IT Certifications Pilot Program

During a roughly 18-month period, a pilot program will be launched to help student entrepreneurs earn certificates (e.g., Oracle, Amazon Web Services, Google data analytics, UX/UI) that will enable them to grow their own businesses/side hustles and/or serve as stronger contributors to startups and businesses.  Four entities will partner on this project: Baldwin Wallace University, Cleveland State University, Lorain County Community College, and Entrepreneurship Education Consortium. 

 

This effort will benefit student entrepreneurs and will also serve as a unique learning opportunity that has potential to deliver insights informing broader regional programming. To that end, the partner organizations will form a learning cohort that will come together regularly to discuss processes, insights, and opportunities.  If program impact is seen and there is clear benefit to student entrepreneurs, there could be opportunity for the pilot to be assumed by Entrepreneurship Education Consortium in the future and rolled out to the Northeast Ohio region.  Entrepreneurship Education Consortium is already thinking of ways that it might approach donors to augment the pilot.  Specifically, donors could be asked to provide dollars towards additional testing/certification costs.

Completion of certificates can be tied to specific college courses, entrepreneurship programs/activities, or other offerings, but the pilot is designed to reach beyond computer science classes and offer an easy entry point for student entrepreneurs from all majors who are interested in broadening their skills.

While faculty advisors (see below) are expected to play a significant role in the recruitment process, each school’s entrepreneurship program will assist significantly with program design, outreach and recruitment, and information sharing.