NCRVE Home | Site Search | Product Search

FACILITATING SCHOOL-TO-WORK-TO-BUSINESS
OWNERSHIP TRANSITION

Easing the Transition to Business Ownership
Exposing Students to Business Environments
Providing Hands-On Learning Experiences
Targeting Minority and Female Students
Final Remarks

Easing the Transition to Business Ownership

. . . 80% of the folks who . . . knock on my office are looking for a new career path. They have been working for corporate America, and now they want to find a . . . new career path. And starting their own small business is the path they've chosen.
Incubator Center Manager

The current educational reform movement is designed to face the challenges posed by high-tech/high-wage workplaces through connecting activities among high schools, postsecondary institutions, and local industry. This strategy is a form of investment in the development of human capital essential to support the demands of today's global economy. The educational vehicle is a form of emerging vocationalism which focuses on new competencies demanded in high-performance workplaces, the integration of vocational and academic education, linkages between secondary and postsecondary education, and a combination of school-based and work-based learning experiences. The goal is to better prepare students for the transition from school-to-work or to postsecondary education.

Based on current economic and education trends, it is evident there is an enormous potential for two-year technical institutions to expand their role by participating in community economic development within the context of emerging vocationalism and support of business career paths. That is, community and technical colleges can revisit and implement an expanded role to prepare students for a productive school-to-work transition or help individuals ease the transition to business ownership by exposing students and workers to business environments and related experiences.

Exposing Students to Business Environments

The opportunities identified through case studies involved working with two-year colleges and high schools to expose students to alternative career paths in entrepreneurial activities. The primary strategy is to use business incubators and partnerships with cooperative companies to establish tours of facilities and business environments. In this context, business incubators and incubator firms become a natural laboratory for students to explore alternative career paths by observing entrepreneurs and businesses in action.

The first step is to create awareness of these opportunities within the college system or high school district. Program directors and instructors should be contacted to explain the kinds of activities that can be arranged to expose students to entrepreneurial operations as part of career guidance programs or to complement current courses with potential implications for business ownership. Two incubator managers shared their experiences:

Another management strategy was to establish good working relationships with each of the seven campuses of the county community college system, the business divisions, in particular. The business deans usually contact the center manager to refer groups of students who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs. Usually, the majority of the students who come to the incubator from the community colleges are enrolled in business programs.

Another important component of this program involves the development of working relationships with area high schools. The purpose is to promote entrepreneurship education and interest students in pursuing opportunities in developing a small business.

The second step is to facilitate organized tours of business incubators, advanced technology centers, and incubator firms to expose students to business ownership opportunities. The objective must be to make students aware of the resources available and the opportunities and limitations they need to consider should they become interested in starting a business. Two incubator managers provided the following examples:

Groups of students from each of the campuses are invited to tour the program facilities and become aware of business services and entrepreneurship-related courses offered by the institute. The program is a pilot program at the postsecondary level serving the seven campuses included in the community college district.

[P]articipants in the JTPA program housed in the facilities can take advantage of internship opportunities which may turn into a permanent job for many of the students. Under this format, owners hire and pay students who have completed their four- to six-month course.

Providing Hands-On Learning Experiences

Practical experiences to facilitate school-to-work-to-business ownership can be integrated into existing curriculum in business and technical areas at both the postsecondary and secondary level.

The practical context of formal and informal education and training opportunities can be enhanced by using real-life information and the development of a business plan. As two education and training coordinators explained,

In most cases, the emphasis of seminars and workshops is in describing examples of success stories which are similar to the type of businesses clients want to start up. Examples also include common mistakes made by businesspeople. Using a business plan as a reference to stress important points is an effective instructional strategy. This strategy provides for concrete examples and helps refine business plans.

The course is a self-employment training program . . . and includes topics covering the typical areas needed to start a new business. Through these topics, the course goes over 45 decision points that need to be made in starting a small business. As students put these decision points in their workbook, a business plan begins to emerge as a feasible idea.

