Learning to See a World of Opportunities

As an emotional and motivational amplifier, imagery could be an effective pedagogical tool for boosting student motivation, learning how to learn and thinking about the future. Yet its educational value remains underexplored. To address this gap, we have developed a novel curriculum that combines entrepreneurial soft skills with imagery techniques. The ten-session curriculum will be implemented and evaluated with 2000 entrepreneurs through a randomised controlled trial in partnership with the local government in the capital city of Colombia, Bogotá. Our target population are current and aspiring entrepreneurs who have faced traumatic or challenging life circumstances, including victims of conflict, forced displacement and sexual violence, among others. Past traumatic experiences undermine the ability to simulate the future and the perspective of others, so we expect these marginalised populations to benefit most from the use of imagery. Our intervention has not only clear scale-up potential within Colombia with its 8 million registered victims, but also worldwide with over $9 billion spent on skills training in recent years.