Contact Us
For more information about the Global Education Entrepreneurship and Innovation Certificate Program, please contact ProfessionalLearning@gse.upenn.edu
Gain advanced entrepreneurial skills to disrupt education with the Global Education Entrepreneurship and Innovation certificate program.
What Sets Us Apart
Featuring expertise, research, and practice from Penn GSE, Wharton, Weitzman Design, and Engineering
#1 Penn GSE is ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report
The world’s first virtual-format learning experience in Education Entrepreneurship, available worldwide
About the Program
This unique certificate program provides industry leaders with the knowledge and skills needed to seed, accelerate, and scale entrepreneurial practice in education. Drawing from Penn GSE’s acclaimed curriculum developed for the world's first advanced degree program in Education Entrepreneurship, this interactive virtual certificate program blends global expertise, research, and practice from the University of Pennsylvania's top-ranked schools of education, business, design, and engineering. It is ideal for any professional looking to address critical issues in a dynamic education landscape.
Format(s)
Virtual - Synchronous and asynchronous learning modules
For further information about a custom program, please reach out to our Global Certificate Faculty Director, Jenny Zapf, at jzapf@upenn.edu
Certificate offeredPenn GSE Certificate in Global Education Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Audience
- Education industry leaders
- School leadership teams
- Entrepreneurs in education
- Researchers and investors
- Anyone interested in addressing critical issues in education through innovation
This program can be offered as a custom certificate to meet the needs of your organization.
Overview
The Global Education Entrepreneurship and Innovation certificate program is an accelerated professional development program designed to provide learners with critical tools for developing and scaling entrepreneurial practice during rapid change and unprecedented global opportunity.
The live virtual sessions, paired with online asynchronous modules, bring together a community of like-minded leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and practitioners to work on building cultures of innovation to test, fund, and scale impact.
The program is designed for individuals and teams to help them address real-world problems in navigating the education investment landscape and finding a product-market fit. Participants also learn how to create innovation assessments, outcome pathway models, stakeholder diagrams, market maps, entrepreneurial pitches, and journey stories.
What Will You Gain?
- A deep understanding of the education and technology innovation landscape
- Skills to foster a team culture of innovation
- Knowledge to use learning engineering to build and test new models
- Create conditions to accelerate a product, program, or service
- Connect research to practice to drive creativity and innovation
The certificate is designed for education industry leaders, school leadership teams, educational entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, or anyone interested in creating lasting change in formal or informal education through innovation.
Module: Mapping the Global Innovation Landscape in Education
In this module, participants use data to understand the learning and talent innovation landscape and how it impacts the future of education. We will explore education market datasets through a sophisticated intelligence platform. The data includes information from analysts and experts in six continents, with over 200 research notes and long-term forecasts. Participants use an open-source taxonomy from HolonIQ to learn and understand the volume and complexity of innovation happening in education globally.
Activities and Tools:
- Global innovation maps
- Education future trends reports
- Open-source taxonomy database
Module: Inspiring an Organizational Culture of Innovation
In this module, learners will consider how to foster a team culture of innovation as well as assess existing conditions that accelerate (or slow down) the program, service, and/or product innovation. Innovation is impactful and sustainable when it is grounded in the right mindsets, cultures, accountability structures, and resource allocations. We will define ways to create pockets of collective entrepreneurial possibility within incumbent systems and institutions, and learn how to use existing resources (budgets, HR systems, procurement channels, technology) for more than sustaining or tweaking the status quo. We will glean and apply insights derived from various definitions of innovation, use diagnostics, and build entrepreneurial resilience by reflecting on and around the existing conditions that either promote or stifle innovation.
Activities and Tools:
- Organizational assessments
- Innovation evaluation frameworks
Module: Activating Entrepreneurial Leadership and Mindsets
In this module, learners will be able to reflect, assess and understand their entrepreneurial mindset. What are the connections between entrepreneurship and leadership, specifically in education? How does one’s mindset(s) inform this process? Learners will explore their role as entrepreneurial leaders, gain clarity about their own mindsets as well as their organizations’ and engage in simulations and activities that get at the heart of leading entrepreneurially.
Activities and Tools:
- Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile (EMP)
- Leadership case studies
- Leadership simulations
Module: Creating an Innovative Program, Product, Service, or Company
In this module, learners will build a program presentation or business plan for an innovative solution. How do you take your vision and mission and build a plan that will scale and have impact? We will help you create your mission, competitive landscape, impact model, entrepreneurial financial model, evaluation plan, and pitch. Learners will build their plan with the tools and simulations necessary to understand the startup experience.
Activities and Tools:
- Business plan templates
- Persona profiles
- Competition matrix
- Concept maps
Module: Learning Science Tools and Methods
In this module, learners will be able to drive program, service, or product innovation by using learning science tools and methods. There is a growing understanding of how we learn and how this impacts students and the teaching profession. We will explore the current research from the neuroscience and learning science fields and will provide the tools to apply the research to practice. We will discuss research to practice methodologies and guide learners as they create their plans for bringing research to practice.
Activities and Tools:
- Driver diagrams
- Action research methodologies
- Lean & agile frameworks
Module: Unleashing the Power of Journey Stories
In this module, learners will be able to create a compelling narrative that captures the urgency for innovation in education. In education, much power is gained (and redistributed) through storytelling. That is, we can learn from, connect with, and improve particular conditions when we hear others’ personal journey stories as well as share our own. As we engage in the design and creation of new products, systems, and innovations in education, the role of the personal narrative becomes even more important. Learners will hear from industry experts about their journey stories and critically engage in a thinking process to craft their own. As part of this module, learners will create their own story and develop a pitch to a selected audience.
Activities and Tools:
- Pitch deck templates
- Story pitches
Designing Pathways for Innovation
Let’s move forward together designing pathways for innovation, creating new models of education, building a network of global leaders, cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset, navigating the education investment landscape, and making education work for everyone.
Our Faculty
Penn GSE’s Center for Professional Learning offers Virtual Institutes, Certificate Programs, and a variety of webinars and workshops for teachers, school leaders, and community organizations.
Research