Existing programs and facilities can be upgraded to provide for the practical application and exploration of all aspects of business operations. Under this approach, students not only learn new employability skills but management and entrepreneurial skills needed to start and operate a business. An incubator manager characterized his experience as follows:

[T]he Training Center is a vocational training facility designed to accommodate these new employment demands. [This] facility offers an IBM Information Sciences Center, a culinary instructional wing complete with a fully equipped kitchen, food preparation areas, servicing lines, food storage area, and a 1,500-seat dining room where lunch is served five days a week.

Cooperative and internship programs designed in partnership with local industry and business incubator firm can provide a rich source of practical experiences where students can learn about starting and operating a business. These curriculum opportunities can function in a way similar to supervised occupational experiences and could include other creative arrangements such as those described below by two program coordinators:

Students enrolled in the program on entrepreneurship can also obtain credits through a co-op or internship program. . . . Co-op and intern students must set up four work-related goals for the co-op experience. As part of this program, students are required to write a comprehensive report on the four work-related goals. On-the-job visitations are made with the participant students by the college staff to supervise their progress and provide any necessary feedback.

This is a cooperative program set up with the public schools to offer artist-in-residency status to high schoolers who want to become practicing artists. Through this residency period, high school students are exposed to programs that complement existing, established, quality teaching programs allowing the students to enhance their career opportunities while getting trained in the arts.

Hands-on experience can be provided through part-time employment opportunities and by having students work as part of consulting teams supervised by college instructors. Whenever an incubator client requests assistance, students may be called to participate in the consulting process. For instance, a program coordinator explained,

The college would assign a student or two to work with the business on the specific technical problem. This service provides an effective partnership between the community and the college. Students [also] benefit from temporary and part-time employment opportunities in addition to exposure to a variety of business environments and operations.

Targeting Minority and Female Students

A number of individuals in the community--for example, students, laid-off workers, homemakers, and employees seeking a new career path--require assistance to succeed during the transitional period in exploring and establishing a small business. Of these, minority and female entrepreneurs may experience greater difficulties given the traditional lack of opportunities to recruit and support these groups interested in business opportunities. Assisting these individuals during these transitional stages represents a great opportunity for postsecondary technical education to participate in the development of the community.

Easing the Transition in Business Incubation
One strategy to target and encourage the participation of more minority and female entrepreneurs is to expose students to entrepreneurial environments with a focus on supporting minority- and female-owned businesses (see the section on "Exposing Students to Business Environments," p. 42). Concurrently, the concept of business incubation to support these entrepreneurs should be stressed so that students can understand that entrepreneurial opportunities exist for all, regardless of the ethnic and economic background. Further, it should be made clear to students that the purpose of business incubators, small business development centers, and the provision of related services to support the establishment of new small business is to help entrepreneurs survive the early stages of business development.
Serving Minority and Female Entrepreneurs
Obviously, there must be a commitment to target and recruit minority and female entrepreneurs if efforts to encourage students are to be successful. A recruiting program, including opportunities to participate in co-op and internship programs, part-time employment, and a commitment to allocate business space for minorities and female entrepreneurs may prove effective in enhancing the participation of this group of individuals. Reflecting on this issue, an incubator manager commented that "entrepreneurial development for women and minorities remains a challenge . . . For instance, females trying to get into an engineering-oriented business area feel it is more difficult because that field is basically male-oriented."

Final Remarks

The main purpose of this guidebook is to develop a better working understanding of practical applications and considerations for two-year colleges in promoting economic development through business incubation practices. The guidebook describes a number of opportunities to foster economic development in terms of strategies to develop human capital resources with a focus on entrepreneurship, provision of business-related services, and facilitation of transitional experiences to business ownership as an alternative career path through hands-on education and training. This guidebook summarizes these opportunities from a practical standpoint to assist and inform administrators, instructors, and students who have an interest in entrepreneurship and community development. A "Sources of Support" listing is provided for additional information on contact people and agencies involved in promoting the expanded role of two-year colleges in economic development and the concept of business incubation.