Assessment of the Business Blasters Programme in Delhi’s government schools

Assessment of the Business Blasters Programme in Delhi’s government schools

The Delhi Government started the Entrepreneurship Mindset Curriculum (EMC) for students in grades 9-12 in 2019. The curriculum was piloted in 300 classrooms across 24 schools and was subsequently launched in 1000+ schools. EMC aimed to build entrepreneurial acumen and harness students’ talents and capabilities to help them take charge of their careers and fulfill their dreams. 

A key component of EMC is the Business Blasters program for students, under which students work in teams to conceptualize and implement a business idea (for profit or social impact). The aim was to establish a positive association between continued participation in the Business Blasters program and developing higher-order skills and mindsets.

GAME commissioned Sambodhi to build and deploy a toolkit to assess whether the Business Blasters program had taught and strengthened entrepreneurship mindsets and competencies among students. 

Through an amalgamation of psychometric assessments and vignettes, the toolkit was formulated to capture:

1. quantitative differences in mindsets and competencies (using the psychometric assessment) across different categories of students as they traverse through the Business Blasters journey,
2. individual-student level factors (socio-economic, interests & hobbies, academic performance in schools, mindsets/attitudes, etc.) that facilitate greater acquisition (through vignettes and in-depth interviews), and
3. group-level dynamics that facilitate acquisition (through social observation of teams working on the project).

The toolkit dossier was designed using Udhyam’s Mindsets and Competencies framework as the edifice. A one-point assessment of students was undertaken. The hypothesis was tested with students who:

• were engaged with the program for a longer period (i.e., those who have progressed to later rounds, such as Top 100 and Top 10) as compared to those who dropped out of the program earlier rounds 
• exhibited higher/greater acquisition of mindsets and competencies, and
• were given coaching/mentoring provided and practical experience of working on the business plan.

The assessment utilized quantitative findings from the psychometric assessment to inform qualitative data gathering through vignettes, IDIs, and social observation (sequential explanatory design). Using a mixed-methods approach, the analysis highlighted the hypothesis actuating this study – “does longer engagement with the Business Blasters programme lead to greater acquisition of mindsets and competencies?” The study also highlighted student-level factors contributing to this acquisition. The goal is that GAME/Udhyam can use insights distilled from this to craft feed-forward strategies for similar programs in schools and trigger support from other State governments, donors, and civil society to engage with the program.

Under the Phase-1 contract, a robust toolkit was developed. In phase-2, Sambodhi’s team administered 20 In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) to understand the students’ motivations behind participating in the program, their support networks, and their view on the usefulness of the EMC curriculum. A report was prepared based on these findings.