Broward College Starts an Entrepreneurship Institute

By Norm Seavers

Associate Vice President

Broward College, Institute for Economic Development, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

The Kauffman Foundationrecently listed Florida as having four of the five metropolitan areas nationally with the highest level of self-employment. Broward College is an urban community college with 60,000 students, three major campuses and eight centers located in the hotbed of this self-employment, the Fort Lauderdale-Broward County metro area.

Through the programs and services of its traditional credit and non-credit areas, Broward College has a history of supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs. Based on the present level of entrepreneurship and growth in this area, Broward College President David Armstrong encouraged an expanded support of entrepreneurship and small business development.

The Business Administration departments at Broward College’s main campuses were brought together with department administrators from technical education and continuing education to develop a plan. Two administrators were sent to the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship conference in San Antonio in January 2008. Information gathered at the NACCE conference was vital in moving forward with a plan to develop the Entrepreneurship Institute at Broward College.

360-Degree Mission

The mission of the Entrepreneurship Institute at Broward College is grounded in the overall community college mission and takes a 360-degree approach to addressing the needs of present and future entrepreneurs. We will:

• Articulate an entrepreneurship certificate to degree process for students moving from the Broward School System (K-12) to Broward College.
• Offer college certification in entrepreneurship to address the needs of Broward College graduates.
• Catalog resources in the metro area targeted to small businesses and entrepreneurs.
• Provide the requisite knowledge to start and maintain viable small businesses in our community.
• Offer ongoing small business development workshops, courses, and related services open to the community.

The Entrepreneurship Institute at Broward College has a very strong advisory committee that will assist in driving the direction of the institute. Representation on the advisory committee includes entrepreneurs/small business owners, area chambers of commerce, municipal and county economic development offices, incubators, small business development centers and Junior Achievement.

Future plans include the addition of an annual signature event, an operational incubator and related services to further support and foster continued entrepreneurship in the Fort Lauderdale metro area.