Youth Entrepreneurship Program Leaders to Present at Veracruz Conference

University civic engagement leaders and scholars from 15 countries representing the Youth Economic Participation Initiative will present learnings from their programs at this year’s Talloires Network Leaders Conference in Veracruz, Mexico.

Youth employability is a major theme in the relevancy of higher education to communities and employers in this generation. In some countries, youth under 25 years old represent two thirds of the population and the majority of unemployed people, even among university graduates. Under the theme of social responsibility in higher education, these leaders will discuss several case studies with a focus on the right to livelihood and the responsibility to prepare youth for employment and entrepreneurship after graduation. Each presenter will share the unique and intriguing stories of their best practices, learning from failures, student employment successes, and community collaboration.

Using creative interactive components, one of the opening plenaries will host a panel of eight leaders discussing the impacts of entrepreneurship education. Offering a “marketplace of ideas,” the session will present evidence-based findings from a three-year, multi-site program that includes practices for developing entrepreneurial teams, using the arts to develop interpersonal skills, elements of technical incubators, and critical pedagogies that support entrepreneurship.

A second session will explore “disruptive practices and pedagogies” in universities, their benefits to local communities, and the goal of training youth to become leaders and entrepreneurs. Five leaders from Burkina Faso, Malaysia, South Africa, Mexico and Zimbabwe will share strategies for implementing a leadership program for university students, how incubators can identify entrepreneurial skills, and how to create curricula linked to the job market.

A third session will focus on case studies from Cameroon, Uganda, Egypt and South Africa, showing the impact of community-based research on student’s right to livelihood. This session will be hosted by a panel of six professors and two students who work in community-based health care, refugee services, gender and global citizenship studies.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from the most innovative and productive programs in the Talloires Network. To read more and join the conversation, check out the topics and contributors at: TNConnects.net

TNLC is open to the public. To register and attend, click here.