It’s not what one knows, it’s what one does with it what makes a difference and here is when creativity comes into play. This is what bridges the rift between the educational institutes and the industry. Realising the growing importance of creativity a symposium was organised by Rishihood University on 6th April 2019, “Creativity – The Skill of the Future”.

The objective of the symposium was to have a discussion on the importance of creativity as a skill, what hampers it, how to nurture it and what the industry expects from the graduates be it in any field. Active participation was observed from the industry and academia making it an enlightening, fun and interactive session.

In the age of artificial intelligence where maximum work will be taken over by the IT and Robotics Industry, creativity is the only thing that will add individuality and personal touch to every product. Every panelist on board agreed and supported this fact and emphasized on how creativity should be nurtured.

Starting with Mr Sahil Agarwal, CEO and Co-founder of the University, emphasized on nurturing the creativity in education from an elementary age.

Founder Vice Chancellor of Rishihood University, Prof Kamlesh Mishra shared his concern on the current education system that doesn’t allow imagining, thinking, dreaming and exploring. He also talked about the need for education reform through creativity and insisted to question the conventional wisdom so that we all understand the need of the changing times.

Renowned Career Coach Ms Pervin Malhotra stated that “Creativity is the single most important tool of survival for the future generation” to which everyone from the industry also gave their consent saying that they look for more of creative people on board than just educated.

The chief enemy of creativity is the fear of being different and not following the conventional stereotypes of society. This is the key reason behind young children being more creative than adults who probably are regarded to possess more knowledge because of the fact that children are fearless. The panel believed that the day adults will keep the courage to be different that day they will come up with the most creative ideas as creativity is nothing but intelligence having fun.

Panellist of the symposium and a senior educationist Prof M M Pant added: “Every field of human endeavours has to do with creativity and what gets acknowledged gets done and what gets punished gets abandoned”.

In one of the panel discussions the main concern of the panelists shifted to the acknowledgment and nurturing part of it which mainly comes in the elementary schooling and aptly concluded by Prof Lalit Kumar Das from NID that the teachers need to be courageous enough to encourage and appreciate creativity by giving them time and space, tolerate ambiguities and not to just force young minds to colour inside the lines. It was a widely held opinion that rules and regulations kill creativity. Our school systems typically denigrate imagination, daydreaming and imperfection—all attributes that great minds say were key to their most revolutionary ideas. Educational systems all too often teach us not to think differently, but how to follow instructions and obey the status quo.  The system needs to understand that if everything goes according to the plan then there is no room for creativity. The fact that the system is built to fail you if you do not fit hampers the nurturing of creativity and which needs to be addressed and reformed.  

The Symposium had great panellists on the topic with valuable inputs.  Stalwarts like Peter Dascoli (Textile Designer); Catherine Trotman (FabIndia); Sunita Kohli (K12 Design); Aditya Dev Sood (Center for Knowledge Societies); Christine Rai (India Inc.); Manika Walia (Ansal University); Kristine Michael (British School); Rajat Sharma (Chaos); Mike Knowles (Professor Emeritus, Rishihood University) also graced the occasion and used the platform to create awareness on the importance of future skill that is creativity.

The panel firmly believed that creativity is no longer just seen as what artists and musicians possess. It’s a crucial skill for professionals in all fields. Organizations today operate in a highly competitive, global environment, making creativity crucial. Creativity is what fuels big ideas, challenges employees’ way of thinking, and opens the door to new business opportunities making Creativity really “The Skill of the Future”.