Learning from heroes and looking for champions
Thank you to the speakers, paper presenters, participants and volunteers who helped to make the 15th UNESCO-APEID International Conference a great success!
About 350 participants from 20 countries attended the three-day conference from 6-8 December 2011 in Jakarta, Indonesia. They examined the broad concepts of creativity and entrepreneurship, and questioned the failure of their education systems in nurturing creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit in children, youth and adults.
The participants were inspired to learn from their heroes – the enterprising educators and entrepreneurs – who recounted their personal journeys in overcoming obstacles through their resourcefulness, commitment and persistence. While acknowledging that some people are specially gifted, the participants agreed that creativity and the entrepreneur spirit can be nurtured. Education must be structured to facilitate the development of creative, useful and productive members of society.
The conference concluded by calling for champions to continue the effort to nurture creativity and entrepreneurship in education.
What’s next?
Send us your feedback by completing the online evaluation at: www.unescobkk.org/education/apeid/apeid-international-conference/apeidconf11/survey/
Sign up to be a champion if you are interested in taking concrete actions to promote creativity and entrepreneurship in education by sending a message to apeidconf@unesco.org.
Potential ideas:
- Start nurturing creativity in school and at home, beginning from early childhood.
- Ask open-ended questions and have stimulating conversations to nurture children’s creativity.
- Bring the world into the classrooms and the classrooms out into the ‘real’ world.
- Conduct research to increase creativity and entrepreneurship.
- Document and disseminate educational innovations and links to creativity and entrepreneurship.
- Link schools to community and use local resources and knowledge.
- Change societal perceptions and parent/family expectations about entrepreneurship.
- Support social entrepreneurship to enhance the well-being of the poor and marginalized groups.
- Provide access to venture capitalists for young entrepreneurs.
- Support creative industries.
- Encourage private-public partnerships, e.g., techno-entrepreneurs for IT and high-tech industries.
- Take advantage of the media to promote creativity and entrepreneurship, e.g. produce a reality TV show for entrepreneurs.
The programme and presentations are available at www.unescobkk.org/education/apeid/apeid-international-conference/apeidconf11/papers-and-presentations/
About the Conference
The 15th UNESCO-APEID International Conference, Inspiring Education: Creativity and Entrepreneurship was co-organized by UNESCO in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Culture and the World Bank in Indonesia to facilitate discussions on creativity and entrepreneurship, and strengthen their linkages in education and the workplace.
For more information, please visit www.unescobkk.org/education/apeid/conference2011.
A broad, encompassing view of learning should aim to enable each individual to discover, unearth and enrich his or her creative potential, to reveal the treasure within each of us.
Jacques Delors et al., Learning: The Treasure Within
