MUSCAT — A workshop titled “Moving Mountains – Entrepreneurship Through Higher Education” workshop kicked off at Golden Tulip Hotel yesterday. The three-day workshop is organised by the Higher Education Ministry in Partnership with The Research Council (TRC) and The Central University of Finance and Economics, China.
The workshop will highlight why the Sultanate is ready for an accelerated thrust into entrepreneurism. It will leverage entrepreneurial opportunities currently in progress and identify the mountains that must be removed for further progress and new ventures.
Khalil bin Abdullah al Khonji, Chairman of Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, presided over the opening ceremony. He said that entrepreneurism has become important and it is of three parts — entrepreneurism starts at home with the parents’ raising of children; later developed at school; and finally at the university.
He added that the topic of the workshop is important in refining the skills of a lot of university students in entrepreneurism that includes all sectors and not only confined to trade and commerce. He stressed the need to have entrepreneurs in the Sultanate and to minimise the interest in jobs not matter whether public, military or in the private sector.
Dr Abdullah bin Mohammed al Sarmi, Under-Secretary of the Higher Education Ministry, said that the workshop comes as the Higher Education Ministry and TRC have good faith in it to refine skills of educators and academics in higher education institutions and students in entrepreneurism which is a field that aims at adopting graduates and help them in finding a work for himself instead of searching for it, that is, self-recruitment which is currently under focus in the Sultanate and other countries, especially developing countries where youth constitute the majority of the population.
He added that the workshop will discuss many important aspects in this regard, among them, the challenges that face entrepreneurism in the Sultanate and how to enhance entrepreneurism environment in higher education institutions, how public and private sectors co-operate to disseminate entrepreneurism in different higher education institutions.
Several experts specialised in higher education, businessmen, captains of industry from the Sultanate and international experts are participating in the workshop.
The workshop will result in practical recommendations as to how the development of successful entrepreneurs can be achieved inside and outside the higher education environment.
The workshop will also discuss background information on the nature and scope of entrepreneurism, required conditions for entrepreneurial ventures to blossom and how the Sultanate and the Arab world are positioned, kinds of entrepreneurism and the role of higher education, how to teach entrepreneurism, policy and governance in support of entrepreneurism, including institution profiling, appropriate infrastructure to permit entrepreneurial development, success and best practice from Oman and around the world, promising new areas for high-impact entrepreneurism.
The first session titled “Entrepreneurism in higher education: Obstacles and Opportunities and Challenges” gave an overview of the international and Omani situations, examining opportunities and advantages of entrepreneurism through today’s higher education.
The second session “How entrepreneurism in higher education works” focused on international models of how entrepreneurism can be integrated in higher education institutions and the necessary requirements.
The third session “Entrepreneurism Policy Frameworks for Higher Education Institutions” dealt with reviewing the current policies and frameworks in the Sultanate and the international policy experience in higher education institutions.
On the sidlnines of the workshop a start-up business activity called Mountains24 will be running. Mountains24 is a competition among teams of students from diverse academic institutions. The students have 24 hours in which to develop a viable business opportunity. — ONA
