Algonquin makes the “President’s Pledge”, commits to fostering entrepreneurship on campus

Posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2015

Algonquin College becomes the first college in Ontario to take the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) President’s Pledge.

Bringing an entrepreneurial mindset to all that we do is what drives Algonquin College, President Cheryl Jensen declared at her Ottawa Chamber of Commerce Eggs n’ Icons speech in March.

To cement that commitment to entrepreneurship, President Jensen today signed the National Association of Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) President’s Pledge.

“Our goal is to instill in every student, and embed in every program, a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation,” said President Jensen. “This pledge is a reaffirmation of all that we are doing to train tomorrow’s leaders. We look forward to demonstrating that commitment throughout Global Entrepreneurship Week in November.”

According to NACCE President and CEO Rebecca Corbin, Entrepreneurship Pledge is a way for community colleges to advance entrepreneurship and create jobs across the country. Community college presidents who take the pledge commit to these five action steps:

  • Develop transparency of community college and community assets
  • Create internal and external teams dedicated to entrepreneurship
  • Increase entrepreneurs’ engagement in community colleges
  • Engage in industry cluster development
  • Create broad exposure to their college’s commitment to entrepreneurship.

“The five action steps were developed based on NACCE’s observations of what was working best on member campuses,” said Corbin. “After observing the entrepreneurship-related activities of our members over a period of years, we started to see commonalities among the more successful institutions. One of the major things that clearly makes a difference is the commitment by leadership to entrepreneurship.”

NACCE includes nearly 300 colleges in Canada and the U.S., representing over 1,400 entrepreneurship education professionals. Through these educators, approximately 465,000 students are exposed to the possibility of putting their newly acquired skills and knowledge to work in their own business, if not immediately then at some point in the future. In addition, countless small business owners and entrepreneurs benefit from education, mentoring, and other important services provided by NACCE members.

Algonquin College joined NACCE in 2013.


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