Panaji: To address the absence of entrepreneurship training in the formal education system, the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) Ltd has announced a new initiative to train two faculty members from each college across Goa in entrepreneurial skills.The aim is to equip professors with the knowledge required to mentor and guide students in setting up their own ventures, said EDC managing director B S Pai Angle.The corporation, Angle said, is actively working to promote entrepreneurship among college students by embedding it into the academic structure. “We are constantly looking at what the industry needs, and we realised that the industry needs entrepreneurship training,” he said.Angle said most colleges currently focus only on job-oriented skills, while training on how to become an entrepreneur is minimal. To bridge this gap, the EDC launched a series of structured training programmes. “We began by holding one-day awareness sessions in colleges. Students who showed interest were invited to attend a more intensive three-day programme on entrepreneurship,” Angle said.He was speaking during an online programme to create awareness about the EDC’s schemes and services under the Swayampurna Goa initiative.

Currently, the EDC’s three-day skill-building modules help develop key entrepreneurial traits such as risk-taking and initiative. Students are also guided through the basics of skills such as product identification, marketing, finance, legal procedures, and other operational aspects of starting a business.“We now want to take this further,” Angle said. “Instead of waiting for students to graduate and then approach us for support, we are embedding entrepreneurship training at the college level.”