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Develop the future workforce with an entrepreneurial mindset

  • Programs

    • Higher Education

    Challenge

    With the challenge of student engagement, college credential completion continues to fall while more employers demand post-secondary education and an entrepreneurial workforce of graduates who can problem find and solve, work in teams, and think critically and creatively. With a growing 1099 workforce, graduates will need to know how to create value by solving problems for other people. There is an urgent need to increase college completion rates while producing graduates who possess the entrepreneurial skills the workforce demands.

    Solution

    According to the World Economic Forum, entrepreneurship is an essential life skill that every student will need to survive and thrive in the 21st Century. Entrepreneurship education empowers students to remain adaptable when facing obstacles, persist through failure, communicate better, and become problem solvers and opportunity finders. And, entrepreneurship is linked to higher academic achievement. Colleges are now turning to entrepreneurship to produce work-ready graduates and next-generation innovators by engaging students in the highly experiential, entrepreneurial process. By cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset in students, we can empower and engage them to achieve their goals.

    Programs

    Colleges offer the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program as part of their Entrepreneurship curriculum, as a general education course, or as a workforce development program for their faculty and staff. Colleges offer the Ice House Student Success Program as a student success course or first year experience program at the onset of a student’s journey to drive student engagement and persistence to goal completion.

    Outcomes

    Participants will consume written and video content, discuss and apply core concepts, engage in the entrepreneurial process, and reflect individually. As a result, participants will become more empowered and engaged by:

    • Developing entrepreneurial attitudes, behaviors, and skills
    • Identifying social and situational factors that encourage or inhibit entrepreneurial behavior
    • Identifying, evaluating, and validating opportunities in ambiguous, real-world circumstances
    • Identifying and interacting with entrepreneurs who provide critical guidance and ongoing support

    Process

    Best practice to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset on your campus is to:

    • Engage stakeholders with an ELI keynote and/or workshop;
    • Assess your entrepreneurial culture to identify gaps for both college employees and students;
    • Establish your desired outcomes and evaluation tools to measure success;
    • Select key employees to become Ice House Certified Facilitators;
    • Implement the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program for your administration and faculty;
    • Implement the Ice House (Original Edition or Student Success Edition) for targeted student groups; and
    • Assess data and establish strengths and opportunities for improvement for the future.

    Click here to go to our Community College Case Studies
    Click here to go to our University Case Studies

    Next Steps

    To learn more about the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program, join one of our monthly live Ice House Information Webinars. To become an Ice House Certified Facilitator, visit our Training page.

    WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

    • "Ice House is reinventing the way we make ourselves successful, you have to think outside of the box, go that extra step, think about new ways to innovate, and I think that is going to be the marker of the next few generations."

      Crystal Haynes, Student, Pikes Peak Community College

    • "If students learn that...they have choices to better their life, they are more apt to own their educational process and become active directors of it, rather than a bystander simply meeting course requirements."

      Theresa Allyn, Ice House Faculty, Edmonds Community College

    • "I see this as a bold, new solution."

      Dr. Lance Bolton, President, Pikes Peak Community College

    • "We just finished our second class with IHEP and our students absolutely love it!  We teach it as a hybrid, using the computer portion and an in-class portion to bring everything together.  We also use local entrepreneurs to serve as guest speakers/motivators for our students and it seems to work perfectly."

      Eric Heiser, Business & Computer Technology

    • "The Ice House Entrepreneurship Program has given our students the foundation they need in order to build meaningful businesses that have the potential to change their lives. It changes the way students, faculty and our community view entrepreneurship."

      James (JJ) Williams, Department Chair, Entrepreneurship, Hudson Valley Community College

    • "The Ice House Entrepreneurship Program “method” is wicked awesome. It turns the age-old misconceptions about entrepreneurism upside down and destroys the paradigm."

      Gina L. Kinchlow, MBA