LA TRINIDAD – Benguet State University (BSU) joins nine other universities and organizations in another Erasmus+-funded project that promotes higher education graduates’ employability and entrepreneurship.
The project dubbed PATHWAY seeks to consolidate the entrepreneurship and employment structures and systems in the partner higher education institutions (HEIs) and contribute to building entrepreneurship culture among its graduates.
This three-year project is being coordinated by the University of Alicante in Spain and the University of Montpellier in France. Its lined-up activities include: creating or strengthening entrepreneurship and employment centers as part of its student services, enhancing the managerial and administrative staff capabilities in dealing with employment and entrepreneurship, organizing student trainings and hackathons with EU experts as mentors, and drafting policy strategy for business-university cooperation.
When briefed on the project goals and objectives, Dr. Felipe Salaing Comila welcomed the opportunity since it contributes a step toward the university’s vision of becoming an international university that champions innovation and embraces intergenerational roles. According to Dr. Roscinto Ian Lumbres, initial coordinator at BSU, Project PATHWAY is some kind of sequel to the Project ANTENNA, which is also an Erasmus+ co-funded project which seeks to strengthen internationalization among Philippine HEIs.
The four partner universities in the project are Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU), the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Lyceum of the Philippines University–Batangas (LPU-B), and Saint Paul University Philippines (SPUP) in the Cagayan Valley. The Commission of Higher Education (CHED), European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), Enactus Philippines, Inc. are also project partners.
The project intends to train at least 100 students and connect them to at least 20 business enterprises per university partner. Universities of Alicante and Montpellier are expected to share good practices on building bridges between higher education institutions, the industry, civil society, and the CHED.
The project hopes to benefit the community through mechanisms that strengthen the university-industry linkages, not only for increased graduate employability but also for increased skills matching with industry and service providers in the community and the country.
By Cheryll C. Launio
Photo by Armando M. Bolislis
