Workshop for Change

They drafted their personal manifesto on board an emotional roller coaster.

Seven years ago, Christian Schulte and Ralph Naumann were fed up with the rigid curriculum of traditional German institutions, disillusioned by prospects of a traditional corporate job, inspired by a student organization of free thinkers, and empowered by the enterprise of each other. The mental ride was long, frenzied, even volatile, but in the end it led them to a powerful endeavor: To pioneer a German entrepreneurial school and implement a groundbreaking educational philosophy in their native land.

The harbinger and herald of Schulte and Naumann's progressive mindset, The Pioneer Workshop -- a non-profit educational organization for entrepreneurs -- is scheduled to open its doors this October with an inaugural class of 30 students. Aged 20 to 32, the workshop's recruits will embark on a three-year entrepreneurial program in a most nontraditional classroom -- rented space in a converted Berlin brewery. Those students, though not yet enrolled, will likely share Schulte and Naumann's passion for the unconventional, unpaved career path.

"We want young pioneers -- people who dream of starting their own companies," Schulte says. "Most likely, they haven't developed the skills or confidence to act on that dream just yet. They may lack the great idea for a startup but they still want to be leaders, entrepreneurs, and doers who make a meaningful impact on society."

Pioneer Workshop does not intend to compete with or replace German universities but complement them. The need for a practical approach to education, based on a team-oriented, in-the-trenches, entrepreneurial curriculum was apparent to Schulte and Naumann even as young students in the German school system. By the time they reached business management classes at the university level, the necessity for such a program became painfully clear.

"Professors never encouraged us to think for ourselves," says Schulte, 29. "We just repeated what they had thought for us, failing to challenge ideas and produce our own creative solutions to problems. We didn't even consider real-world problems. We just learned about business theories in lectures and seminars, then regurgitated those abstract ideas on the exam." Naumann, 28, calls that curriculum "storehouse knowledge," a mental file of opinions amassed from professors' lectures. In stark contrast, he looks for academic models and inspiration in other areas of study, namely the sciences, where students are encouraged to discuss ideas with their professors because the classes are small and conducive to open dialogue.

Two years ago, at the culmination of their university studies, Schulte and Naumann kicked into high gear years of casual brainstorming. They began to hone a seemingly pie-in-the-sky idea into a plausible innovation, a compelling strategic plan. The source of their inspiration was AIESEC, the world's largest student organization and real-world training ground for future leaders, change agents, and entrepreneurs who learn by spending honest time in the community, translating personal ideas into practice, and realizing once unrealized dreams.

An international model of working change agents, AIESEC has motivated Schulte and Naumman to recruit a global student body that can feed off its own diversity and enthusiasm. AIESEC also encouraged Schulte and Naumann to build and promote a three-year academic program designed to infuse its students with entrepreneurial skills and acumen, a resourceful business network, and a lifelong commitment to accepting personal responsibility for their lives and humanity. That proposal alone is a progressive -- and curiously provocative -- divergence from traditional German academia.

"The current education system teaches students to succeed by organizing life in terms of what they should do to get ahead, rather than what they want to do," Schulte says. "But they fail to learn a vital lesson: Learning how to explore, identify, then seek out what's deeply important to them."

For all of those reasons, Pioneer Workshop's learning won't be confined to the classroom. An important part of the off-site curriculum will consist of "traineeships" or internships at companies in various countries. And professors won't be professors in the conventional sense. They will represent a cross-section of community leaders, business experts, philosophers, free agents, policy makers, and social activists who will compose a network of resources and expert instruction based on the specific skills and interests of students. This unique -- and distinctly un-German -- learning concept will allow students to study what they want, providing a strikingly tailored education that requires their input and sense of initiative. Adjunct professors, or "learning coaches," will join in to guide ad-hoc discussion groups, give lectures, oversee projects, and serve as mentors. Theoretically, students interested in Web branding for a marketing project will call upon the expertise of a professional online advertiser who has volunteered to teach a weeklong seminar on the subject. And while the program can't grant a formal degree at the end of three years, it can provide a resourceful business network for launching startups, forging partnerships, landing great jobs, even promoting social responsibility.