Why an Entrepreneurial Mindset is Important for Your Child to Thrive in the Gig Economy?

First thing first. Let’s first understand the gig economy, before talking about the relevant skills to flourish in this new type of economy that is the new normal now.

Independent workers riding on multiple skills, juggling multiple short-term assignments while combining hobbies and skills to make the best of the temporary commitments is what the gig economy is all about. 

In other words, short-term, contract, and freelance employment to fulfill the requirement of temporary goals is called the gig economy, which is elbowing out the traditional nine-to-five commitments while blurring the geographical boundaries.

The onset of startups and tech-savvy organizations have given the gig economy a real push. According to a Forbes article, Uber, Fiverr, Lyft, Etsy, 99 Designs, Grubhub, and even Airbnb have forever changed the landscape for how people can pick up a “gig” to earn a living or generate supplemental income. 

Harvard Business Review reports that approximately 150 million workers in North America and Western Europe have left the relatively stable confines of organizational life — sometimes by choice, sometimes not — to work as independent contractors. 

Some of this growth reflects the emergence of ride-hailing and task-oriented service platforms, but a report by McKinsey discovered that knowledge-intensive industries and creative occupations are the largest and fastest-growing segments of the freelance economy or gig economy.

Experts believe the gig economy is the outcome of technological revolutions and what we are experiencing is just the tip of the iceberg. The industry will see exponential growth in the future, and children will have to be well-equipped to flourish in this system. Unfortunately, the schools are in denial and instead of restructuring the curriculum, they are clutching on to the centuries-old learning tools. 

Lack of options and awareness is forcing parents to hold on to traditional teaching methods, while youngsters are trying to figure out which path to go. 

The aim of the educational institutes should be to encourage children to be future-ready, which makes it mandatory for them to take that giant leap and reconstruct the curriculums by replacing rote-learning with hands-on learning.

In the past, the rote-learning method worked as it fulfilled the requirement of the traditional workplace, but the future workplace will be all about creativity, innovation, problem-solving and entrepreneurial mindset. Therefore, the curriculum should focus on the retention of knowledge and the ability to transfer it via practical learning. This change will help the education system in meeting the demands of the future.

Experts are not leaving any stones unturned to create awareness about reshuffling and reconstructing the curriculums to make children future-ready through research, reports, online campaigns, social media campaigns, seminars, etc. The architecture of the futuristic workplace is shouting from the rooftop to alert all and sundry about the evolution of work and drastically changing the culture of the job market. 

The EdTech companies have already floated various hands-on learning platforms to provide a hands-on learning experience to upskill children and make them future-ready. The Innovator Program at Moonshot Junior is the case in point. The four-stage product-based learning process allows children to explore and identify their areas of interest and gain entrepreneurial experience.

“We realized that children were not getting the right exposure. They were stuck in the traditional learning system. That’s when the idea of providing a hands-on learning platform came to our mind and we introduced the Innovator Program. This program introduces children to STEAM. We help them to explore their area of interest and work on their ideas. Once they complete this program, they know how to ideate, create and launch a product, thus developing an entrepreneurial mindset in the process,” said Alok Jain, CEO, and Co-founder of Moonshot Jr. 

“Entrepreneurial skills have become essential, and our learning process allows children to gain entrepreneurial experience. With the launch of the Moonpreneur board game, we have further gamified the whole learning process. Also, our learning kits, such as the Embedded Learner Board and others, are allowing students to learn coding and electronics. We offer our students a more hands-on learning approach,” he further added. 

The changing dynamics of the professional world has made it mandatory for the current generation to focus on acquiring entrepreneurial skills and developing an entrepreneurial mindset. 

Here is why children need to learn entrepreneurial skills.

1. To Be Their Own Boss: As we are moving away from the permanent commitment to a short-term relationship between workers and companies, individuals will have to think like a boss and take charge of their career by being resourceful and flexible in their approach. It is not possible without an entrepreneurial mindset. 
2. To Create Opportunities: One of the vital skills of entrepreneurs is that they create opportunities for themselves. This skill will be relevant in the Gig Economy as individuals will have to create opportunities for themselves to monetize their skills and stay in demand. 
3. To Be a Creative Thinker: To expand and grow in the gig economy, individuals will have to constantly churn out new ideas and only a creative mind can accomplish the task with aplomb.  
4. To Market Skills: Entrepreneurs innovate a product and create demand for that in the market. Similarly, individuals will have to create a demand for their skills, and this would need sales and marketing skills.  Finding the right audience and willing to engage them would be an uphill task.
5. To Use Soft Skills: Gig economy has no geographical binding. The world is the oyster and in this virtual global village, the ability to work with ease in different scenarios with people from different cultures, communicate ideas and thought processes will come in handy. This combination of soft skills is crucial to survive and succeed in the gig economy.  

Self-employment in the changing work ecosystem is more challenging than one expected it to be, and it is obligatory to be on top of things to stay afloat. In the future workplace, the human workforce would not just be competing with their co-workers, but also with intelligent machines that are swallowing jobs at a rapid pace. 

So, now is the right time to prepare your child for this gig economy by empowering them to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and innovative skills.