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Launch of Enterprise Skills Programme for Over 50s in CIT

Published on: Wednesday, 13 April 2016

A Senior Entrepreneurship Action Programme, from the European project My Business, launched on Tuesday April 12th as part of the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival 2016, in the Rubicon Centre on CIT’s Bishopstown Campus. This was a one day introduction to the programme, specifically aimed at those who are over 50 years of age, where participants were provided with an overview of what entrepreneurship is, what traits and characteristics are common to entrepreneurs. They also explored the entrepreneurial skills and traits that participants have already developed as part of their life/work journey.

The programme is targeted at individuals who are over 50 years of age, unemployed, and have an interest in being entrepreneurial and/or starting a business. The general aims of the Senior Entrepreneurship Action Programme are to encourage participants to explore, identify and plan a potential entrepreneurial, or micro enterprise, opportunity in a particular sector, social environment or organisation.

Participants will be assisted in identifying the core skills, values and attributes of the entrepreneur and how to relate these to their personal skill set and life experience. Programme participants will be shown how to develop the necessary marketing and networking skills to garner the necessary support for a new business idea/self-employment and shown how to develop the skills related to managing and planning a business, assisted in how to calculate and source funding for a sustainable and scalable idea or business.

The SeniorEntrepreneurship Action Programme will run every Tuesday, for 8 weeks, from Tuesday, 12th April to Tuesday 31st May, in the Rubicon Centre, CIT. The project partner responsible for the programme delivery in Ireland is the Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship excellence, a research centre based in Cork Institute of Technology.