05 May 2011

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Skills for the innovation economy

Today at the Polytechnics Canada Annual Meeting we had a very good discussion on the evolution of polytechnic education, applied research and the links to social and economic productivity. Specifically, we addressed the following topics:
  • Innovation and entrepreneurial skills and their benefits for graduates, industry and Canadian society 
  • Applied research in curricula as one avenue of “learning by doing” 
  • Unlocking the innovation potential across the educational continuum
Our focus was on building our role as innovation intermediaries, as conduits for enhancing industry capacity to innovate, and on focusing on the diffusion of innovation and entrepreneurship. We discussed a wide concept of innovation, many points of which I have addressed here in the past, and expressed as a word cloud below:

Our opportunity is to define Canadian innovation, and work with other actors in the education system to create an innovation value chain that prepares graduates for the world of work today, as well as tomorrow.

1 comment:

Rob Hilborn said...

Robert, The conference was powerful and you are correct in the goal.
I would only add that Canada has to create a culture that embraces innovation and embraces the risk-taking and inevitable failures through which innovation and entrepreneurship are born.