« The Founder Institute is the world’s largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program, helping aspiring founders across the globe build enduring technology companies. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 33 countries, the Founder Institute has helped launch over 1,129 companies in 5 years. The company’s mission is to « Globalize Silicon Valley » and build sustainable startup ecosystems that will create one million new jobs worldwide. »

What is there to add to this self-description? Nothing. Check it out, it’s available (almost) everywhere, and see for yourself – always good tips online too.

http://fi.co/#

Professionals, students, educators can all unleash their leadership potential through the challenge developed for them by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. Should you want to develop your leading skills or the potential of others, the Leadership Challenges provides you with a solution.

First, you can take your Leadership Practice Inventory, a 360° assessment, and start your journey. Authors made it available in 6 languages, including Mongolian! Then, you will learn about the 5 practices of exemplary leadership. You will be able to self-pace your learning experience and find e-learning resources as well as offline ones to match you needs.

A specific program and learning community is available to students, and we understand from the repeated messages from schools, employers and peers how leadership is one of the fundamental skills of the future.

So let’s get to it and here is an example of tool to start being the leader you can be: http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/

Meeting Timothy Low, I got very lucky as he taught me that in Singapore there are about 4000 companies giving leadership training ! Thanks to the government for giving to schools the budget (10 000$ /school /year) to externalize such trainings and making sure Singaporean students are familiar with the needs of their community.

Problem is, as often, that quality doesn’t necessarily meet quantity. And Timothy is precisely on the bright side developing a high quality service learning program called QZI, for Quartz Initiative. Their vision is:’Redefine the way we impact the world’.

They create the Metamorphism training for teenagers (15-17) to rediscover that leadership is also about passion and social engagement. Empathy gives you direction. The good thing is, the process also works with employees in companies looking at making their CSR policy really impactful for people inside and outside the corporation.

Find it in your heart and put your first stone down in the social world.

http://qzi.sg/

Spotted by Anthony Tige, Project Consultant FLIP @ PSE – Cambodia

=> A new article directly from Harvard on talent spotting in the 21st century

« Basically, the key idea of the article is that the world (and therefore what is expected of employees) is changing so fast and becoming so complex that “having the potential to learn new skills and to adapt to changes and new situations is even more important, for a manager, than having the right skills for his current position as it is now ». It gives some clues about how one can spot people with such “adaptation qualities and ability to fit in ever changing roles” (potential as they say) and nurture these people so that they can grow and express their talent. »

If you don’t want to get stuck in the 20th century, read it quick : http://hbr.org/2014/06/21st-century-talent-spotting/ar/1 

We know that nowadays it is more and more frequent to have a computer scan your curriculum before any human eye. Feels a bit scary to be judged upfront by a machine isn’t it?

What if this time the computer could help us get a job?

Check out interview simulator websites and improve your skills!

An example here used by students in Phnom Penh: http://myinterviewsimulator.com/

Playmeo is the world’s largest online database of group games & activities specifically designed to equip teachers, corporate trainers, camp leaders, youth workers, outdoor educators and many others with outrageously fun and interactive group activities.

The website provides hundreds of activities such as ice-breakers, energizers, problem-solving and teamwork exercises. You can even enjoy some video tutorial and help in adapting the game to your specific context.

What is keeping you from getting to know yourself and others better, all through playing?!

http://www.playmeo.com/

C-BED stands for community based enterprise development, and that is exactly what it does.

In situation of extreme poverty, far away from schools, technology and open markets, communities live and grow, individuals start businesses and try to find their way out of misery. Too often, they only need a small push to scale up the opportunities and good models. The difference with C-BED is that the push comes from within.

Created by the International Labor Organization, the program enables aspiring entrepreneurs, small and small-medium enterprises to be created and to develop. How? Associated with local partners they empower community leaders to take responsibility for enhancing the entrepreneurial drive and skills of their peers. And it works! Action-based group learning goes on and strengthens the abilities of members of these vulnerable and marginalized communities. Far from formal training, solutions exists for self-learning.

This model could maybe apply to many other richer and more developed parts of the world ? As we ask ourselves about how to motivate students? How to impulse self motivation? How to mix online, offline, peer to peer, teacher based models efficiently? Maybe a solution can come from the Global South, once again!

Check out more on: http://cb-tools.org/

This zone looks very empty, officy, industrially to me.. Ah there is the Insead building there – something familiar.

I continue walking until I arrive in front of a big grey building with many people going in and out, up and down, wondering if this is what everybody calls the Silicon Valley of Asia – or at least the Singaporean one. And then I look at the signs on the doors. This building is a conglomerate of incubators, startups, hubs,… it’s amazing and so vibrant. I’m headed to the open house of the JFDI hub, standing for the Joyful Frog Digital Incubator, and I am not disappointed. Indeed we are all jumping up and down with joy of sharing this passion for change and waiting for the next big opportunity. There is also the Singtel Innov8 lab welcoming companies identified by the powerful telecom giant as the most promising services to continue pushing the limits of their vision.

