Social Innovation Workshop

What happens if 300 passionate students learn how to address their concerns with a business plan?

On the 31/01/2009 Enterprise Asia in cooperation with the Jump Foundation and Plan International presented two workshops on social innovation in education at the winter student conference of AIESEC China.

During 2008 AIESEC and  NIKE China conducted a highly insightful youth survey with students from 16 universities in China, identifying issues Chinese students are most concerned about in their society.

The results indicate that a large number of students are concerned about education, inequality and urbanizations and many of them get involved in their area of passion through volunteering, donations of funds and by initiating small projects.

During the Social Innovation day students had the chance to connect with likeminded students around their area of passion, to learn about more in-depth about the issues and to move from learning to actions.

Under the guidance of the facilitators students identified the most pressing issues in the field of education including access to college education, migrant children education and the lack of practical learning in the current education system. They were than we briefed about the development of an social enterprise business plan and under the guidance of the facilitators developed a project plan to address on issue in the field of education.

If given the tools and support to let their creativity flow students were more than creative to address their selected issues. During the elevator pitch session teams had 3 minutes each to present their project plans ranging from after school training for high school students, to uniting foreign and chinese students to teach underprivileged rural children in an summer camp. Students were not short of innovation ideas to make a positive change in their society, and the overwhelming majority of teams presented not only innovative but also highly feasible social innovation projects.

Having participated in this workshop on social innovation, Enterprise Asia looks forward collaborate with these budding social entrepreneurs to provide further supportive tools and guidance to empower creative students to become entrepreneurs turning ideas into actions.