Much of the emerging higher education system around the world is gearing up to nurture specialised skills necessary for the myriad of unfamiliar jobs and uncharted territories ahead.
Human capital is primary fuel to a knowledge-based economy but as we turn to an innovation driven economy that harnesses smart, sustainable solutions to define the future, entrepreneurship becomes an essential quality to embrace, promote and teach.
Start-ups and SMEs are essential components for advancing industries while consolidating our economic competitiveness and diversification.
And when it comes to entrepreneurship, there is no better place to pursue business aspirations than the UAE.
Securing the top spot in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s 2022 report demonstrates how conducive the nation’s environment and regulatory framework is to support new start-ups and entrepreneurs.
However, entrepreneurship should not be deferred to a late in life journey following a steady string of corporate jobs, nor should it be seen as the road less traveled, plagued with hurdles and risk.
Instilling and promoting entrepreneurial values at a younger age is the key to unlocking both individual and economic potential of incredible scale.
Entrepreneurship provides youth with essential life skills such as leadership, critical thinking, people management and problem solving, while also teaching them to grapple with potential failure as an essential life lesson.
These soft skills are transferable to any industry or role they take on in the future.
On the other side of the coin, setting up a pipeline of independent thinkers from a young age will replenish the country’s pool of innovative ideas and contribute to the government’s focus on empowering unicorns.
While a number of high schools and early education centres in the UAE are introducing children to the principles of entrepreneurship, as the managing director of one of the region’s largest education ecosystems, I find university to be an environment most favourable to truly engrain a deeper understanding and passion for entrepreneurialism.
Even a 2021 study by EY Ripples and JA Worldwide found that Generation Z – the current and upcoming cohort of undergrad students – is more interested in the promises of independent work with 53 percent of respondents between the ages of 16 and 25 years hoping to run their own businesses within the next 10 years.
In our own academic ecosystems at Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Knowledge Park, an ever-increasing number of universities are driving up their entrepreneurship offerings.
Aside from business management and entrepreneurship courses and degrees, which help provide a valuable foundation for running a successful enterprise, the real advancement has been in innovation-centric platforms that instill actionable values and learnings.
Heriot Watt, Amity University, Middlesex University Dubai and the University of Birmingham are some names that set up business incubators and accelerators to provide academics, graduates and students a platform to launch new enterprises.
Students can even turn to TECOM Group’s in5 incubator, which offers entrepreneurs access to expert mentorship, networking opportunities, access to funding opportunities and creative facilities to get their ventures off the ground.
The value of these platforms is multifold. Not only can universities start identifying creative talent at an earlier stage and provide them with the necessary resources to get started, but it shows students that their ambitions are welcome and supported.
It allows us to empower entrepreneurs and innovators at an earlier stage, while boosting innovation across the knowledge journey.
The energy, creativity and sense of purpose students have at this phase in their lives are part of what makes them incredibly receptive to self-employment.
The initiatives by the universities in our ecosystem are already yielding incredible results. Engineering students from BITS Pilani Dubai showcased more than a dozen start-up ideas at Expo 2020 Dubai’s India pavilion.
Their innovations provided cost-effective solutions to a myriad of challenges, from public health to sustainability and mobility.
Similarly, students at Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI) in the Dubai Design District – which offers the region’s first multidisciplinary Bachelor of Design – were selected by global energy company Eni to showcase their circular economy concept, Wastology, at the Italian Pavilion.
These examples show the various avenues specialised progammes can open for students at an earlier stage.
Such incubation platforms and framework, paired with our ecosystem’s internationally accredited higher education programmes, are fast-tracking students to becoming economically active while facilitating innovative solutions and disruptive ideas to enter the market.
The UAE is already becoming a key exporter of technology and other products, empowered by a comprehensive business landscape featuring global and regional companies as well as major incubators like in5.
Universities can and must continue to play a pivotal part in powering the country and the wider region’s entrepreneurial engine.
Considering our ecosystem’s ethnically diverse student body as well as Dubai’s multicultural makeup, students can bring original insights, experiences and solutions that can impact wider geographies if given the right environment to experiment and expand.
Mohammad Abdullah, Managing Director of Dubai International Academic City, a member of TECOM Group
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