KNUST, in partnership with the Ghana Multimedia Incubator Centre (GMIC), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Ministry of Communications, is embarking on a Pre-Incubation Programme for an identifiable group of students from the College of Science and the College of Engineering who have exhibited academic excellence in their various fields.
The programme which takes off in September, 2008, aims at providing business and technical training to students and researchers and also equipping them with the requisite knowledge and skills to establish their own businesses and to develop outstanding products that the market needs and that are compliant with international standards.
At a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor, the partners involved in the programme explained that majority of the students, despite their academic excellence, lack the essential business skills to promote and market their finished products and to document their work using international standards and procedures. According to them, the introduction of the pre-incubation concept was to help overcome these shortcomings and to ensure a smooth implementation of an incubation process by which students or tenants might have been well trained and informed to take on such challenges.
In a follow up meeting with members from GMIC and UNDP, the Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences, Prof. I.K. Dontwi, said that the whole pre-incubation programme will go through five major processes including putting up necessary infrastructure, identifying and selecting tenants, training of tenants and other stakeholders, uploading content, and launching of the programme which will include an exhibition of products by tenants who have already gone through the pre-incubation and incubation processes. He said that they have designed the pre-incubation programme in such a way that after its due course, participants would be able to start their own small enterprises with the right procedures and tools, enroll in the incubation programme at GMIC or any other incubator, and secure ICT-related jobs that provide them with financial stability and professional advancement.
Prof. Dontwi pointed out that the target group for the programme are third and final year students from the College of Science and the College of Engineering. He said that a management committee of about 3-5 members has been set up to ensure the progress and sustainability of the programme.
Mrs. Barbara Gbologah-Quaye, country representative of Citizens Development Corp, under the auspices of IBM Ghana, said that they also intend to add their quota to the development of the programme by providing experts and equipment to facilitate the success of the programme.
The programme which focuses on creative thinking, business training, technical writing, and career awareness will see professionals and experts from industry address key issues and serve as role models.
Source: URO