TV Crew to Chronicle Entrepreneurial Journey at CIT's Rubicon Centre
Three student groups from the University of Economics in DaNang, Vietnam, who are in Cork as part of a special programme run by Ireland's leading business innovation hub, the Rubicon Centre at Cork Institute of Technology today participated in the pitching session of CIT's prestigious Student Inc. Programme for student entrepreneurs. Student Inc. at CIT was Ireland’s first student accelerator programme and remains the largest programme for encouraging Irish Higher Education students to start their own business and pursue a career in entrepreneurship.
The Vietnamese students are part of a pilot project between CIT and the University of Economics at the University of DaNang which is funded by Irish Aid through the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Vietnam Ireland Bilateral Exchange (VIBE) programme. Earlier this year more than three hundred aspiring entrepreneurs from nine Universities in Vietnam entered a unique enterprise competition, with the winners welcomed to the Rubicon Centre for one month to partake in the Student Inc. entrepreneurship programme. The student groups availed of the opportunity to receive enterprise learning from CIT's leading business mentors in various aspects of business start up.
Also visiting CIT, is Mr Huynh Quang Triet, the winner of the latest series of Super Leader, a popular young people's TV show in Vietnam, as well as a TV crew from national Vietnamese channel VTV6 who are chronicling the students' journey to Ireland in a bid to further promote entrepreneurship in Vietnam.
Of the more than 100,000 Vietnamese students studying abroad every year, only 200 come to Ireland. It is hoped that this initiative will help increase this number and also aid the participating Vietnamese Universities to develop programmes to encourage entrepreneurship among the student population.
Speaking at the event, Vice President for External Affairs at CIT, Orla Flynn, said, “We are delighted to host our three successful student groups from Vietnam as part of the VIBE Project and to welcome Mr Triet, the esteemed winner of Super Leader. Their attendance is evidence that the successful entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in CIT and the Rubicon can translate internationally. This is not something which just happened overnight, it is the culmination of months of hard work by staff here in CIT, and at the Rubicon Centre, not to mention by staff from the University of Economics in DaNang who have travelled to see firsthand how we operate and promote entrepreneurship among the CIT student body. Since their arrival in July, the students have explored the viability of their projects and will return home with a vast amount of knowledge which will enable them to take their projects to the next level. We are extremely grateful to the Department of Foreign Affairs for their funding support through the Irish Aid VIBE programme, and look forward to continuing our work on this project in to the next academic year."
Also speaking at the event was Minister of State for Diaspora and International Development, Mr Joe McHugh TD, who said, "It is fantastic to be here today to see the wealth of knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit among our students from Vietnam and CIT. Each year Ireland's colleges host over 200 Vietnamese students who go on to play an influential role in the development of Vietnam and I hope that programmes such as this will encourage many more students to take this route. Credit must be given to the work of CIT and staff from the Rubicon Centre in CIT who have given much of their own personal time to this important project and I look forward to seeing it grow over the coming years."
About Student Inc:
Student Inc. was set up in 2011 by CIT to encourage student entrepreneurs to start up businesses while studying in CIT. Student Inc. runs over the summer months and the participating entrepreneurs come from a range of programmes across the college. For the 2016 programme 10 student businesses are developing in the Rubicon, side by side with the 57+ other entrepreneurs based there. The programme is funded through CIT, the Cork Local Enterprise Offices and Enterprise Ireland.
