Taking entrepreneurial education to a new height

Even though startups and small-scale businesses are nothing new in this country, young Bangladeshi entrepreneurs still lack the necessary platform to hone their crafts to globally acceptable standards. There is often little to no national support backing them, and the general public's lack of awareness towards entrepreneurship as a whole is ever present. 

To combat this growing need for mainstream attention as well as to educate the aspiring innovators of tomorrow, on 4 December 2021, Dhaka University's ICE (Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship) Centre with KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) launched the project 'Capacity building of universities in Bangladesh to Promote Youth Entrepreneurship'.

This joint endeavour of the governments of Bangladesh and South Korea aspires to not only teach Bangladeshi students how to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams but also pave the path for youth entrepreneurship to prosper in this country. The project component will consist of a brand new curriculum, a network ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs, and design labs that will support on-hand training sessions.

Md. Rashedur Rahman, Executive Director, ICE Centre, stated this new curriculum is something Bangladesh needs to build a new brand of entrepreneurial spirit. "The curriculum for youth entrepreneurship will be divided into three parts: Basic, Advanced and Applied. We will be directly providing 6-month training to 200 students and potential entrepreneurs. Additionally, around 1000 will be given the opportunity to participate in hackathons, boot camps and workshops organised by the ICE Centre," said Rashedur.

According to him, the vision of this project is to encourage innovation-driven entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. In order to achieve this, ICE Centre will focus on four crucial aspects: capacity development, raising public awareness, engaging research and analysis, and building an interdisciplinary platform.

Any university students or alumni of Dhaka University can apply to this new curriculum. "We are especially hopeful about the road mapping of entrepreneurship education in Bangladesh. As this curriculum will be based on an international perspective, our main objective is to build innovators of tomorrow who can address and tackle global challenges through an entrepreneurial point of view," stated Rashedur.