{"id":8161,"date":"2022-03-15T15:01:29","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T07:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.ift.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/?p=8161"},"modified":"2022-03-15T15:05:58","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T07:05:58","slug":"turning-entrepreneurship-teaching-on-its-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/turning-entrepreneurship-teaching-on-its-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning entrepreneurship teaching on its head"},"content":{"rendered":"\u4e2d\u6587\u7248\u672c \/ Chinese version<\/span>\n

Sometimes, the best way to address a problem is to look at it in a new way: it allows a broad range of fresh ideas to emerge, that might help to solve it. With this in mind, IFTM scholar Mr. Geraldo Tou invites undergraduates enrolled on the Entrepreneurship course to step away from well-trodden paths.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder traditional education models, students taking this subject are required to develop an idea, and later carry out market research on it,\u201d he says. \u201cWe take a reverse-thinking approach, doing the market research first: once we have understood the market needs, we start to generate new ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IFTM academic says \u201centrepreneurship needs creativity and innovation\u201d. A successful concept, he argues, \u201cis far more important\u201d than operational aspects, for a new business to gain traction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter experiencing and discussing a hands-on project\u201d completed on his Entrepreneurship course, students \u201ccan start learning the theorical part, and verify whether it matches our field experience,\u201d says Mr. Tou.<\/p>\n

Students say the approach gives them a good understanding of theorical concepts and a clearer grasp of the subject than they might otherwise obtain. To help that process, the course curriculum features a mixture of individual and group projects.<\/p>\n

Unveiling the \u2018pain points\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most praised individual project business ideas generated among the students who attended the course in the first semester of the current academic year, was put forward by Sky Ching Tin Hou. He is a student in the Tourism Event Management Bachelor\u2019s Degree Programme.<\/p>\n

Sky\u2019s suggestion was strikingly simple: to offer small spaces for rental by students, allowing them to gather in an informal environment to work on their academic projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs university students, we need to do lots of projects,\u201d he explains. \u201cHowever, restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic have made it harder for us to find suitable places for group discussion. In libraries, we cannot speak loudly, nor eat snacks. In cafes, we cannot quite focus, as they are really noisy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Tou says the idea directly addressed a \u2018customer need\u2019 \u2013 otherwise known as a \u2018pain point\u2019 in entrepreneurship jargon \u2013 experienced by the whole class. \u201cTo grow a business, we need to unveil the clients\u2019 \u2018pain points\u2019, help clients to solve a problem: that is the importance of really understanding clients\u2019 needs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

While the individual project portion of the Entrepreneurship course focuses on stimulating student creativity and observation, group undertakings require undergraduates to research a particular problem and come up with solutions. In the first semester, 3 topics were tabled. They were: how to increase insurance customers\u2019 awareness of cover for critical illness; how to engage younger generations of people \u2013 not only the elderly \u2013 in activities hosted by local community centres, and so promote social cohesion; and how to tackle business risk, such as seasonal and diurnal fluctuation in demand, faced by fruit juice retailers.<\/p>\n

One group of students, including Henry Kuok Hoi Bong, addressed the critical illness insurance topic. The Tourism Event Management student says he and his classmates decided to do a series of street interviews with Macao people, to grasp their views on the topic. \u201cWe were thinking about using online questionnaires, but considered that method was likely to limit our access to elderly interviewees,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Mr. Tou states that open interviews can help collect extra, unsolicited, but still useful information. In addition, face-to-face communication is \u201cimportant in business, as this is how customer relationships and customer loyalty are built,\u201d he says. He hopes the street interviews were seen as \u201ca chance for students to build their confidence in communicating with others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Student Henry praises the way Mr. Tou tackles teaching relating to entrepreneurship. \u201cI\u2019ve learnt to think from different angles,\u201d says Henry. The IFTM undergraduate points out that throughout the course, the class members were constantly faced with questions that required them to combine novel concepts with existing ones, to come up with fresh ideas. \u201cThis refreshed my view of entrepreneurship, as well as giving me more self-confidence,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Novelty and retailing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another group of undergraduates, including Ivy Leong Ian Chi, selected the project on fruit juice shops. Ivy is a student in the Tourism Event Management programme.<\/p>\n

She says the group project made her aware of the need for stores to \u201claunch new products from time to time, and to improve promotion as well as packaging,\u201d to attract and keep consumers. \u201cIf a shop offers only the same single product, customers might feel bored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ivy highlights that the Entrepreneurship course provides students with opportunities to engage with local businesses. \u201cWe went on site visits to some exhibitions, and listened to presentations by sector representatives. We needed to do a lot of discussing as well,\u201d she says. \u201cAll this helped us integrate practical experience with academic knowledge, and really made learning more effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Tou says the success of the Entrepreneurship course is also due to students\u2019 hard work and enthusiasm. For instance, Sky, Henry and Ivy each shone in a particular area. \u201cSky pinpointed the \u2018pain point\u2019 very precisely, being an issue shared by all the other students as well,\u201d he states. Henry\u2019s group had \u201cdrafted engaging\u201d visual materials on critical illness and the importance of personal financial management. Ivy\u2019s group \u201cbrought out innovative and fresh ideas to promote the fruit juice business,\u201d Mr. Tou adds.<\/p>\n

Apart from the hard work and engagement of students, also contributing to the success of the course was Mr. Tou inviting a number of industry experts as mentors for the group projects, providing insights to students about the industry, operational processes and customer needs. IFTM alumna Ms. Krystal Sio Hio I, currently working in the insurance sector, took the part of a consultant in order to help students research the topic of critical illness and insurance coverage. \u201cI explained to them how insurance works, and what people can do in terms of their own personal financial planning,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Ms. Sio notes that hands-on projects are \u201cbeneficial\u201d to students, allowing them to amass skills and knowledge that will be useful to them in their careers. She praises the results and ideas generated by the Entrepreneurship class regarding insurance coverage. \u201cI too learned something from the presentation by the students,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, the best way to address a problem is to look at it in a new way: it allows a broad range of fresh ideas to emerge, that might help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":8162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,136],"tags":[118,20,508,93],"class_list":["post-8161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-degrees-offered-in-english","category-main_headline","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-geraldo-tou","tag-tourism-event-management"],"views":356,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8161"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8168,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8161\/revisions\/8168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}