Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce the Honourable Dwight Sutherland offering some advice to Chelsea Scott a student at The Ellerslie School, as her Principal, Lieutenant Colonel Errol Brathwaite; and Member of Parliament for St. Michael North West, Neil Rowe, listen on.
Students of The Ellerslie School had the opportunity to showcase their entrepreneurial side, yesterday.
The school hall was transformed to host the 2019 “Entrepreneurship Extravaganza” which provided them with the setting to market their products and services to members of the public.
Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce Dwight Sutherland fully endorsed the event. He expressed that the importance of entrepreneurship is evident by the fact that it teaches how to be an effective risk-taker.
“It advises that risk-aversion is not a quality to be emulated, since at best such mind-set will only redound to the realisation of unproductive national outcomes,” he stated.
He is of the view that as the country seeks to build out a “business start-up revolution” predicated by a mind-set of meaningful and relevant change within our nation’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, it is imperative that the educational system similarly responds with relevant and targeted curricula reform.
In its design, the Minister said must be the critical role innovation, digitalisation, and modern technology advancements must play in a more modern Barbados.
“Such reform must also be the type that recognises that the teaching of subject/courses within our educational institutions cannot be done in a vacuum, but must be tied to some strategic entrepreneurial outcome and guided by a clear and holistic government vision,” he stressed.
“In other words, any attempt at knowledge-transfer within our educational institutional set-up must be guided by a philosophy that answers the following question, “How can our educational institutional curricula more effectively impact our general livelihoods, promote greater value-added to our socio-economic position, be a precursor to be more creative and innovative outcomes, and generally be more relevant to personal and national development?” he continued.
Entrepreneurship, according to Sutherland must therefore be viewed as the hub on which hinges a viable opportunity for effective societal change as well as a meaningful way to promote sustainable social advancement.
“Given the global reality with which we are faced and our appropriate positioning to leverage every available opportunity as a country in transition, the importance of this Entrepreneurship Extravaganza can best be appreciated.”
“Today, as students, you will therefore have the opportunity by way of practical example to be exposed to how the real world operates. You will learn, and I certainly hope you do, that entrepreneurship teaches us and sometimes harshly so, that while change is the only constant in life, timely, deliberate and purposeful adaptation and intervention is often the best mode of meaningful survival,” he said.
Apart from the students, an invitation was extended to staff; parents; alumni members; and persons from the business community to take part in the event. (TL)