Benguet State University has joined 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 institutes and contribute to building entrepreneurship culture among its graduates.

The three-year project is 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 European Union experts as mentors, and drafting policy strategy for business-university cooperation.

BSU President Felipe S. Comila welcomed the opportunity since it will be a step toward the university’s vision of becoming an international university that champions innovation and embraces intergenerational roles.

Dr. Roscinto Ian Lumbres, initial coordinator at BSU, said Project Pathway may be considered as a sequel to Project Antenna, which is also an Erasmus+ co-funded project that seeks to strengthen internationalization among Philippine HEIs.

The four partner universities in the project are Ateneo de Manila University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Lyceum of the Philippines University Batangas, and Saint Paul University Philippines in Cagayan Valley.

The Commission of Higher Education, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, and 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 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.

Source: Baguio Midland Courier