ARCH College Expands its Global Role in Design Education and Impact-Focused Entrepreneurship

NewsVoir
Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], September 18: ARCH College of Design & Business, Jaipur, is strengthening India’s contribution to international education and impact-focused entrepreneurship through its role as the Indian partner in Co-LIFE – Co-Designing Learning for Impact-Focused Entrepreneurship, a three-year Erasmus+ programme funded by the European Union.
As part of the international initiative, ARCH is bringing its expertise in design education, design-led innovation, creative entrepreneurship and sustainability to a collaborative European education ecosystem. The programme brings together partners from four countries — Belgium, Finland, Denmark and India — involving eight higher education institutions, creating opportunities for cross-border knowledge exchange and collaboration around new approaches to entrepreneurship education.
A key responsibility for ARCH within Co-LIFE is its leadership of Work Package 4, which focuses on developing a collaborative network involving businesses, non-academic organisations and other stakeholders. Through this role, ARCH is contributing to stronger connections between education, industry, entrepreneurship and the wider creative ecosystem, with a focus on developing learning approaches that can create meaningful impact.
As part of its Co-LIFE engagement, ARCH recently hosted an Entrepreneurship & Industry Interaction Workshop for Teachers, bringing together 45+ teachers and academics from 25 schools. The workshop focused on Impact-Focused Entrepreneurship (IFE), Design Thinking and the role of industry-linked learning in school education, exploring ways to make learning more creative, practical and connected to the real world.
The workshop brought the concept of Impact-Focused Entrepreneurship to life through real-world case studies. ARCH facilitated case studies of Jaipur Rugs, Kalpana Handmade Paper, Neeraja Blue Pottery and Jaipur Bloc, enabling participants to understand how design, innovation, sustainability, traditional knowledge and entrepreneurship can come together to create meaningful impact. The case studies also demonstrated how real business experiences can be translated into practical learning frameworks for students.
The workshop was led by Dr. Shipra Vaidya, Co-head, Faculty of Commerce, NCERT, who travelled from Delhi to Jaipur to conduct the session. The workshop encouraged educators to explore multidisciplinary approaches to entrepreneurship education and consider how Design Thinking can help students identify problems, ask meaningful questions, explore possibilities and develop innovative solutions.
Ms. Archana Surana, Founder, ARCH College of Design & Business, highlighted ARCH’s continuing Design Culture Initiative, which focuses on bringing Design Thinking and design sensibilities into school education. She encouraged educators to explore diverse design domains, including Service Design, Sustainable Design, Emotional Design and Systems Design, while introducing young learners to design-led problem-solving.
The programme also brought together entrepreneurs and education practitioners, including Nishant Patni, Founder, Hello English–CultureAlley; Divya Arora, Co-Founder, Kesar Sweets, Jaipur; Shekhar Gattani, Founder, Imlee Jaipur; and Sandeep Sethi, creator of the Jaipur Educational Festival. Their experiences provided educators with practical perspectives on entrepreneurship, employability, innovation, adaptability and problem-solving.
The workshop further explored the transformative potential of NEP 2020, particularly its emphasis on multidisciplinary and flexible learning. Educators were encouraged to connect industries with NCERT subjects, develop emerging business ideas, products or job roles, and identify ways in which such real-world connections could be integrated into classroom learning.
ARCH’s involvement in Co-LIFE reinforces its larger vision of making design education more relevant, interdisciplinary and impact-oriented. By bringing together design thinking, entrepreneurship and sustainability, ARCH aims to encourage learners and educators to move beyond conventional classroom approaches and engage with real-world challenges.
Through its leadership of Work Package 4, ARCH is contributing to the development of stronger networks between higher education institutions, businesses, non-academic organisations and other stakeholders. This international collaboration reflects ARCH’s broader purpose of connecting design, education, entrepreneurship, industry and sustainability to prepare learners for a rapidly evolving world.
As part of the ongoing Co-LIFE international engagement, Ms. Archana Surana, Founder, ARCH College of Design & Business, will travel to Finland as both a speaker and panellist, representing ARCH in the programme’s international academic engagements. On 21 September 2026, she will be at Laurea University of Applied Sciences as a speaker, presenting ARCH’s perspective and work around design-led education, impact-focused entrepreneurship and creative innovation. On 22 September 2026, she will participate in engagements at Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Vantaa, and LAB University of Applied Sciences, Lahti, including a panel discussion. Her participation will further strengthen ARCH’s contribution to the Co-LIFE programme and facilitate knowledge exchange between Indian and European higher education institutions.
Through its participation in Erasmus+ Co-LIFE, ARCH College of Design & Business continues to strengthen its international engagement while contributing an Indian perspective to the evolving global conversation around design-led education, impact-focused entrepreneurship, creative innovation and sustainability.
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