Over recent years, a large number of start-up events of different scales have been organised for Da Nang’s university and college students in a bid to inspire them to do their start-up activities in a healthy and strong start-up ecosystem

An interesting start-up class at VNUK

The Entrepreneurship Pathway Programme (EPP) was officially launched late last year at the city-based Viet Nam-UK Research and Training Institute (VNUK).

EPP is a 4-year optional programme, parallel to the students’ career of choice at VNUK, aiming to provide them with the inspiration, education and other necessary tools required for successful entrepreneurship.

The programme aims to help VNUK have the highest percentage of alumni who are successful entrepreneurs in Viet Nam, creating new jobs and economic growth in the coming years. 

Moreover, EPP will inspire and help other school members of the University of Da Nang and other educational institutions across the city to follow this model.

Many of the trainees eagerly remarked that, thanks their participations into such a practical start-up programme, they have a chance to participate in many experiential learning exercises on building teams and brainstorming business ideas of shared passions.

Moreover, EPP’s comfortable learning environment helps these young people develop their organisational and management skills, practice to become a good event planner and more entrepreneurial, and, last but not least, gain self-confidence, bravery and necessary skills of a student leader.

Likewise, many local universities and colleges have also focused on adding the knowledge of start-up to the official syllabuses applied for their students.

The Duy Tan University, the first and largest private university in Central Viet Nam, in collaboration with the city branch of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), opened a start-up course last year for 150 out of its total students. 

In mid-January, a total of 24 lecturers and managers from 14 universities and colleges in the central region joined in a one-week training course on innovations and startups.  

Jointly organised by the Da Nang Start-up Council (DSC), the Da Nang Entrepreneurship Support (DNES) and the Viet Nam-Finland Innovation Partnership Programme Phase 2 (IPP2), the course received high praise from the trainees for its great benefits. 

Mr Tran Vu Nguyen, the DNES’s CEO, highlighted the significance of the course in helping the lecturers enhance their knowledge of startups, and this, thereby, will enable their schools to integrate start-up courses into their whole training programmes in the years ahead.

According to DSC, the municipal government recently gave the go-ahead to the implementation of a project for offering training to innovative start-up projects for the 2018 – 2020 period.

In the middle of this month, a set of materials on innovative startups will be introduced to the city’s universities, in addition of the organisation of more practical training courses on this challenging but interesting aspect.