Kesavan Baskkaran

Kesavan Baskkaran

Role of Liberal Education in Social Entrepreneurship – A Changing Perception

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As the Global village grows with modern technology, the higher education model is moving towards a liberal way to make a student evolve as a Corporate Achiever and Entrepreneur. The campuses are introducing Liberal education concept with entrepreneurship as a curriculum and bringing into them comprehensive leadership programs that cast students and faculty in entrepreneurial roles. Leadership studies in such schools give a role for one to provide an understanding for new initiatives that try to bring in both liberal education and practice of entrepreneurship under single gambit.

Understanding the basics of a liberal education are essential to the evolution of an ideal entrepreneurial mindset. Further, an Entrepreneurship aspect in one’s study is an in-depth inquiry that is engaging all departments of colleges. The study of entrepreneurship and the liberal education becomes complementary to the way of life of a student and college. The liberally educated student is open-minded, tolerant, intellectually curious, experimentative. The student values his or her own education for evolving themselves, to understand the natural world, human rights, cultures, and the common good. The liberally educated person is actively engaged with the world in all of its complexity, diversity, and dynamism. Such an individual is characterized by openness and curiosity and seeks to make a positive contribution to the future of humankind.

Social Commitment and Entrepreneurship

One of the most powerful developments in liberal education in recent years has been the emergence of service learning and civic engagement on campuses. As more liberal education universities encourage this kind of engagement, students become better to meet the challenges one face in society. This makes them understand and share new ideas, new technologies with new solutions. When coupled with a liberal education in campus, these off-campus, co-curricular learning experiences will prepare them well to take on responsibilities of leadership and to become the entrepreneurs we need in both our workplaces and our communities.

The social interest entrepreneurship education has evolved and has begun to spread to non-business disciplines where students in engineering and other streams are interested in becoming entrepreneurs. The burgeoning new field of entrepreneurship education includes not only business-related entrepreneurship but also social entrepreneurship. The more recent concept of social entrepreneurship resonates particularly well with the goals of liberal education. The social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector by Evolving, creating and sustaining social value, pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission, continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning, managing effectively with limited resources, exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability

Concerted Effort

Liberal Education university offers the opportunity for a holistic educational experience that is well suited to the needs of the potential entrepreneur. As a new entrepreneur needs to encounter a wide variety of perspectives, ethical norms and the development of critical thinking and communication skills makes one more evolved. Further, Liberal education gives the opportunity to become independent, interactive and active learners for charting their own way of life. The ideal liberal education models a process of continuous adaptation and innovation and it is becoming a “metaphor for entrepreneurship.”

As one connects leadership, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement, it yields powerful results that are greater than the sum of the parts mentioned. This enables the emergence of creativity to the core. This is the kind of academic leadership and entrepreneurship that one needs to create synergies between these discrete areas. Leadership programs for students, when combined with curricula that focus upon entrepreneurship and then coupled with extracurricular programs engage students with their communities resulting in producing liberally educated social entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs would be committed to addressing social problems through innovative solutions that are empowering and produce value-added outcomes.

ENGINEER – RELEVANCE OF A MANAGEMENT COURSE

General Blog

What relevance does an MBA have to the  technical skills of a professional engineer, and is there a need for an MBA specifically for Engineers?

 

Thoughts  in Mind of an Engineering Graduate .  It’s important to decide if one want to be a subject matter expert or a manager. If one love engineering and being on the technical side, then an advanced engineering degree puts them at the top of your field. But, if one is excited about working at a macro level in business and managing teams or considering an entrepreneurial endeavour, an MBA is right choice. Regardless of the path, undergraduate engineering background provides problem-solving skills and critical thinking methodology that serve one well in any chosen career.

 Need for A Post Graduate Degree.   A postgraduate qualification is becoming more important for engineers as the future unfolds. Professional Bodies and Industry look for  an engineer  through an accredited degree route and  who has studied a  matching degree of post graduation in technical arena . Another area of this matching section is in the area of management to attain Managerial Status .

One way of attaining this is through taking  Master of Business Administration course (MBA). Most MBA courses are aimed for all graduate disciplines. More than 30  percent of MBA students are engineers. Few universities offer a technical MBA like  industrial Management.

It is important that engineers widen their knowledge and skills in the management area if they wish to become senior managers in  industry. Having  obtained a technical under graduate or even Post graduate degree, an MBA completes their education in the wider areas of management that usually include subjects such as finance, marketing, human resource management, organisational behaviour, and management strategy. The engineer thus has the opportunity to quickly progress in their career

Need for Managers With Technical Background . The role of the engineer is changing – within an industry. The engineer is likely to be a manager who  has to implement new practices and new technology. Thus the engineer often becomes the primary manager of change within the modern organisation, which again requires specific skills and learning.

What MBA  Gives to An Engineer. MBA  gives  engineers the broad grounding that is missing in their technical degrees. MBA classes are mostly case based experiences which give practical out flow . As engineers have practical knowledge of implementing technical aspects, such method of study  relate theory to the world of work. The Engineering student therefore gets the opportunity to understand the workings  in greater depth, in areas not usually covered in their technical roles.

Stand out Aspects. The engineering MBA graduate is well versed in management knowledge, skills and techniques, as well as their technical engineering abilities. Having an MBA gives them confidence to apply these skills to develop ‘strategies for growth’ of their employing companies, making them indispensable and sought after. In the future, they will be among those who set the rules and have conversations about what should and shouldn’t be done in the way an organisation is structured and managed.

Earning Potential.  In the earning potential with a  MBA  one can earn up to a 30% higher salary than engineering graduate.

Why MBA from IILM University  for Engineers – IILM University Gurugram, has a unique space in the world of MBA education because of the benchmarking its  education level with top universities of the world like Stanford University, IIMs , Wharton .  IILM University has the  concept of liberal education for  university  programme. Engineers in  MBA Programme  in such an environment have a  more comprehensive learning approach. The learnings  enable better placement potential for the Students as well as gives   innovative inquisitiveness to  become – a job creator too .

Take Away for an Engineer With MBA

An MBA  will further in your field of  operations as it gives the tools to lead and manage, while  the engineering degree positions you as an expert and company stand out.