Seminar on the fundamentals of entrepreneurship for schools of ORT network started in Odessa

July 4, 2011, a training workshop on HP LIFE program for secondary school teachers of the ORT school network has started at the Odessa ORT School.

Developed by the Micro-Enterprise Acceleration Institute (MEA-I, Geneva) in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard Corporation HP Learning Initiative For Entrepreneurs (HP LIFE) is a global program that trains students, potential entrepreneurs and small business owners to harness the power of IT to establish and grow their businesses.

Face-to-face trainings and online tools address the educational needs of people, improve and strengthen their skills and enable them to move forward – regardless of backgrounds, locations or circumstance.

ORT is a partner of HP social projects since 2004.
Over these years, thanks to the fruitful cooperation between the two organizations, centers of education and micro-enterprise acceleration were opened in Russia and Ukraine. Being trained there, the small businesses entrepreneurs, both beginning and more experienced, solve the problems they face in their daily activities, which hinder the growth and development of their business.

In 2009, the successful experience of collaboration has allowed HP and ORT expanding programs of bridging the digital divide and ICT training for entrepreneurship and to involve some secondary schools to participate in them.

This decision was due to the fact that today's secondary schools face the task of preparing competitive students who are ready to live and work in high-tech world. One of the most effective ways of achieving this is education, which gives considerable experience and practical skills in business and entrepreneurship.

The educational process achieves maximum efficiency when the students are placed in front of creative problem, solving of which requires school knowledge implementing in real life situations.

All the technologies, presented in LIFE program, studied from the practical point of view: in the classroom students receive information not only on widely available technological tools, but also learn to use them to overcome daily problems and to develop their businesses effectively.

Within these five days, from 4 to 8 July, 2011, fifteen teachers from ORT schools network of Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine will be provided with the opportunity to be acquainted with the newly developed curriculum and to discuss the prospects of training of the fundamentals of entrepreneurship at secondary school.

Trainings will be conducted by Ana Barfield and Brankica Canic (MEA-I). Finishing this course participants will receive certificates of the Institute of MEA-I and can apply their knowledge in teaching fundamentals of entrepreneurs at schools of ORT network.

Irina Silaeva, Program Manager, ANO "ORT"