Entrepreneurial spirit
> The Young Entrepreneurs Fair provides a platform for students to showcase their business acumen
STUDENTS of the Entrepreneurship Development course from Berjaya University College of Hospitality were given the opportunity to turn their innovative ideas and newly acquired classroom skills into practice; planning, organising and running small businesses. Their skills were put to a test in a simulated “realworld” environment, through the Young Entrepreneurs Fair of May/August 2017 trimester.
The Young Entrepreneurs Fair was created to provide a platform for the students to showcase their business acumen.
This also allowed the students the opportunity to be fully engaged through the “Immersion Methodology”, or learning by doing.
“Fly with Us to Neverland” was the theme especially selected by the organising students of the Diploma in Events programme. The theme Neverland was cleverly brought to life by the amazingly mythical decoration and opening gimmick which was performed by fairies and pirates. Students from various other programmes; i.e. Business, Retail, Hospitality, Culinary, Events and Tourism were “business owners” – selling a variety of food, beverage and an array of interesting products.
During the fair, the students were given the freedom to conduct any business of their choosing, subject to their adherence to a few ground rules. The infallible synergy between these students saw them learning the fundamental skills of working, communicating and strategising together as a team.
The students also learned to overcome problems, compromise with one another, work with full efficacy, and manage their time efficiently along with other basic management skills like decision making and problem solving skills. This event was held on level 11 of Berjaya University College of Hospitality and was based on the food fair and flea market concept and “visitors” to the fair were entertained with exciting programmes; arranged and performed by the students themselves.
At the fair, there were 20 booths set up with a myriad of food on sale. Students also named their booths creatively such as: Caspian of Luxnest, Karmashian Summer Party, YOLO, Pastalicious, Kooky Cookies, Koli In The House, Anti Dessert2x Club and many more. The students’ creativity were put to the ultimate test as they raced to “compete” with one another to sustain their business popularity for the day.
Executive director/chief executive officer Mae Ho, chief executive/vice chancellor Emeritus Prof Dr Walter Wong, deputy vice chancellor Prof Dr Lee Chai Buan and head of Berjaya Business School Michael Liew and other heads of schools and heads of departments graced the event and supported the students throughout the day.
Thereafter at the opening ceremony, the invited guests were taken on a tour of all the booths on level 11.
The invited guests were impressed with what the students had put together to make this event a meaningful and a fruitful learning experience; applying what they have learned in the classroom to a “real-life” environment albeit only for eight hours; not forgetting having lots fun selling their products.