Entrepreneurship Village to launch Success Weekends

Source from: Borneo Bulletin

ENTREPRENEURSHIP Village, established under the National Entrepreneurship Agenda (NEA) of the Ministry of Education and located on the campus of the Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), is pleased to announce the launch of Success Weekends – short workshops that help young people to be more entrepreneurial in their lives.

Success Weekends are fun and engaging workshops that use a variety of games and other learning activities. These introduce the entrepreneurial mindset and some of the skills that it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

Each session is held for 20 to 40 students. The first two sessions are being held for Years 9 to 12 students and will be on April 26 and May 3, from 2pm to 5pm at Entrepreneurship Village in UBD. Future ongoing sessions are being planned, and will also be for students in other years.

In addition to helping students, Success Weekends involves teachers in each session in order to transfer knowledge about the entrepreneurial mindset to progressive teachers who wish to be more entrepreneurial with their teaching, and who desire to promote creativity, problem-solving and more effective communications in their schools and classrooms.

By involving teachers, this enables the programme to share entrepreneurship beyond Entrepreneurship Village and UBD. Certified teachers will also be able to teach Success Weekends in schools and other settings throughout the country in an effort to impact the lives of as many young people as possible.

Success Weekends were developed by Steven Gold, a professor of Entrepreneurship Practice at Babson College in the United States. They are based on his work with more than a thousand entrepreneurs, and his observations about what makes many of them more successful than others.

In addition, with his emphasis on experiential learning, Professor Steve has designed Success Weekends to be completely hands-on, meaning that students learn by doing rather than by listening to lectures.

Using games and other fun activities, young people learn key entrepreneurship skills such as strategic thinking, improved teamwork, and effective communication. It is hoped that Success Weekends will promote a more entrepreneurial mindset among young people in Brunei Darussalam, as well as a new generation of successful entrepreneurs.

Success Weekends and Entrepreneurship Village are two programmes that are a part of the NEA. The NEA is developing and conducting programmes for the public, K-12 students (core education) as well as for students of institutes of higher learning. Current initiatives include the first five-week Community Incubation Programme (with 12 full-time participants in the first session, and future sessions being planned), Success Weekends (with more than 30 students from seven schools enrolled for the first session, and other sessions being planned to be held in Entrepreneurship Village and also in schools around the country), and entrepreneurship workshops on a range of topics for students at higher learning institutions.

For further information about Success Weekends, Entrepreneurship Village or the National Entrepreneurship Agenda, or to request that your school or students be invited to participate in future Success Weekends (or to observe or participate in a session as a teacher), contact Fidah Mahmod at 7250206 or Zoe Taha at 8168931, Public Relations Officers for Entrepreneurship Village, or email entrepreneurship.village@gmail.com.