A Community College Entrepreneurship Consortium

Additional partners: Monroe Community College; North Country Community College; Onondaga Community College.

The State University of New York (SUNY) Community College Consortium, comprised of Nassau, Monroe, North Country and Onondaga community colleges and Al-Kafaàt Foundation Schools in Lebanon, are collaborating to foster business education and entrepreneurship in Lebanon.

The SUNY Community College Consortium will develop capacity-building activities to provide the Al-Kafaàt faculty with knowledge, skills, and training that will result in an improved ability to teach students and advise local citizens in critical components of entrepreneurial and enterprise development. In addition, the Consortium will train future entrepreneurs by creating new educational tools and strengthening existing curricula, modules, courses, workshops, and certificate programs, based on international “promising practices” in entrepreneurship. The partners also will support the establishment of local business start-ups and provide guidance to enhance existing small and medium-sized business enterprises.

Among the many activities planned for this partnership are: train-the-trainer workshops to support faculty development; development of a certificate program in business administration; establishment of an English as a second language (ESL) program to enhance the ability of students and entrepreneurs to communicate and understand the language of global business; and creation of a learning center to support faculty professional development and foster student academic success and career development.

Partners also will create a business incubator based on successful business models, expand Al-Kafaàt’s B-START (Business Support and Training Activities for a Resourceful Transition) program to serve a larger population more effectively, and expose students to experiential opportunities with Lebanese businesses associated with the B-START program.