Students can attend workshops, enter a business plan competition, receive guidance from entrepreneurs and access dozens of work integrated learning opportunities
Bridget Stringer-Holden (she/her) // News Editor
CapU students now have access to five free workshops about entrepreneurial thinking, dozens of work integrated learning (WIL) job opportunities, and guidance from entrepreneurs in residence—all through a new project called Entrepreneurship at CapU.
“There’s so much pressure on students to know what they should be doing, what their career should be, what they’re going to be doing after they graduate, and this kind of eliminates that pressure.” said Natasha Mrkic-Subotic. She is an instructor involved in the project through the workshops and reaching out to employers for the work opportunities.
Funding from the Business Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) was acquired last year, by Vice Chair, Academics and School of Business Instructor, Christine Sjolander, who has been working in WIL career development for many years.
There are also three students working on the projects, Vikas Harshadbhai Kabariya as project administration, Gaurav Khanna working on IT and Danial Alimadad on marketing and graphics.
One of the challenges of this project has been the lack of advertising budget. Mrkic-Subotic has been connecting with employers, but is finding it difficult to get the word out to students. However, job opportunities are constantly being added to the website, and she encourages students to check often, and apply as soon as they see an opportunity that interests them.
Mrkic-Subotic also stressed that these opportunities are not just for business students. “Usually when we say entrepreneurship, everybody thinks about business students first, but if you think about all the problems in this world that we need to solve, it’s a combination of different ideas, skills, people and disciplines,” she said, mentioning how all the workshops and WIL opportunities will expose students to different disciplines, allowing them to create solutions together. “I think when you combine different ways of thinking and different ways of knowing, that’s when your solutions and great ideas come about.”
Entrepreneurial Thinking Workshops
In total, five entrepreneurial thinking workshops will be held—each as a two-day intensive bootcamp.
Three instructors will be delivering the workshops: David Jones (Cyri) delivered the first two workshops, Jane Raycroft the third, and Mrkic-Subotic the fourth and fifth. Topics involve entrepreneurship, storytelling, accounting and legal considerations, marketing, sales and developing a business canvas.
Jacqueline Clarke is also working to prepare online versions of the workshops so that the material is accessible to all students.
The BHER grant is only available until the end of August, but so far, feedback on the workshops has been positive, and Mrkic-Subotic hopes that if students find value in the project, it can continue. “Students that are taking advantage of it are really appreciative and learning quite a bit,” she said.
Entrepreneurs in Residence
Five entrepreneurs are available to students who want to bounce ideas off of someone or who are looking for business advice. There is expertise in subject areas such as banking, consumer packaged goods, consulting, start-ups, product launches, strategic planning and corporate intelligence.
Meetings with them can be booked online.
Entrepreneurial Thinking Work Integrated Learning Opportunities
These opportunities include work experience that range from small projects to larger opportunities that can fulfill co-op and internship requirements. There are currently 44 opportunities, which can be found on the website.
All work between 40 and 420 hours—a full term—will be paid. However, smaller projects from 10 to 40 hours do not come with compensation.
“We always prefer students to be paid for any work that they do, because of the rising cost of everything, and because students pay for way too much as is,” said Mrkic-Subotic. However, she explained that the reasoning behind the smaller unpaid projects is to give first-year students without much experience a chance, or upper-level students who want to build a new skill or the chance to try out something new without a large commitment.
“You get to see what it’s like working in marketing, or you get to see what it’s like planning an event, or in accounting,” she said, mentioning that it gives students an opportunity to try jobs like cold-calling to figure out what you actually enjoy before committing to something longer term.
For more information about the workshops, entrepreneurs in residence and work integrated learning opportunities, visit https://www.entrepreneurshipcapu.com. The deadline for the business plan competition has passed.