{"id":8509,"date":"2022-07-14T11:31:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T03:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.ift.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/?p=8509"},"modified":"2022-07-14T14:55:25","modified_gmt":"2022-07-14T06:55:25","slug":"entrepreneurship-course-gives-students-tools-to-thrive-professionally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/entrepreneurship-course-gives-students-tools-to-thrive-professionally\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneurship course gives students tools to thrive professionally"},"content":{"rendered":"\u4e2d\u6587\u6458\u8981 \/ Summary in Chinese<\/span>\n

IFTM offers bachelor\u2019s degree programmes in various fields related to tourism studies, including hospitality, the culinary arts, retailing, and cultural heritage matters. While each programme provides students with tailor-made content in its respective area of expertise, there are courses that are common to all programmes, and that aim to give undergraduates access to essential skills that any future professional will need to achieve career success. One of those courses is on Entrepreneurship, led by Assistant Professor Dr. Fernando Louren\u00e7o, a specialist in the field.<\/p>\n

The course was first offered in 2014. It aims to equip students with an enterprising outlook that they can utilise to generate career opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe course tends to use practical, hands-on, and fun approaches to teach and motivate students,\u201d says Dr. Louren\u00e7o. It covers \u201ca range of topics to inspire and empower students to think about entrepreneurship, and engage them to try things out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The Institute\u2019s focus on entrepreneurship aims to contribute to Macao\u2019s goal of economic diversification. It complements the Macao SAR Government\u2019s efforts regarding development of business-formation skills among the city\u2019s young people.<\/p>\n

At IFTM, Dr. Louren\u00e7o says he was given the freedom and resources to \u201cdevelop, pilot and execute a range of ideas\u201d related to entrepreneurship education. According to him, the teaching toolkit used at the Institute \u201cis very different\u201d from the traditional way entrepreneurship is approached at many educational institutions, where often \u201cthe aim is only the provision of information and knowledge via lecture-based sessions\u201d.<\/p>\n

The scholar explains that the \u201cdefining factor\u201d of IFTM\u2019s course is the integration in the curriculum of an industrial or consultancy project. Complementary to in-class lectures, undergraduates are required to complete practical projects aimed at giving them real-world experience, and that also contribute to the development of local businesses.<\/p>\n

A recent example was the provision by IFTM undergraduates of consulting services to a local association about the use of NFT (non-fungible token) technology to support the development of Macao\u2019s cultural and creative industries. Other projects carried out in academic year 2021\/2022 included conducting market research and developing marketing plans for a local jewellery brand and a new pastry-making business.<\/p>\n

Such projects are a means to provide \u201clocal entrepreneurs, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and other organisations free consultancy services including research, development, generation of new ideas, pilot testing, strategic development, business model development, and business planning, etcetera,\u201d says Dr. Louren\u00e7o. Since the start of the course on Entrepreneurship, more than 40 \u2018clients\u2019 have received support from IFTM students.<\/p>\n

This approach aims to generate \u201c5 wins\u201d for the various stakeholders, explains Dr. Louren\u00e7o. \u201cFirst, the project provides real-world experience for students, and this can improve the content of their curriculum vitae,\u201d he says. Second, \u201cthe project generates valuable outcomes for the \u2018clients\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

When students and \u2018clients\u2019 gain, the quality of the teaching and of the programmes at IFTM improves \u2013 that is a third win, states Dr. Louren\u00e7o. \u201cThis will boost the overall quality of the Institute,\u201d a fourth win, he says, as well as generating \u201cpositive impact\u201d for the Macao SAR \u2013 the \u201cfifth win\u201d.<\/p>\n

The course on Entrepreneurship also makes use of guest speakers. Since the launch of the course, around 70 have delivered talks to students, sharing insight on issues related to entrepreneurship and Macao\u2019s business environment.<\/p>\n

The guest speaker scheme is an \u201cimportant element\u201d of the course, Dr. Louren\u00e7o says. \u201cIt aims to empower and inspire students regarding entrepreneurship, by allowing them to interact with entrepreneurs, and to learn from their stories and experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating value<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEntrepreneurship provides important contributions to stimulate economic and regional development, job creation, innovation, and the development of the tourism industry,\u201d says Dr. Louren\u00e7o. It \u201cenhances the standard of living\u201d within a community, via the goods and services it helps create, and it also has positive impacts on community development in general, he adds.<\/p>\n

Dr. Louren\u00e7o points out that \u201centrepreneurship education in higher education is important because it expands the perspective of students and graduates\u201d. Although the typical aim of higher education is to produce graduates ready to contribute to the labour market with their specialised skills and knowledge, \u201cthere is growing consensus around the world that a role of universities is also to empower students and graduates to see that they can start up and grow their own business,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

According to the scholar, an increasing number of IFTM undergraduates are launching new businesses even before completing their studies. But Dr. Louren\u00e7o stresses that an entrepreneurial mindset is not just about creating your own job. It is a \u201csurvival skill\u201d that any professional must have in today\u2019s complex society. Such a way of thinking is something that can be valued even within established organisations, where it is sometimes referred to as \u2018intrapreneurship\u2019.<\/p>\n

The ongoing negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the job market can be an additional trigger for IFTM graduates to use their entrepreneurial skills and create their own means of employment, says Dr. Louren\u00e7o. Faced with complex job market conditions, it is \u201cincreasingly important\u201d that students and graduates have the knowledge to set up their own company and to develop a business, he states.<\/p>\n

The IFTM scholar points out that entrepreneurship is an \u201cinterdisciplinary\u201d tool: it can be applied to a wide range of fields to develop new businesses. \u201cBusinesses can be created based on any specialism,\u201d Dr. Louren\u00e7o highlights, quoting science, engineering, arts, sports, education, and management as some examples.<\/p>\n

The scholar highlights that IFTM\u2019s effort to spur entrepreneurial minds in Macao goes beyond the course on Entrepreneurship. The Institute stimulates skill development and motivation via an entrepreneurship competition called \u201cIdea-cation\u201d. It also supports interested students, alumni, and those starting on an entrepreneurial path, via its \u201cIdeation Lab\u201d business incubator, officially launched in January.<\/p>\n

In addition, IFTM has an iRetail Lab that provides a physical and online retail platform (available at https:\/\/iretail-lab.com<\/a>) for entrepreneurs to showcase and sell their products. Since its activation last year, the iRetail Lab has been employed as a teaching venue for interactive courses in that field. The venue simulates a retail store, with themed sales areas for products including cosmetics, jewellery, clothing, and travel souvenirs. Local designers and retailing brands work to support the iRetail Lab\u2019s operations, and their products are available for sale there. Currently there are 14 \u2018tenant\u2019 businesses and entrepreneurs, notes Dr. Louren\u00e7o.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IFTM offers bachelor\u2019s degree programmes in various fields related to tourism studies, including hospitality, the culinary arts, retailing, and cultural heritage matters. While each programme provides students with tailor-made content […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":8510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,1704],"tags":[2167,20,2169,119,2168,2170,1975,1974,2007,2166],"class_list":["post-8509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main_headline","category-university-news","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-entrepreneurship-education","tag-fernando-lourenco","tag-guest-speakers","tag-idea-cation","tag-ideation-lab","tag-iretail-lab","tag-practical-project","tag-real-world-experience"],"views":915,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8509","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=8509"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8736,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8509\/revisions\/8736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}