Post-collegiate students interested in entrepreneurship and in building their own companies are being presented with interesting, unorthodox ways to make connections and get educated. An inspiring example of this is General Assembly, a New York campus for technology, design and entrepreneurship which offers not a degree, but a curriculum which is hands-on, multi-disciplinary and constantly evolving to suit students’ needs.
General Assembly was founded by four friends in a 20,000-square-foot loft with the aim of fostering New York’s rapidly growing startup sector. Their mandate: to teach aspiring entrepreneurs real-world skills and to expose them to the way business is really being run. There are three types of classes: three-hour one-offs, weeklong workshops and 60-hour certificate programs spread across several weeks. There are currently four classrooms. The staff is made up of practitioners from successful firms. Even better, experts from such high-profile companies as Google and Twitter drop in once in a while to teach courses. Best of all, the curriculum is incredibly flexible: feedback from weekly student surveys is integrated into the courses to keep them up to date.
General Assembly’s ever-evolving educational model is no doubt one of the reasons it is proving to be a considerable success. Established institutions such as ad agencies and business schools are partnering with it, and, backed by funding from significant investors such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Facebook, Zynga and Twitter investor Yuri Milner, Assembly plans to expand its online content and to expand its classroom number to twelve. There are even rumours that campuses may eventually be launched in London, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
General Assembly is part of a far-reaching trend. Unconventional educational programs which gear students for the startup economy exist all around the world. From the Hyper Island School for digital and interactive media in Sweden to the Knowmads Business School in Amsterdam—which helps “tribes” of students learn through paid business assignments—new, innovative models are being developed. Aspiring entrepreneurs are presented with an exciting array of choices.