If you visit Singapore, make sure you visit 71 – Clearly more than numbers

Hip Hop dancers, cafés, hipster shops, young, young, young people all around… Where am I?

Keep going, top floor they tell me when I ask about the co-working space. Ok, walking up to the heaven of students. In Singapore, the government sponsors many educational activities and allows for places like this to pop up. Basically, students rule! Scape is a space of co-working, of community service workshops, a home for ngos and alternative pedagogical programs, a hostel for student startups enabling them to receive adequate training and peer to peer advice.

If you want to dream and to make them come true – whatever field concerns you – then Scape is a must to try out!

http://www.scape.com.sg/

The HUB Singapore is the first of the now 54 HUBs worldwide in Asia.

Founded in 2012 it already employs 6 people and welcomes 500 members and more than 15 events a month. Values are simple and loud: courage and collaboration to help people bring more positive change. And it works! So tells me Lia, a 7 years old who just created « MiniHug » a better parenting app with her dad – former Google executive. So start now…

It will cost you 600$/month to work there and benefit from all the activities. In Singapore, it is not easy to unleash the entrepreneurship spirit as the traditional education doesn’t encourage people to quite their stable jobs to start a company at all. But the HUB makes it easier and accompanies each member in his/her quest. The HUB welcomes all kinds of profiles. There is a mum and former banker who is creating a platform for people to feel better with their failures and to build on them. There are participants to the Insead program for intrapreneurship. All united is a same optimistic and dynamic feeling by being at the right time, in the right place.

Showing how the workplace environment is evolving, the HUB incarnates the next phase so come and check it out quick!

http://singapore.impacthub.net/                  

Having lunch with Min is an amazing experience!

First you are delighted to see all the great drawings on the window of the Playmoolah offices. Than you are surprised by all the feminine smiles welcoming you in this advanced tech startup all about finance. And finally you experience a fantastic Singaporean dish where all the corporate workers stop to have lunch.

And then, it is all set for Min to tell you her story. How she grew up trying to be the best like all the other kids in Singapore, how she saw her mentor commit suicide when she was 14 because the young and promising girl could not handle the pressure, how she participated in a great program about how to apply the entrepreneurship mindset to life, how she left to the US and faced the results of the financial crises, how she decided to contribute and innovate by creating Playmoolah with her co-founder.

They educate children, young people and their families to deal with money. They deliver workshops in schools, they develop tools and games for the awareness and the community to grow, they question the value of things to better question the values. More than teaching about finances, they inspire people to take action and to form new communities. Their Honesty Circles enable people to talk about money freely and to develop.

A program not to miss if you wonder about what the curriculum of the 21st century should look like!

http://www.playmoolah.com/

6am – just landed in Singapore for the first time. Starting a world tour and exhausted already…

But it all started marvelously thanks to a Reactor. Jiang Liang opened the door to their fantastic new place on East Coast road and I was lucky to discover in « avant-première » the place where I think many entrepreneurs will come to stay, alone or in teams, grow, and succeed. The apartment is spacious and fully equipped to make any start-uper happy. The concept is simple: to start a venture you need to be fully focused on what you are doing and surrounded by people who will understand you, challenge you, motivate you. When you start a company, you eat, sleep, breathe for it and that’s exactly what Reactor enables you to do. Further more, the team is ambitious and wish to provide, not only the frame, but also the content. They are building state of the art pedagogical tools on entrepreneurship. They are working on their online/offline tools as you read and hope to wake up and empower many newcomers in the entrepreneurship scene. They have inspiration from the US and Europe also and are very opened to best practices exchanges. So, if you are looking for a cool place to stay or are busy teaching entrepreneurship to others do not hesitate and reach out to Reactor.

http://www.reactor.sg/

Missing your own good hold ups while your are traveling the world?!

No need to worry anymore as Larry Tchiou has landed in Singapore and started developing the wonderful Make Sense organization there. You always wanted to contribute to the social sector but never knew how? Stop wondering and join this community of gangsters who all strive to help social entrepreneurs around the world with their time, ideas and energy. The strength of the group makes it possible to react quickly and to answer efficiently to the needs of the ground. Also present in France and expanding through Europe and the world, the Make Sense Community has now its own school to make social impact training more sustainable, as well as a new cube for social-tech startup to grow in (almost) peace. So find your way to making sense!

larry@makesense.org

Once upon a time, some people thought of creating the educational paradise and so they tried – in Singapore!

