The main objective of BizStarts College Consortium is to serve as a convener and catalyst to heighten interest and advocate for additional entrepreneurial courses, programs and experiences offered by the Milwaukee 7 region’s K-16 educational institutions. As a direct result of the increased offerings, we expect, over time, a growing interest in entrepreneurship as a career path and a more innovative, entrepreneurial workforce. BizStarts Milwaukee, Inc. believes its’ BizStarts College Consortium initiative will help the region retain and attract more college graduates.
BizStarts College Consortium
In 2009 BizStarts is dedicating its’ time to the college level educational institutions. On March 3rd it held its’ first meeting of the BizStarts College Consortium, a consortium of entrepreneurship educators and administrators from the 20 public and private colleges located in the Milwaukee 7 region.
While many of the region’s colleges are offering entrepreneur courses, programs and activities, there is no existing formal infrastructure or network to facilitate regional collaboration and sharing. There are many examples of regional “Islands of Excellence”, but no real means to leverage those models of excellence. The BizStarts College Consortium will provide that much needed forum. The consortium will provide the outreach, organizational structure and support along with the meeting format and planning. BizStarts will facilitate meetings that feature the experts, whether they are from consortium members or from other leading campuses across the country.
The BizStarts College Consortium is designed to exist as an on-going consortium. BizStarts plans to coordinate at least three consortium meetings each year, with the Summer Institute serving as key educational event. Each year BizStarts will conduct an annual report which will summarize the region’s college entrepreneur educational efforts along with providing more in depth information on each consortium member and their campus efforts.
Expected Outcomes
Expected outcomes for the BizStarts College Consortium will be a heightened interest and a solid increase in the number of entrepreneurial courses, programs and experiences offered by consortium members over time. As a direct result of the increased offerings, we expect a growing interest in entrepreneurship as a career path with more students electing to start their own companies after graduating. This will result in the region retaining more college educated talent. Entrepreneurship tends to be “sticky”, with local entrepreneurs usually growing their firms in the states where they live. As an indirect result, we expect to see more entrepreneurial thinking taking place on campuses in SE Wisconsin among faculty, staff and students.
For questions on BizStarts College Consortium, click here.
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