College eng'g curriculum to include 'technopreneurship' track

CEBU CITY, Philippines - Engineering students in the Philippines will soon have 'technopreneurship' in their curriculum after the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Philippine Science and Technology Foundation Manila Inc. (PhilDev), to develop the subject.

Under the MOU, CHED and PhilDev will cooperate in the creation of a subject called technopreneurship, a mandated three-unit general education elective for undergraduate engineering students. A track elective will also be created for both undergraduate and graduate students, and will be piloted among select higher education institutions.

PhilDev said a training program will also be conducted for engineering faculty who will be teaching the courses.

CHED will also review existing engineering programs in selected universities and develop, through the help of PhilDev, a transition and scaling plan to identify steps to be taken after 2016.

"Entrepreneurship in science and technoolgy and how this can be supported by higher education is a new challenge," said CHED Chair Patricia Licuanan.

She added that a 1-percent increase in the level of college-educated entrepreneurs can result to up to 12 percent increase in the country's gross domestic product per capita.

"Beyond providing the structures, we must also ask ourselves, can our learning environment promote and encourage this behavior?" she asked, calling on the government to implement more entrepreneur-friendly policies and improve the quality of learning that happens in the classroom.