Strengthening Relationships With Local Businesses
USU-Moab is preparing to launch a new program that will invite local businesses to collaborate with USU students in internship and entrepreneurial activities. The fall of 2016 will see the formation and launch of the USU-Moab Entrepreneurship Club – a student club open to all USU majors. The E-Club seeks to educate all students interested in intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial careers. Intrapreneurship is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization, while entrepreneurship is taking all the risks and rewards of running a business completely on oneself. Our students will be considering both paths as they plan their futures, so the E-Club will allow students to engage in activities that will prepare them to run their own businesses as well as to make significant creative contributions to their future employers.
To that end, the USU-Moab E-Club will seek to actively engage local businesses at all levels from single-owner entrepreneurs to larger, multi-employee corporations in Moab. It is envisioned that local business owners and managers will be able to both contribute to and benefit from their involvement with the USU-Moab E-Club.
On the contribution side, USU E-Clubbers will seek to engage in joint projects with local businesses to study compelling problems and present creative solutions – something that University students are uniquely skilled at as most of their University courses require project work geared toward creative solution generation. In this respect, the E-Club students will benefit local businesses as a source of objective and low-cost (free) business consulting while the students will benefit from the real-life experience of hands-on business problem solving outside of the classroom.
Another aspect of the new E-Club that will benefit local businesses as well as students is hands-on experience of a different kind. The E-Club will develop and manage an internship program that will solicit paid, high-quality internships from local business owners and managers who are willing to consider transition to permanent employment. This new internship program will benefit employers who have suffered from the scarcity of a qualified and educated workforce in Moab. They can “grow their own” by starting USU-Moab students as interns while the students complete their degree programs and then hire the students, if appropriate, as full-time employees when the students graduate with their USU degree.
Since most USU-Moab students work part-time to full-time jobs while enrolled, a paid internship could replace one or all of their jobs. Perhaps a greater benefit is that the student would not only receive on-the-job training as the internship duties are performed, but the internship may actually become full-time employment, allowing the student to continue to live, work, and raise a family in Moab.
The new USU-Moab Entrepreneurship Club and internship program can be a real win-win for both USU students and local businesses – something to look forward to in the next academic year!
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