Daytona State College has received the Entrepreneurship, Education & Training (EET) Grant from the Florida Department of Education. It is designed to introduce students in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs to the mindset required of successful entrepreneurs, while guiding and developing their entrepreneurial skills. The grant also allows the College to partner with local business and development organizations to promote long-term economic growth in Volusia and Flagler counties.
Through CTE programing, the project will promote and nurture an entrepreneurial mindset for Daytona State students. It is designed to deliver relevant instruction and experiential learning, provide individual guidance for students, and offer co-curricular activities in relation to the successful L. Gale Lemerand Entrepreneurial Speaker Series. The initiative also includes professional development for CTE faculty and the expansion of a CTE school-based enterprise to provide a skills demonstration site for entrepreneurial capabilities.
“Entrepreneurial mindset training is an essential life skill that will empower the employability of our students,” said Sherryl Weems, Associate Vice President of the Mary Karl College of Workforce & Continuing Education. “The training reinforces our commitment to our business community, to fully embrace the value of providing intentional approaches that ensure our students are competitive and add value in the workplace.”
The EET project will benefit from broad collaboration and support by several regional organizations who have agreed to participate during the initial grant period and beyond. Participation by these stakeholders will ensure “real-world” expertise for student participants, faculty trainers, and facilitators. Those organizations include:
- African American Entrepreneurs Association
- CareerSource Flagler Volusia
- Center for Business & Industry
- Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce
- Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative
- Florida Virtual Entrepreneurial Center
- Service Corps of Retired Executives
- Small Business Development Center
- UCF Business Incubation Program
- Volusia County Economic Development
DSC has selected CTE programs where student interest in entrepreneurship and business ownership is already strong to participate in the EET project. These programs include Cosmetology/Barbering, Building Trades, Automotive Technology, Photography and Digital/Interactive Media, and Business. Numerous occupations associated with these programs are on the 2020-21 Florida Regional Demand Occupations list for Flagler and Volusia counties.
According to the Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship, which tracks and reports entrepreneurial trends in the U.S., Florida ranks second among all states on the Early-Stage Entrepreneurship Index. In 2019, Kauffman reported that more than 88 percent of all new entrepreneurs in the state created a business by choice rather than necessity, and first-year startups created an average of 6.37 new jobs.
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