Today sees the announcement of “New Frontiers” described as a six month intensive course in business which will be rolled out in 13 Institutes of Technology and is being funded by Enterprise Ireland.
The programme will “focus on giving individuals the entrepreneurial skills needed to set up and run a business.”
Cost to the state – Based on 150 participants in the second phase at an individual payment to the participant that equals a state investment of a minimum of €2.25 million. This does not include the cost of teaching and the first phase when 250 participate.
A couple of questions occur to me –
1. What happens to those participants at the end of the programme that do not make it onto Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start Up unit programme.
2. How is success measured: What are the outcomes that will be reported on by the delivery agents (number of businesses established, their continued existence after two years?).
3. Is information shared across the programmes with participants encouraged to pool resources and pursue jointly the most commercially viable opportunities that arise?
4. Rather then re-invent the wheel are the participants introduced to the wide range of “IP for sale or lease” that is available to the participants to take advantage of at the Institutes of Technology tech transfer offices?
I have argued for some time that there is a key piece in Ireland’s business development and innovation ecosystem that is missing – the Business Development & Innovation coach ( see https://eoinkcostello.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/the-proposed-new-local-enterprise-offices-must-be-innovative-in-the-services-they-will-provide/ ). Their main role would be to capitalise on the investment made in start-ups by the state in the Enterprise Platform Programmes and the Enterprise Board programmes in order to give Ireland a healthy cohort of sustainable businesses that create jobs beyond the owners’ job and survive the first 5 years.
More information on this programme from Enterprise Ireland – http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/Start-a-Business-in-Ireland/Supports-for-High-Potential-Start-Ups/New-Frontiers-Entrepreneur-Development-Programme.html
More information on the detail of what LEOs will provide – http://www.dceb.ie/News/Future-Supports-for-Micro-Enterprise