance, the Young Foundation’s Studio School programme aims to teach the National Curriculum through interdisciplinary, enterprise-themed projects with a strong focus on practical work and enterprise. NESTA’s Crucible programme offers early-stage researchers an opportunity to develop new collaborations across disciplines. Can such a programme be adapted for young people?

As always, I welcome your views on this and, in particular, on what is the most effective way of linking theory and practice to ensure that young people succeed in the future.

Preparing for the Future: preparing for the long-term by embracing the short-term

Young people do not seem to be under any illusions that the future working environment is going to be tough and that a job for life is no more.  This is borne out in research that we commissioned on young people’s perceptions of the future world of work and is also confirmed in our latest essay on how to equip young people for a rapidly changing world. 

In this article, 17-year-old Phil Croft argues that the future workplace is likely to be based on short-term contracts.  He puts forward some interesting suggestions for helping young people deal with this - from encouraging greater adaptability in students to facilitating more project-based work in schools.

For some students, more of an emphasis on applying their knowledge, rather than just acquiring it, is likely to improve their motivation for learning. Where the project-based learning is grounded in real challenges and dilemmas facing organisations, both learners and organisations can benefit.

We are working with Space Unlimited, a group that facilitates groups of young people to work on a particular problem posed by a company.  Space Unlimited has found that their programme provides skills development for the participating students and fresh insights for the companies.

Of course, I’m mindful that such schemes require time and resources to broker but surely the benefits outweigh this.  What do you think?

Preparing for the Future: A Generation of Mentees

Luke Skywalker knew how to be a good mentee and as a result, the whole universe was at his fingertips…..

In the second of our series on preparing young people for a rapidly changing world, entrepreneur Tom Hadfield highlights the importance of mentoring.

Tom argues that “the art of how to ask for advice from mentors, how to distil the key lessons and how to apply them to our own lives is one of the best kept secrets in education”.

This is a refreshingly novel idea. Effective mentoring benefits all parties involved. For the mentor, it provides a personal development opportunity. For young people, it encourages them to seek advice and guidance, and, as Richard Reeves argues in last week’s essay, to continually question. A successful mentoring relationship can provide young people with some of the skills likely to be needed to succeed in the future workplace, such as confidence, enquiry skills, reflection and flexibility.

Is the current education system the right environment for successful mentoring relationships to develop? Much support is given to training the mentor. But how do we support young people to ask the right questions in a environment which focuses on knowing the right answers? As always, I am keen to hear your views.

Preparing for the Future

It’s difficult to prepare for something that is uncertain, unclear and unpredictable.  But that is precisely what our education system is tasked with doing as it strives to equip young people with the skills and knowledge needed for a rapidly changing world. 

We have just posted on our website the first of a series of essays that provides different viewpoints on this theme.  It’s from Richard Reeves, the commentator on the future workplace. 

Richard argues that the debate on the merits of academic qualifications over vocational learning misses the point. Instead he asserts that what is important is that young people are supported in developing the characteristics and attitudes necessary to support lifelong learning. 

Research that we commissioned found that young people concur with this view believing that their own passion, motivation and personal attributes will be more important in helping them pursue the career of their choice than qualifications.

We will be posting one of these essays every week on our website and we welcome your ideas on this subject. 

A recurring theme in these articles is how different the workplace of the future will be and how the nature of work itself is altering.  This, together with globalisation, demographic shifts, and challenges such as environmental sustainability, means that the demands on today’s young people will be very high. 

I can’t help agreeing with the French philosopher Paul Valery when he declared “The future isn’t what it used to be.”

So how do you best prepare young people for this?  I’m keen to hear your views.

Making innovative places (part one)

Over the next few days I will be reflecting on the first NESTA Summit: Making Innovative Places. It was quite a day. Stephen Timms, Sir Richard Leese and AnnaLee Saxenian delivered keynote addresses and we launched three final reports, one interim report and one policy briefing. 

That all sounds very impressive but I said it then and I’ll say it again: the 90 delegates were collectively as impressive as the ‘big names’ and I hope that much of the value will live on in the connections made as much as the evidence heard and opinions formed.

‘Yesterday’ actually started on Tuesday. The Daily Telegraph picked up on a pre-publication copy of ‘Rural Innovation’ and extensively quoted Dr. Sami Mahroum, the NESTA Senior Policy Analyst who has driven our ‘place’ agenda.  In a significant article, Richard Tyler talked of a ‘new industrial revolution’ that was going ignored by central innovation policymaking. He wasn’t wrong.

 

The most important question an entrepreneur has to answer

Sherry Coutu (in her article in the 'what I wish I'd known'  series) explains that “solving someone’s problem” is at the heart of a business.

On the face of it, it appears an obvious consideration, however, a large proportion of the companies we see can not satisfactory articulate the problem they are solving. I put it down to a reluctance of some early stage entrepreneurs to really get to know their potential customers early on in a business’s life. This hesitancy to speak to a real customer can lead to outrageous assumptions on the depth of the so called ‘problem’ that they are solving.

Answering the question ‘what problem are you solving’ is fundamental to getting to the heart of the value of your business…if that is not enough reason to reconsider this concept then consider that every sensible investor I know asks a version of this question at some point in their first meeting with a company that is looking for investment. In short it is essential that you and everyone in your business can give a clear, articulate answer.

Five ways universities drive innovation

Our latest Policy Briefing focuses on the five ways that universities drive innovation.  Universities have traditionally had three main missions: undertaking research; teaching; and transferring knowledge. The UK’s increasing need to innovate to meet the economic and social challenges of the 21st century will place further pressure on these roles, but importantly will also introduce two more – universities’ international and regional missions.

Universities increasingly provide important national and regional links into the global knowledge economy. They exchange knowledge, gather intelligence and facilitate international flows of highly-skilled people who, in turn, create and attract high value-added businesses. As powerful institutions with well-connected and highly-educated leaders, they are also important actors in regional networks, and help lead the design and delivery of economic development strategies.

However, few universities can excel in all five roles. Each must choose where to concentrate its efforts depending on its strengths and regional requirements. Government should encourage greater interaction between universities and the wider economy and society, and ensure that research funding encourages innovation.

As ever, I'd welcome any comments on this publication....

Our education system needs to change - a Provocation

I'd like to draw your attention to our latest Provocation - a thought piece on the subject of creativity, innovation and education.  These are free to download from the NESTA website and include extended essays by key thought leaders working in innovation. They aim to foster debate and new ideas, and showcase thought-provoking work on innovation.

Beginning at the Beginning: The Creativity Gap was written for NESTA by Anthony Sargent, General Director and Katherine Zeserson, Director of Learning and Participation at The Sage Gateshead.  The essay argues that to unleash the innovative capacity of the UK in the 21st century, our education system needs to nurture the natural creative innovator in all children and ensure it is protected, nourished and stimulated into adult life.  It critiques many aspects of our current approach to education, and outlines a vision of a creative education system that operates as a whole community process.  This essay was launched in Gateshead last week and was also the subject of our latest policy breakfast in London last Friday.

I welcome your comments.

Collaboration and Competition in Balance

What is the right balance between collaboration and competition in enterprise? It strikes me that given the focus on improved productivity through increasing specialisation in corporations in the last 10-20+ years (out-sourcing, off-shoring etc), there is an increasing awareness of the need to redress the balance? The current trend towards open innovation appears to result in direct response to this recent history.

Have organisations, professional communities, industries lost the skills and ability to collaborate which can also lead to prosperty or value through different means? In attending a workshop co-hosted by Cambridge Uni and Unilever last week, it was clear that many businesses are now grappling with trying to identify those missing collaborative skills and how can we regain them?