UK-based business, ProjectCHAKRA, has been awarded the Progressive Education Delivery Award at the prestigious PIEoneer Awards, which are the only global awards that celebrate innovation and achievement across the whole of the international education industry. The high profile event was attended by over 600 education professionals who flew in from over 20 countries, including, USA, Canada, Australia, Israel, Japan and New Zealand.

The Progressive Education Delivery award recognises education programmes that have innovated how they teach and who they reach, that are unique, successful in their approach to teaching, and focused on the student’s life journey in the 21st century. Anand Mistry, Co-founder of ProjectCHAKRA said, “We are very grateful for this recognition and we hope that it will lead to further engagement with Universities and Students who are driven, want to broaden their horizons and make a positive impact through their future careers.”

Their flagship programme ‘A Social Entrepreneurship Experience’, run at institutions including Imperial College Business School uses simulation role-play and gamification to engage students in a dynamic way and is based on a real UNDP partner social enterprise in India that works on waste management and women’s empowerment and is addressing 14/17 UN SDGs. 9.3/10 is ProjectCHAKRA’s average rating from their post-workshop survey, with 67% giving 10/10.

Participation in this experience then opens up pathways to work with ProjectCHAKRA’s network of social impact organisations, particularly in India.

The Deloitte Millennial Survey (2019) suggests 47% of Gen Z want to make a positive impact on the world through their careers. However, these pathway opportunities are scarce and the perception of social impact careers are ‘risky’ and ‘not serious’. Meanwhile, social impact organisations need skilled workers to progress their work and to make a greater impact. ProjectCHAKRA’s approach to bridging this gap is what makes them so progressive and innovative.

In a world dominated by digital, it’s the personal, intimate and hands-on nature of their education experiences, which make it so unique and impactful. A University of Bristol student said, “This was a really touching experience, realistic to take into the real world and has made me consider other avenues for my future career”.

To find out more, please contact anand@projectchakra.net or by phone on 07964 890 297.

Background

ProjectCHAKRA’s work is grounded in our 15+ years of experience working with grassroots communities in India,  finding the work personally fulfilling but recognising that these opportunities are often hard to come by. ProjectCHAKRA is our way to open our experience, learnings and network to others who believe they too can contribute to something bigger than themselves.

Anand participated in Connect India’s service-based leadership programme in India. Inspired by this he started his own social enterprise at university and went back to India in summer 2018 to serve with Manav Sadhna, an NGO based in Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad and in particular with the social enterprise, Paryavaran Mitra (PM). Post graduation he booked a one-way ticket back to India to serve with PM, as a UNDP Fellow, where he developed a social entrepreneurship workshop, which was successfully delivered at UK universities and has formed the foundations of ProjectCHAKRA. Anand is a graduate in Economics, has studied abroad in Singapore and is a New Entrepreneurs Foundation Fellow. He is also the host of the CHAKRA Conversations podcast.

Dharmesh has been involved with Indian community organisations in the UK for many years including serving as President of National Hindu Students Forum UK. After a short stint in the corporate sector with the likes of Deloitte, Accenture and Shell, in 2004, he joined Indicorps in India, initially for 5 months but extended to 4 years. During this time, as well as supporting fellows, he also developed a sport for development programme called Ahmedabad Ultimate. Dharmesh co-founded Connect India, which supported young British Indians through service-based leadership programmes in India. Dharmesh is a graduate of the University of Warwick.

About ProjectCHAKRA

ProjectCHAKRA inspires action in young people for social impact through experiential education experiences that will broaden their aspirations and personal growth opportunities, as well as provide the structured pathways and mentorship to support their journey.

They have worked with the likes of Imperial College Business School, University of Bristol, University of Southampton, University of Essex and De Montfort University and will be working with more this year.

ProjectCHAKRA have just come back from a 7 week tour around India, visiting 7 different cities, and engaged over 300 participants in their experiences for students and faculty at universities and leadership professionals at NGOs.

About ProjectCHAKRA’s Social Entrepreneurship Experience workshop

Students play the role of real people and simulate India’s urban waste management system, which makes them feel real emotions, build empathy with the stakeholders involved and gives them a deep understanding of the on-ground realities. Then, through more game-based activities, students build their own social enterprise model to solve the problem and then innovate further on real challenges the social enterprise is facing.

This experiential workshop has an impact. Facilitated by ProjectCHAKRA, professors and university faculty have flown out to India to build further research and career pathway partnerships. Students have also worked with us on the ground in India, apply this to their academic projects, built side projects, which improves women’s skills and income and post graduation secured working roles with social impact organisations post-graduation.

About The PIE

The PIE is the premier news and business analysis platform for Professionals in International Education. In addition to their online platform, they organize their annual awards and serve as a recruitment platform for roles in International Education.

https://thepienews.com/
https://pieoneerawards.com

‍