Good business education begins with genesis

By  Nate Trombley

Chris Ryan is the Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Genesis Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre has just undergone its genesis.

Ryan said he hopes many students will take advantage of resources available at the Centre. A few of these resources include learning networking skills, mentorship programs and business consultation.

“The benefits are tremendous,” said Ryan. “You get an opportunity while you are here at school getting an education, to compliment that with some life skills, some networking skills, some presentation skills and some business skills.”

Ryan said he believes it is important for students to take advantage of the many resources available at the GEIC no matter what field of business they are going into. Ryan also said the GEIC provides another opportunity for job and wealth creation.

“This is another opportunity with the high rate of unemployment that’s in Windsor to take advantage of being self-employed,” said Ryan.

The Centre benefits not only the students and faculty of St. Clair College but the college itself. Ryan said he is trying to get all the student clubs together to be able to understand each other, their strengths and learning how to utilize everyone’s strengths.

“They learn different skills, meet different people, who want to get out there and make it happen,” said Lauren Nantau, the administrator at the Genesis Entrepreneurship and innovation Centre.

The major things that Ryan feels students need to learn are networking and presentation skills. Ryan said these are important to learn because many students don’t feel comfortable networking themselves, as well as not knowing how to network themselves. When it comes to the presentation skills taught at the GEIC, they teach basic business and sales presentation skills, as well as learning how to present themselves if they need to do so in an interview.

“You hear so many times people in business, say ’ I wish I had these opportunities while I was in school to learn all of this’,” said Ryan. “From finances, to marketing, to sales strategies, even putting together a business plan, that is what genesis provides students with.”

Next week is Global Entrepreneurship Week runs from Nov. 16 to Nov. 22 and the GEIC has events and programs planned for the entire week. Starting with the Success Café on Monday and ending with Tech Day on Friday with guest speakers from WE-Tech Alliance.

“The Success Café is when we bring back a recent grad in the last three years to talk about their experiences at the college and how it helped them open their business immediately after college,” said Ryan.

Ryan said since our economy is shifting from a manufacturing base to a tech and retail base, it is important for students to learn these skills now rather than later.