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Enterprisers program first in Australia
The University of the Sunshine Coast will soon host Australia’s first Enterprisers program – a four-day residential school for 72 university students aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship.
This visionary program, developed by the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be held on campus at USC from 30 January to 2 February 2007.
It will involve students from across Queensland, from Southern Cross University (NSW), Swinburne University (Victoria), Otago, Auckland and Canterbury universities in New Zealand, 11 students from the United Kingdom and graduates from Microsoft Corporation, Australia.
The Enterprisers program has been run 12 times since 2002 involving more than 700 students worldwide, but this will be the first time the program has been held outside the United Kingdom or the United States.
Program manager Andrew Mitchell, of USC’s Innovation Centre, said Enterprisers would help students develop skills in identifying and seizing opportunities, building social networks for their projects, building teams, being creative and making things happen.
“The course is very different from the type of learning they’ll get in a classroom,’’ he said. “It’s all experiential learning . . . all hands-on. There’ll be minimal PowerPoint presentations or chalk and talk.
“It won’t be a business planning course providing specific advice on starting a venture. Rather it will be a fun, dynamic and demanding week that develops personal potential.”
Mr Mitchell said the emphasis would be on personal development and the application of entrepreneurial skills in a wide context from venture creation to community projects and careers in large public or private sector organisations.
“It’s not just for business students. We wanted students from arts and science areas as well. It’s more like a personal development program rather than a business creation program,” Mr Mitchell said.
“Enterprisers on the Sunshine Coast will take students through a four-day program to educate them on entrepreneurship and to help turn their ideas into successful business ventures.”
The program has been one third funded by the Queensland Department of State Development and Trade.
Details about the Enterprisers program are available at the Enterprisers website: http://www.enterprisers.com.au/