Terrace, BC – Students in the Link to Employment and Academic Pathways (LEAP) program are testing their entrepreneurial skills with a mobile vendor cart on the Terrace campus this week.
For the rest of this week, students will be parked in the atrium at Waap Sa’mn (House of Spruce) or Waap Amgam (House of Cedar) with a cart packed with popcorn, candy bags, and other items.
Operating the cart is part of a new course in the Retail Services Program called Leap into Entrepreneurship. In the course, students go through training in customer service, communications, and debit processing (point of sale). LEAP into Entrepreneurship prepares learners with barriers to employment for entrepreneurship opportunities within their community. Fundamental components of the course include understanding the key components of entrepreneurship, developing a basic business plan, and then creating or sourcing a product, marketing, and pitching it successfully.
The launch of the vendor cart represents the culmination of a three-year faculty innovation project. Three phases included securing a grant, visiting universities with similar programs, conducting thorough research on entrepreneurship for students with diverse abilities, and collaborating with faculty, program leaders, and students to determine the best strategy.
Instructors of the LEAP program saw a need in their students to learn about entrepreneurship, and use this opportunity for them to explore to turn what they are interested in into a business.
The course led to many successes, such as boosting students' confidence in interacting with the public, providing practical learning experiences, enhancing problem-solving skills and adaptability, and fostering connections with fellow students and campus staff.
Stay tuned for the cart coming back with more goodies and handcrafted goods made by the students!
The Link to Employment and Academic Pathways (LEAP) program includes the Workplace Skills Training Program pathway or the Retail Services Program pathway.
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