Programming to foster sustainable entrepreneurial mindset: A model to cultivate future skills and competencies (E)

A sustainable entrepreneurial mindset is important in business and life. According to research by Gill et al. (2011), a lack of entrepreneurial skills is the top, and a lack of confidence is the top five barriers to venture formation and growth. The world is also in the middle of a global challenge to achieve Sustainable Development Goals and innovative entrepreneurship can certainly help in solving these issues worldwide (Leach et al., 2012) Recognizing the importance of these sustainable entrepreneurial skills at the Centre of Entrepreneurship, Centennial College we developed and deployed an innovative, agile and experiential program under SDG innovation Lab, engaging students and the community to cultivate a sustainable entrepreneurial mindset and nurturing future skills and confidence, using contemporary resources and leading-edge methodologies and the framework of the SDGs to build the pipeline of individuals for potential sustainable business formation and growth capacity in the long run. The SDG Innovation Lab has five interconnected modules offering SDG training followed by weekend challenges, and an incubation experience program and support to become investment-ready. Our weekend challenge, the Global Goals Jam in partnership with the Digital Society School Amsterdam and UNDP, contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals and develops the future skills and confidence of participants. It engages them to collaborate and learn to build solutions to global challenges in a facilitated and mentored environment using an integration of innovative tools and methodologies. This paper shares our experience with this program to build a sustainable entrepreneurial capacity and future change leaders.