The city-country is famous worldwide for its very good levels on Pisa reports and so on, but I never imagined that education would take such a big and central place on a national agenda. Soon, I understood that Singapore lacks natural resources and therefore absolutely needs to enhance its human capital to be productive, competitive and stay up front. So the government has been, and still is, massively involved in creating the best possible educational ecosystem. They fund national universities, they give budgets to schools to pay for entrepreneurship/community service/financial literacy/etc. programs to complement the core curriculum, they enable youth centers to be created, they support the very energetic startup scene that is emerging, … Money isn’t a problem – sometimes investments are clearly made without enough assessment or social impact measurement, but overall it provides many great opportunities to citizens. And they are all very much concerned by this issue, making education one of the key values in Singaporean families. Parents pay for « tuition » (private tutoring) for their precious kids to be the best. Children and youngsters work very hard and non-stop to improve their curriculum, get awards, master new skills, and expand their competences. But there are downsides to this first very appealing portrait: many suicides, ngos needed to help young people find hobbies, lack of empathy and need for community service programs, etc.

Education seems to serve bigger interests than the ones of the individuals who often seem lost in this competitive environment. They do not know how or why to learn which, in the end, could be a real problem when companies and state departments will need to innovate. Hopefully, many young entrepreneurs are leading the sector towards a more balanced situation by creating innovative startups, incubators and apps to help young people enjoy learning and define purpose. (Detail of projects in following posts)

Singapore appears as a highly dynamic place to start building educational initiatives: there is financial support, very talented partners and collaborators, incredible intercultural spirit to enrich your project, vision for the future, a “hungry” market and playful competition. Singapore could be a great open door for the ones interested in making it in Asia. Almost no excuses to miss out!

« There is nothing to do in Singapore » is the sentence I have heard the most I think.

And I have to say that this time I’ll have to disagree.

First there is the beauty: it is all so clean, so organized, when you arrive from the airport you are already surrounded by beautiful tropical trees.  Then there is their passion for food, which I can only share! Foodie zones opened 24/7, many new cute little street full of trendy cafes and tapas bars that offer a very nice alternatives to the impressively high number of malls around. You can have food from everywhere in the world, for all sorts of prices and always in very good company. Also there is the shopping: Singaporean shop. They LOVE malls, with air-con and it is even better if they don’t have to set a foot outside. But don’t think it’s cheap, they do have high standards and luxury surrounds you. Therefore, you see more young people in cool street bars at night and at quick-coffee places and that makes it alive. People shop, people eat, people work and study: some high buildings full of offices but you do not feel oppressed; you can see the sky everywhere. Universities are right in the middle of the city, with parks all around and impressive buildings with the most modern equipment. People live : they exercise – less sensitive to the hit than most westerners whom you see packed in indoors gyms – and they rent. Yes, very few buy unless they get married and manage to get hold of a state apartment at an affordable rate. All young people leave with their parents until they are 30 and find their partner, as it is too expensive to leave the house.  Indeed a flat in the center costs about 3 million $ and a graduate makes around 2000$. The same price issue exists with cars, in Singapore you need to buy a specific license to own a car that will cost you 200 000$. To balance that fact public transports work very well and taxis are quite cheap for a capital city. It gives you the opportunity to meet great people. Singaporean are of very diverse backgrounds: Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Filipino, Cambodian, European, Russian, etc. Communities generally mix even though they all tend to be quite reserved, as good Singaporeans. Never lose face! Always behave, watch your temper, be focused, productive and dedicated. But they do have fun and a lot of big smiles and amazing stories to tell. This intercultural setting is very enriching and not at all challenging. A very well organized melting pot, looking forward to the future. Makes you want to be a part of it, shall we?!

Dear Mirror Networkers,

Welcome on board of this Summer World Tour 2014 to explore the backstage of the Knowledge Economy.

6 months ago my world turned upside down, 4 months ago I realized it was the time to pursue my passion for education in a startup mode, 2 months ago I decided to do a live-benchmark and see for myself what the business of learning is becoming.

Today, I am sitting in a small room with air-con (key !) in a Cambodian school/orphanage and able to tell you that the Mirror Network trip has really started.

So, first things first : Thank you ! None of this could happen without all of you. Thanks for welcoming me, for answering me, for taking the time to chat until late at night, for enabling me to create my very first website, for believing in my ideas, for joining me on this adventure.

Mirror Network will help me highlight innovative educational tools and programs,  it will enable us to gather in a passionate and active community (already creating links between Argentina, Singapore and Europe !) and it will allow us to understand better where the Knowledge economy is heading. I will give you information on : learning ecosystems, pedagogical models, key actors of the sector, crazy ideas, opportunities to contribute and take part in this vibrant world.

Mirror Network is an open blog so please send me the pieces you would like to share with other project managers, teachers, philanthropists, investors, executives, public servants, etc. Let’s see clearer, think smarter, impact better – together !

On my end, I’ll work on developing my ideas on certain topics, namely :

-       self-learning : learning to learn, learning to teach, building one’s path

-       career counseling : facilitate learning-working circles, raise awareness about opportunities of the 21st century, transforming misfits into opportunities

-       knowledge ID : incubate and accelerate people, empowered to take the first step

I hope you enjoy the ride :

- On the web : mirror-network.com

- On facebook : Mirror Network group

- Email : lea.peerman.pujol@mirror-network.com

Happy summer to us !

Léa