Students who have ‘entrepreneurship’ coursing through their veins need to be encouraged. On March 9th and 10th, 10 students and 10 young professionals are meeting one another in Ghent for the first module of their Leader Academy development process: The Power of Human Operating Systems. They will be introduced to the most wide-ranging aspects of interpersonal communication and learn how their leadership style can create a constructive working environment. Three more 2-day training modules, two of them being held within the participating companies, will follow before the end of August 2012.
The student-entrepreneurs received a special status at the University of Ghent and are united in a student association: FLYSE. Domien Van Gool, initiator of Leader Academy, has often heard from the training participants: “If only I could have taken part in something like this at the start of my career …” The idea for this initiative grew out of such observations, and it was given concrete form together with partners Mobistar and Bull, both of which are interested in meeting young entrepreneurs.
“For a successful future in a growth organisation like Bull, it’s important to continue investing in a new generation of young people,” says Saskia Van Uffelen – CEO of Bull. “However, we are supporting this project in order to close the gap between an academic education and the real business world. It also permits the young people to more precisely formulate their expectations about the professional context.” Participation of the student-entrepreneurs in the Leader Academy also allows Bull to possibly propose an employment contract at the end of the programme.
“At Mobistar there’s room for entrepreneurship and it is even explicitly referred to in the company values ‘Empowered & Passionate’. It forms part of our DNA, so the decision to support this project was quickly reached,” says Martin Vranken, Director HR Operations at Mobistar.
The initiators are extremely enthusiastic, and would be delighted to see this project continue beyond its first edition.
You can find full information on this project at: http://web.me.com/leaderacademy/Process