Global Entrepreneurship Week 2022

Startup and venture creation and similar real-world project-based initiatives create opportunities to drive innovation for those pursuing both traditional and non-traditional career paths. While technical skills and theoretical knowledge can be taught, they are best absorbed when put to the test in a live scenario with real stakes and accountability. This helps develop “the entrepreneurial mindset” – a collection of competencies that develop from an authentic experience where an individual has the opportunity to lead, is held accountable for tasks, develops their personal network, and, ultimately, becomes more self-aware. The process of trying to launch a new venture – whether successful or not – builds the entrepreneurial mindset, complements academic learning and supports the growth of individuals.

The thinking that innovation as a practice and set of competencies is relevant to all units at TMU. Entrepreneurial thinking can enable new experiential learning opportunities for faculty members and their students, it can create new pathways toward employability for graduates and staff who support them, it can spur multidisciplinary collaborations for researchers, it can empower a more diverse community through inclusive programming, it can inspire growth to new locations and to breathe new life into long-standing industries and sectors, and it can help answer the question of what it means to be a university in the 21st century.

Access is also about structures and equity within innovation. TMU is the perfect institution to champion new avenues to enable diverse groups to engage with innovation projects and unlock entrepreneurial thinking.