Impetus on greater access to higher education
Focused on facilitating better accessibility of higher education, the Jindal Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship (JSiE), a leading social impact centre at O.P. Jindal Global University on Thursday announced its online course on “Impact Investing”. The online course is being rolled out in collaboration with Asha Impact, one of India’s leading impact funds and development think tanks, to help learners worldwide gain an understanding of the range of investing and funding approaches used by impact investors. The online course has been launched on FutureLearn, Europe’s leading online social learning platform. FutureLearn partners with over a quarter of the world’s top universities and leaders in business and industry and has recently welcomed its nine millionth learners to its platform.
The 4-week online course includes video interviews with leading investors in the field like the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Acumen Fund, Omidyar Network, Grameen Capital, Aavishkaar and more. While the course was co-created by JSiE & Asha Impact, the course benefits from content contributed by global partners like the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, the Global Impact Investing Network and the Bridgespan Group. The course is recognized by the Impact Investors Council and has so far seen registration from over 2500 students from 137 countries.
The power of impact investing lies in its ability to deliver both a positive social or environmental impact and a financial return. The objective of this online course is to offer virtual education to financial and social sector professionals or anyone interested to learn about the potential of impact investing without the restraints of a physical institution. The course will be conducted by Jeremy Wade, Founding Director of JSiE and Kartik Desai, Executive Director of Asha Impact.
“Investors and entrepreneurs are using creative ways to deploy financial capital to tackle big social and environmental challenges, while achieving both financial and social returns. This online course aims to spread this important knowledge as widely as possible with the goal of achieving transformative social change at scale. At JSiE, we work to equip leaders with the tools to create positive social impact and are excited to partner on this course with Asha Impact, a pioneer in the impact investing industry in India and with FutureLearn, a pioneer in providing high-quality digital education at a global scale” said Jeremy Wade, Founding Director of the Jindal Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship at O.P. Jindal Global University.
Founding Vice Chancellor, JGU, Prof. (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar said, “JGU fosters and encourages a strong foundation for training programmes for social enterprises and social entrepreneurs. Universities have the social responsibility to make education more accessible. At JGU, we are proud to partner with FutureLearn to provide this high-quality online course on impact investing to people all over the world.”
“What makes impact investing compelling is its potential to scale market-based solutions to social problems in partnership with government and industry. This course is a basic ‘How To’ guide meant to help articulate the ambiguities that often exist in the sector from how you define impact to different investing approaches of leading impact investors including foundations, family offices and venture capital funds. Asha Impact is proud to be associated with this initiative and hopes it is useful for both practitioners and people new to the field who are keen to learn about impact investment.” said Kartik Desai, Executive Director of Asha Impact.
“Positive social impact and strong financial returns don’t always go hand-in-hand so it’s important to celebrate examples of their harmony where they do coexist. The Impact Investing course reminds us that profit and purpose needn’t be mutually exclusive and gives learners a deep understanding of the subject by analysing the range of investing and funding approaches used by impact investors. It is heartening that Impact Investing has already seen so many learners enrol and from so many countries. Not only does this speak to the strength of the course, but to learners’ broader desire to make money in a way that is socially responsible. The world needs impact investing and I’m glad we can be a resource to help learners discover more about this important and thriving industry”, said Nigel Smith, MD of Courses and Learning at FutureLearn.
The course covers topics such as financial instruments used to fund social enterprises, impact measurement components, current challenges in impact investing, how to unlock opportunities to invest in social and environmental impact, relevant skills needed to get a job in the impact investment industry, market trends and the key players of the impact investing ecosystem.
JSiE has previously partnered with FutureLearn on a series of online courses on social enterprise, created in association with Middlesex University Business School and Living in Minca, a UK social enterprise.
The online course is open and available at: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/impact-investing
