UC Berkeley Press Release
Intel, Haas join forces to train entrepreneurship faculty around the globe
BERKELEY – Intel and the University of California, Berkeley, are joining forces to boost entrepreneurial know-how in emerging technology hotbeds around the world with a new "training the trainer" program for entrepreneurship faculty.
"Technology Entrepreneurship - Theory to Practice" will be taught by faculty from the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, which is recognized as a leader in entrepreneurship education and research.
The program will be held in five venues in Brazil, China, India, Mexico and Russia over the next 18 months. Attending the program will be 15-20 faculty members from several colleges and universities in those regions.
"By providing the know-how to teach budding entrepreneurs how to commercialize new technologies and innovations, this program has the ability to kick-start economic engines whose potential has lain dormant until now," said Jerome Engel, executive director of the Lester Center, who will lead the program.
Engel has been teaching entrepreneurship and venture financing at the Haas School of Business for 14 years. He served as faculty director of the PriceBabson@Berkeley program and of the Kauffman Foundation's Lifelong Learning for Entrepreneurship Educators program.
The Haas-Intel program will provide a framework and curriculum that college faculty can adapt to their local situations, Engel said, "building on a proven approach, ultimately encouraging entrepreneurship around the world."
"Not all countries have adopted entrepreneurship as a means of growing their markets and creating jobs," said Christian Morales, vice president of sales and marketing and co-general manager of Intel Europe. "Today, by and large, many educational systems are geared toward creating employees, not entrepreneurs. To change this dynamic, the core curriculum at universities should add basic instruction in what it takes to start and operate a company, including training in formulating a strategy, writing a business plan, marketing, finance and raising capital."
The program will offer a teaching curriculum, classroom exercises, and other tools for university professors to teach the basics of entrepreneurship to engineers and scientists, creating innovative business people with cross-disciplinary skills, technical expertise, and the ability to seize market opportunities.
Faculty attending the program are encouraged to share with faculty at other schools how they apply their newly gained knowledge.