Index
16 March 2010
Calling Hamilton’s next generation of entrepreneurs
RMIT University Hamilton in conjunction with Southern Grampians Shire Council is offering Hamilton’s budding business owners an opportunity to win cash in the Hamilton Young Business Ideas Festival, to be held in August.
The festival will form part of the Young Entrepreneurs Program (YEP), aimed at teaching business skills to local young people aged 15 and above through monthly workshops from April to November.
YEP will introduce participants to the world of business, allowing them to develop mentoring relationships with local business owners and teaching them the core skills needed to start and grow a business.
Dr Paul Collits, RMIT Hamilton’s Regional Development Senior Research Fellow, said: “Regions like ours will only prosper in the future if we develop the capacity in our young people to be the next generation of entrepreneurs.
“We are currently recruiting young people to participate in the pilot program throughout 2010.
“The program has strong support from the Southern Grampians Shire, ACE Radio and the Hamilton Regional Business Association (HRBA), but we will need the support of young people to make it work. The program will only go ahead if sufficient young people are interested in participating.”
Funding has been secured to enable the program to be provided free to participants, with the program giving participants knowledge and skills that they can transfer to all elements of their lives, even if they do not end up going into business.
Topics covered in the workshops will include preparing a business plan, marketing, turning good ideas into commercial opportunities, networking, financing a business, growing a business, and doing business online. Some sessions will be run by local business people, with the program being led by economic development experts from RMIT.
Young people who are still at school, in the workforce, or even taking a gap year before tertiary study, are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity by phoning RMIT Hamilton on 5572 0500 or emailing rmithamilton@rmit.edu.au. Applications for the program close on 31 March.
For interviews: RMIT University Hamilton, Manager Regional Development Program and Senior Research Fellow, Dr Paul Collits, (03) 5572 0500.
For general media enquiries: RMIT University Hamilton Communications Officer, Rachel McDonald, (03) 5572 0505.
