BARBADIAN YOUTH ARE maintaining their appetite for entrepreneurship.
Derek Browne, chief executive officer of British company Entrepreneurs in Action, has seen evidence of this.
Browne, who is a board member of the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation, said “the world is changing at such a pace that young people need to be entrepreneurial to pretty much survive in this world, to compete and have more business skills”.
He was speaking at Digicel’s boardroom, Williams Tower, Warrens, St Michael this morning during the official launch of this year’s Classroom To Boardroom programme.
The initiative, which is held by Rotary Club of Barbados South and sponsored by Digicel Business and First Citizens will see 14 secondary school students forming teams to solve a business challenge given by a Digicel executive. They will present their solutions to senior Digicel officials on Friday. Browne is coordinating the programme.
Rotary South president-elect John Williams said the 2014 edition of the programme had come at a time when “when the world over we are looking at the issue of entrepreneurship and its importance”.
“This exercise is one that certainly will allow you as students to get a feel at the end of it for your own career going forward because you are going to be dealing with something where from the aspect of managing the business when you are finished you will get a feel for what you think that your career might be,” he told the students.
Digicel marketing executive Randy Howard said Digicel was involved in the programme because it “falls squarely in line with what we at Digicel try to achieve in terms of working with the youth in their development”.
“We are very excited to be part of the 2014 edition of Classroom to Boardroom. From all reports this has had a very lasting and profound impact on all the students who have taken part over the last four years,” he said. (SC)
