The first Faculty Development Programme (FDP) under an MoU between Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Ahmedabad, and Savitribai Phule Pune University’s – Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Enterprise (SPPU-CIIE), was launched today. The five-day programme is focused on ‘Building start-ups and innovation centres,’ and aims at strengthening the fundamentals about creating an enterprise and fostering innovation among the teaching community.
In August, both the entities had joined hands to ensure that youngsters get trained and oriented towards an entrepreneurial career. As a part of this collaboration, Faculty Development Programmes will be conducted on a regular basis to deeproot entrepreneurship and to ensure that there is a trained cadre of mentors and resource persons who can design and implement entrepreneurship related interventions. This is the first programme in the series.
Fostering entrepreneurship
Addressing during the online inauguration of the event, Dr Milind Kamble, Founder Chairman-Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) and esteemed Board Member of EDII, said, “Creating a new enterprise in itself is quite overwhelming. And in the given situation, there are many apprehensions in an entrepreneurs’ mind. Hence, it is important to create a mechanism where in potential and existing businesses can be guided through.”
Focus on mentoring
With an aim to create a strong cadre of faculty who can mentor/train students on entrepreneurship, the programme will especially focus on driving in learning about the creative process of entrepreneurs and innovators, establishing and managing an enterprise, running start-up engine in college, ideation, and so on.
Dr Nitin R Karmalkar, Vice-Chancellor, SPPU, said, “With several government efforts and reforms in place, we can see how India is consistently progressing pace in the domains of start-ups and innovation, but alongside these initiatives, there is an unprecedented need for educating, skilling and orienting to take up leadership roles as owners of their business.”
Dr Sunil Shukla, Director General, EDII, said, “In the present scenario, it is really important to strengthen the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Studies show that entrepreneurs who have been mentored or trained by professionals tend to have a higher success rate. A measured and timely guidance to enterprises at the early stage has proven benefits in the long run. Hence, we need to create an eco-system where enterprise creation is knowledge driven and methodical.”
The five-day Faculty Development Programme for faculty members of the institutions will impart the teaching community an understanding on the critical aspects related to organising Entrepreneurship Development programmes and mentoring students to adopt entrepreneurship as a career.