Limkokwing University is introducing the Limkokwing Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme (LEAP) aimed at introducing the spirit of enterprise among the final students.

The university is due to graduate about 1,000 students, who will be attached to various organizations for internship. Speaking at the inauguration of the newly appointed board of advisors last week, the university’s vice chancellor, Prof. Neville D’Cruz said they want to build the students’ confidence and train them further to understand the complexities of business.

“We feel compelled to do more for these young people. We want the students to be engaged in LEAP to feel free to determine their destiny instead of expecting to be employed.” He said.

He said it was the university’s wish to accelerate the growth of entrepreneurs among the graduates so that they would be self-employed and in turn create jobs for others.

The LEAP endeavor bears similarities to the industry programme conducted by the Limkokwing University in Malaysia, where the Malaysia government, government agencies and leading corporations such as Nestle, L’Oreal, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, among others work with students on special projects.

Professor D’Cruz noted that LEAP has added value to the students because they are not only required to work on industry projects but they are also expected to operate the projects as actual businesses with names, organization chart and business plans.

He said by so doing, LEAP will speed up the learning process as the best lessons are learnt through trial and error methods. This enables students to face the many challenges ahead.

“How they face up to these challenges will decide their success,” he said.

In addition, he said he expected no failures unless students failed to attempt, adding “we are interested in every attempt because the way forward in business as well as life is in doing not the dreaming.”

He further said advanced nations were basing their growth on the contributions of highly educated and productive people and they strategically develop their cities to attract creative talent.

Creative professionals, he said, work in a wide range of knowledge based occupational and business management.

These people, he said, engaged in creative problem solving, drawing on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems.

He added that this country needed to expand its base of creative professionals through education and training, and adding that the government should create dedicated lifestyle centres or creative hubs that are suitably established with amenities and technology to attract creative professionals to start new enterprises.

“Places with a high concentration of creative professionals have been known to move the economy into new directions, he said.

The university also presented appointment certificates to the newly appointed board of advisors. BOPA