ENTREPRENEURSHIP, the translation of ideas into products and actions, has become central to the discourse of higher education, said Dr. Patricia B. Licuanan, Chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
“University Entrepreneurship is about higher education institutions [HEIs] providing space for discovery, innovation and collaboration, especially for the search for solutions that can benefit the poor, marginalized and underserved sectors of society,” she said.
Dr. Licuanan was the keynote speaker at the opening of the sixth Asia Pacific Program of Educational Innovation for Development (Apeid), a program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) on Entrepreneurship Education at the Marco Polo Hotel in Ortigas on October 23. It was the first of a three-day meeting scheduled on October 23 and 24 at Marco Polo Hotel in Ortigas, and October 25 at Miriam College’s Henry Sy Sr. Innovation Center.
Elaborating on the role of higher education in building a culture of entrepreneurship, Dr. Licuanan cited Danny Largo and his team at the BioProcess Engineering Research Center (BioPERC) of the University of San Carlos in Cebu, as a model of University Entrepreneurship. With funding from the Commission on Higher Education, BioPERC developed a novel way to recover the beneficial elements of mango waste and to convert it into high-value products.
She said that, beyond the formal curriculum, schools offering entrepreneurship must not only create a learning environment that demands excellence but also “encourages taking risks and makes space for failure—especially failing early, for the cause of learning.”
As participants were set to create a curriculum model for entrepreneurship education in HEI in the next three days, she challenged them to take the opportunity to define the role of universities to support innovation within industries and entrepreneurship among the youth.
“Can this be an opportunity for us to leverage our global diaspora, across industries and fields around the world, to contribute ‘social remittances’ by sharing their experiences, ideas, network and time, with our potential entrepreneurs?” she added.
The sixth Unesco-Apeid Meeting on Entrepreneurship Education brought together 120 participants from 20 countries in South and East Asia and the Asean who will draw a common framework for an Entrepreneurship Program and its Curriculum for the Asia Pacific member-countries in the region.
The participants were composed of government representatives, educators, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship advocates and policy-makers who worked around the theme “Designing a Relevant and Innovative Entrepreneurship Education: Towards Mutual Recognition of Qualification in Asean, East and South Asia.”
The Apeid is a program of the Unesco Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok, Thailand. It was established as an intercountry cooperation program serving 47 member-states in the Asia-Pacific region.
At the end of the meeting, participants presented their resolutions and action plans, and aligned them with national and global goals of the regions to achieve competitiveness and future sustainability.
The Philippines is the 2017 host country represented by Miriam College—Unesco Net Philippine Chapter with the support of Unesco Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok, Thailand and CHED.
“If we’re able to create an ecosystem where [students] can learn, they can try, they might fail but, because of the ecosystem, they won’t fail as much, and they can get back up again and try again,” said Senator Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV, who was speaking before 120 participants from 20 countries in Asean, South and East Asia who are in the country create a model curriculum on entrepreneurship education for these regions. Citing the Youth Entrepreneurship Act or Republic Act 10679, he added that, while one part of it is about the entrepreneurial curriculum, another is also about putting together an ecosystem where young students, who, even without a loan from any company or a collateral, can have an opportunity to try and start out a business. The act integrates entrepreneurial training starting in the basic education to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset among the youth.
He said there is a need to be able to get financial literacy in the hearts and minds of the next generation of Filipinos as the country ranked 68th in the world in terms of financial literacy, way behind its neighbors Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore.
“Hopefully, that ecosystem, the support centers, the Negosyo Centers, different agencies and institutions, both private and public, can support our students and our countrymen who want to get into entrepreneurship. We want [students] to come across an ecosystem that can help them move their theory into practice,” he added.
The senator’s message echoed some of the key takeaways of the meeting, which set the foundation for creating a new model curriculum for the regions. Among these are strengthening the entrepreneurship education ecosystem, collaboration, mainstreaming women and social entrepreneurship education as a strategic approach to development and making space for failure for the cause of learning.
In designing the new curriculum content on entrepreneurship education, the participating countries have also placed strong emphasis on including poverty and other social issues, reiteration of values, leadership, good governance and mindfulness, among others.
At the end of the meeting, participants are expected to present their resolutions and action plans, and align them with national and global goals of the regions to achieve competitiveness and future sustainability.
The Philippines is the 2017 host country represented by Miriam College-Unesco Net Philippine Chapter with the support of Unesco Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok, Thailand, and CHED.