Responding to  the feedback received from our network of active citizens and professionals from every walk of life, this year’s innovation challenge was focused on the topic of education. Throughout different public talks and discussions issues revealed in educational sphere materialized and naturally built a base for the annual crowd-sourced competition.

More than 150 applications have been received in respond to European Union funded Innovation Challenge on Education. For the first time the call was looking for solutions in both sectors in parallel: among people working in public agencies and active citizens.

We asked individuals to come up with solutions that would address three main directions: data, educational process and space. For the public sector professionals there were two priorities: optimization of internal business processes and development and (re-)design of more friendly and accessible communication tools with citizens.

The huge bunch of ideas was broke into two main models: business and non-commercial ideas.

 

We joined our forces with BizNest and IAB International business Academy to organize Armenia Start-up Cup National Challenge event, using tailored methodology and toolkit for each type of models. If you are more interested in business models and what type of social enterprises took part in the event, here is more detailed information on that.

On 17 July teams from both the Ministry of Education and groups of citizens participated in the Start-up Cup event developing their ideas based on non-commercial project models.

Invited mentors from various industries like IT, education, marketing, business management, social programs design supported he participants and shared their own experience from a relevant field.

Based on the results of the tea work, 15 out of 35 were given the opportunity to pitch their ideas to the invited professional jury.

The jury panel for non-commercial projects included: Davit Sahakyan, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Armenia, Vigen Shirvanyan, Head of the Educational Reform Team at the Center for Strategic Initiatives and Armen Zakaryan, Director of the Yerevan School of Political, who evaluated social-oriented programs.

Jury panel invited to evaluate business projects included: Yervand Sargsyan, partner at “Granatus Ventures”, Aram Pakhchanyan, Director of AYB’ school and Araksia Martirossian, Founder of IAB International Business Academy.

The following 7 ideas were selected by the jury panel, who got the chance for further implementation support.

1. A unified electronic system for school admissions to facilitate both the collection process of document packages and the actual process of admission to schools.

2. “Active Citizen”, community Problems Research Project, aimed at addressing community issues, involving pupils and trainers.

3. Platform for engaging teachers in the design and development of education resources (textbooks), also giving the opportunity of selection the most relevant textbook based on the feedback from pupils and teachers.

4. “My skills are my future”, professional orientation and career counselling services available through an online platform and mobile application which will act as “online mentor and guide” for young people.

5. Art hub: series of Armenian-language interactive learning games promoting art education (6+). “Art hub” interactive games are designed to be educational aid kits for schools and parents to educate their children through gamified process.

6. Online database will contain information about all registered students in the RA, including their contact information, sex, age, educational institution, specialty, course and other inquiries on different topics. This data will enable to carry out sociological researches by specific criteria. The registration to the database will be voluntary accompanied encouragements such as discounts, drawings.

7.“Contact students “platform will unite employers and students, filling in the gap between education and labour market. The students will see their potential employers with the ability to connect with them. Along with the learning process they will be visible for the labor market in the meantime extending their social network. The employer will be able to find human resources they need.

8. “Chess School”, online platform where users can choose a coach who will prepare and save the chess class in advance. Pupils will learn chess online: the platform will enable one trainer to work with multiple pupils.

You can follow the updates on the innovation challenge in our News section, as well as join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Apart from the topic of education, we are open for any innovative ideas addressing any social issue in Armenia. So if you have solution to a problem you or your community have encountered, will be waiting for your suggestions and submissions at Random Submissions.