The Backyard, a popular play and learning space in the city has become a hit within a year of its opening. The venue has come up with a new learning experience for kids, called Young Sharks, a two-part entrepreneurship and business literacy workshop for children between the ages of 8-12, designed to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit. They will be taught the fundamentals of business, such as the concept of money, profits, product strategies and other related topics.
The first workshop was conducted in association with Prerna Johar, an alumnus of the esteemed Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and a former faculty of Harmony Montessori in Mumbai. She presently designs curricula and consults Montessori schools. Borrowing from her background in finance and her knowledge and experience as an educator, she curated the Young Sharks as a programme for young children to understand money, gain financial literacy and develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
The programme took place over two days, one workshop in March and the second leg will be a full-blown exhibit on April 8 where they will put up stalls selling goods and services using their learning from the first training workshop.
TT gets you the deets from the workshop.
Prerna Johar began the session and moderated it, patiently answering queries from the kids, while also letting them get into group sessions and deliberations. The goal was to make children interact with industry experts who they could relate to... young entrepreneurs who started young and their journey. The speakers included Ayushman Mitra who founded the clothing line Bobo Calcutta, chef Shashvat Dhandhania of To Die For and Meghna Nayak who launched LataSita, a closedloop, zero-waste supply chain, which upcycles old clothes into bespoke pieces, sustainable and stylish.
“Ever since we began holding activities at The Backyard, my goal has been to curate something new and fun for kids to take part in. The workshop helped kids understand about money, allowance - how to make it and earn it. They also learnt how to price it, market it and sell it, and the exhibition will translate that into reality for the kids,” said Sinaya Khan, founder, The Backyard.
“The first business that I started was to make Christmas and New Year cards and sell them,” recalled Ayushman Mitra. Bobo Calcutta has dressed the likes of Ranveer Singh and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Some of the popular queries included: -
Why can’t I just go and ask my parents for more money?
Why is chocolate not a need but a want because I need to have it?
Why do we have to save money?
Can I earn money by doing chores?
Do we have to make something of our own or can we just buy things from elsewhere and sell them here?
I don’t want to make what my partner is suggesting. I want to make something else.
I don’t know what name to give to my brand.
I think my product will sell for Rs 20 but I had to spend Rs 20 to make it. What do I do?
“My passion for the environment began early on and in school I was a part of Nature Club... into tree planting, so I knew that later on whatever I would do, it would be related to it,” said Meghna Nayak of LataSita.
Shashvat Dhandhania of To Die For recalled how he began saving ever since he was studying abroad, to realise his restaurateur dream.
Pictures: Koushik Saha