Collaborative Innovation for Continuous Learning (CICL)

Using Human-Centered Design as an educational tool, CICL develops 21st century skills and critical values among youth by leveraging accessible technologies and existing educational infrastructure of universities. Through collaborative and experiential methods, CICL nudges youth to develop the habit of continuous learning, transforming them into value-driven jobholders, entrepreneurs, and leaders.

In Bangladesh, 170,000 youth graduate each year, and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies reports, “89.6% youth are unskilled”, 47% Unemployed.

35 and 50 percent of jobs that exist now will be replaced by machines in emerging 4th Industrial Revolution. The youth needs to learn new skills to survive the upcoming  changes. Considering the socio-economic context and structural challenges, our program CICL builds five critical skills of 21st century-

• empathy

• creativity

• cognitive flexibility

• critical-thinking

• collaboration

Our framework merges Human Centered Design principles with experiential learning process. Each of the six stages will contribute to develop the skills.

We will enroll final year students in CICL through our partnership with universities. Participants will be in teams of four, from multidisciplinary background. Through six-month immersive design journey and mentorship, they will work together to solve real-world challenges provided by the public sector.

Upon completion, participants have the option to:

1. Become a Social entrepreneur (enter our two-year incubation program)
2. Become an Innovator (continue to develop the innovation with Mayor’s office for implementation)
3. Become an Intrapreneur (join the workforce of our private sector partners)

Our goal is to trigger the change and build role models who can influence others around them. After developing a critical mass of CICL-graduates in 5 years, we will collaborate with the Ministry of Education to integrate the framework in national curriculum.

By 2025, developing countries in Asia and Africa will be home to 1 billion youth. The common struggle of these countries is the obsolete education systems, which won’t be able to cope through the changes in 4IR. However, challenges often bring the greatest opportunities. Constraints and policy-level challenges that we see in Bangladesh are very similar in other developing countries, which creates a unique opportunity for scaling up our model and achieving larger impact.

Lack of skills directly jeopardizes the future 74.6 million youth in Bangladesh. This will worsen with  large scale technology adoption in 4IR. Unfortunately current education focuses on hard skills which are obsolete and doesn’t equip students with skills needed for employment and entrepreneurship. Policy makers, industry experts, academics are worried but fail to fathom reason behind this phenomena and unaware of the tsunami of 4IR. Everyone mentions developing skills but ultimately limits their efforts to developing hard skills only! This skills gap and decline of social values will eventually lead to large scale social and political instability.  

Objective: To develop a network of skilled and value-driven workforce and entrepreneurs working towards inclusive growth.

We believe this change happens with:

- Development of the critical skills

- Supporting entrepreneurs to thrive and become role models.  

- Catalyzing cross-sectoral collaboration

Our work so far:

- Skills Development: Pilot called Social Innovation Design Week- Post pilot 66% participating students were employed in partner organization. Pilot with 30 students & 2 faculty in 3 universities.

- Incubating 6 entrepreneurs & 12 innovators who have impacted lives of 1.3 million in 2016-17.

- Partnership with media, academia,investors, public, private, and civic sectors globally to amplify impact.

In pilot phase we will work with university students in their final year. Post-CICL, while a handful of youth become entrepreneurs, others will be embedded across public, private and civic sectors as skilled workers, prepared to tackle the challenges of 21st century workplaces. The skills will help them transform themselves as well as initiate change in their respective organizations impacting the economy and society. Simultaneously, our work in catalysing the ecosystem will create a policy change for large scale adoption of the program. In 10 years, we should not be running this program as the system will adopt the change.

Track number of people completing CICL - Train 10,000 students within next 5 years

Track number of CICL participants being employed in different sectors and periodic assessment with employers - At least 80% of graduates employed in workforce and by partner organizations

Track number of universities adopting the model and shift in policy towards program integration - Initiating system change in education sector

Explaining the problem to stakeholders is tough, however, the solution should not be. We keep it simple, with a belief that disruption is not introducing something new; but nudging for behavioural shift while managing the risks of stakeholders.

Uniqueness:

1. Multidisciplinary approach and use of  HCD as skills development tool

2. Keeping problem and tenure relevant to the youth

3. Utilizing existing infrastructure and technology.

4. Public-private partners give them career options beyond the program.

5. Roadmap towards integrating the framework in national curriculum.

We harness online platforms provided free by internet.org and government portals to connect youth, universities, private and public sector.

Majority of youth are frustrated knowing that the current education system will provide only certificates but not jobs. The universities are also unaware of the future of skills. Unfortunately, their social and financial constraints restrict them from accessing learning resources and disruptive technologies.

The silver lining is, 73% of Bangladeshis use internet through mobile phones. Through our telecommunication partner Robi who has partnership with internet.org, we will harness these existing technologies that are accessible, free of cost. For us the users’ pain dictates technology not the other way round.

Our solution will be made accessible through:

• Merging CICL with university internship programs

• Building awareness through faculties and alumni

• Ensuring maximum reach through social media platforms, media partners

• Partnering with prominent youth organizations such as- Youth Opportunities, 10 Minute school and Volunteer for Bangladesh.

• Engaging private sector to endorse and discuss the future of skills.

• Leveraging the network of 56 Information Centers established by the Ministry of ICT and Ministry of Youth.

The universities will cover 50% cost of CICL which will be approximately 40 USD per student. Rest will be subsidized by our private and public sector partners.

Our cross-sectoral partnerships allow us to deliver the program in a financially sustainable manner in the pilot phase. 50% of the per participant cost will come from the universities. Rest will be covered by private sector and foundations who are keen to test an innovative method in a challenging context like Bangladesh.

Both universities and partners will provide in-kind support including logistics, which will keep the cost of program delivery within a reasonable limit. Also, we have been working with Ministry of ICT of Bangladesh to get an intermediary research grant.

We believe in learning by doing, so in growth stage we will go back to the drawing board to developing a stronger business model based on the outcome of the pilot.

We are on an ambitious mission to shape the education system. This system and mindset change poses challenges.

1. Traditional stakeholders, such as government officials and university leadership, prefer to hold the status quo.

2. Majority of them do not recognize the changing context of skills. Getting their approval for experiential learning will take tremendous effort.

3. Our team needs to build capacity in pedagogical research and guidance to scale.

4. We need to build a sustainable business model that will work at scale, through multiple iterations.

http://toruinstitute.org/

https://www.facebook.com/ToruTheIdeaTree/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPguunMGoq85V55cp4DIqqA

CICL is a “nudge” that has the power to disrupt. Such frugal innovations are easy to replicate in nations with similar challenges. However, the pilot requires continuous iteration and learning. Through our partners, team and board members, we have secured the initial buy in needed in pilot phase from universities, private sector and government.

Now, we need to:

1. build capacity in pedagogical research and emerging technologies

2. continuously develop the program and its framework.

3. have a roadmap to scale and sustainability.

We believe SOLVE and its network can provide resource to support these challenges through mentorship.

IDEO.org, The Daily Star, University of Dhaka, Government of Bangladesh, Microsoft, Porticus Foundation, Levi Strauss Foundation, Yunus Center and BRAC Institute of Education Development, Dhaka City Corporation Mayor’s Office, Standard Chartered Bank, Renata Pharmaceuticals, Ashoka Foundation.

Indirect competitors: Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center. Teach for Bangladesh.