Opening
Ceremony of Workshop
Empowering
through Cooperative Entrepreneurship
Venue
: UTM, La Tour Koenig Date: Thursday 24
April at 10.00 a.m
Mr
Seechurn, Director of National Institute for Co-operative Entrepreneurship
Dear
participants,
I wish to thank the National
Institute for Co-operative Entrepreneurship for the organization of this workshop aimed at
creating awareness of university students on the concept, importance and
potential of cooperative entrepreneurship
and motivate them to consider the cooperative approach as an alternative
way of becoming entrepreneurs.
I thank the Ministry of
Business, Enterprise and Cooperatives for this initiative in our universities.
Universities and higher education institutions can contribute
positively and significantly to innovative and growth-oriented
entrepreneurship. They can teach entrepreneurship and transfer knowledge and
innovation to enterprises. There is a need to develop entrepreneurship
engagement and expand existing entrepreneurship efforts and
introduce more creative and effective approaches, building on the best
practices highlighted from around the world. entrepreneurship education is that
it has the potential to encourage entrepreneurship, fostering the right
mindset among students as well as providing them with relevant
entrepreneurial skills.
This
will in time have a positive impact on future economic growth, job creation,
innovation and wealth generation. Moreover, entrepreneurial skills and
attitudes also provide benefits to society beyond their application to
business activity.
|
UNESCO reports that in its latest
national policy framework introduced in 2010, the Chinese Ministry of Education required
that creativity and entrepreneurship education should be integrated into
different aspects of institutional reforms within higher education
institutions, including redefinition of the missions of higher education
institutions, reforms of teaching modalities and curriculum systems, capacity
building of teaching staff, promotion of creativity and entrepreneurship
through different kinds of extracurricular activities, establishment of
relevant monitoring mechanism, collection of best practices for information and
experience sharing. Secondly, in order to provide supportive platforms for the students
to engage in entrepreneurial activities, central and local partnerships in the
establishment of entrepreneurship education bases are encouraged, with existing
university science parks and incubation centres playing important roles.
Thirdly, provincial education authorities are required to provide more
favourable policies for university graduates to create their own business plans
and start new ventures.
We want all the
universities to focus not only on the examinations and diplomas but on creating
innovation and building new ideas. In USA, we know that most of the students
following courses at the Harvard Business School end up starting their own
business and become successful entrepreneurs.
We have started Business
incubators with the Mauritius Research Council on a small scale and hope to
expand this project in the future. The Institut Francophone de
l’Entrepreunariat is working on a virtual incubator to promote
entrepreneurship.
I therefore wish to thank
the Ministry of Business, Enterprise and
Cooperatives and the National
Institute for Co-operative Entrepreneurship for sensitizing students on
entrepreneurship through cooperatives. We should develop a common framework to
promote entrepreneurship among our students and work together for the implementation
of the framework.
Thank you.
