Joint News Release ITE Students Get Business-Savvy with NTU s Entrepreneurship Programme, #startable At only 19 years old, Mohammad Affandy has dreams of becoming an entrepreneur who can make a difference in the lives of the community. His passion for business led him to set up a pushcart store in his campus. Despite facing difficulties due to his health, Affandy, a secondyear Higher Nitec in Logistics for International Trade student from ITE College East, is looking ahead with huge aspirations. He hopes to expand his business by developing customised batik shirts. Tapping on the talents of local artists, he intends to incorporate their creative designs in the shirts, and through this, he hopes he will revive the batik culture while encouraging more artistic talents. Affandy presented and pitched his business proposal to a panel of judges today during the Finals of the #startable Entrepreneurship Programme. Launched on 1 July 2013 by the Nanyang Technological University s (NTU) Nanyang Technopreneurship Centre (NTC) and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), #startable is the educational institutions first collaborative effort in entrepreneurship promotion and development. Supported by the Chua Thian Poh Entrepreneurship Education Fund managed by NTU s NTC, the programme aims to enhance the business skills of an enterprising group of 28 students from the three ITE Colleges. Mr Aw York Bin, Deputy CEO (Industry), ITE, is pleased about the initiative. He shared, #startable is an excellent programme to seed and nurture aspiring entrepreneurs among our students, as they learn the fundamentals of making an idea a viable business. For this group of enterprising youths with high hopes and brilliant ideas, we believe that the programme will help them to keep it real and enrich them with the knowledge and tools to become successful entrepreneurs and ITE success stories in future. 1
Our collaboration with ITE, made possible by our donor, Mr Chua Thian Poh s kind sponsorship, is another platform for NTU to contribute to the community, said Associate Professor Hooi Den Huan, Director of NTC. We are pleased that student participants from across the three ITE Colleges have benefitted from our faculty s expertise and are embarking on their journey of kickstarting a business with their newfound essential knowledge. We believe that this collaboration will be a pivotal step in growing entrepreneurship as we continue to nurture a new generation of budding entrepreneurs in Singapore. Together, NTU and ITE have worked closely to identify and develop the #startable programme aimed at enhancing the entrepreneurship learning exposure of student participants. Over five intensive and enriching days, NTC organised a camp and workshop where NTU faculty and business experts trained and equipped students with the requisite knowledge and skills for entrepreneurship competence. The joint programme places strong emphasis on challenging and refining the premise of the students entrepreneurship ideas and plans at every step of the way. For the finalists including Affandy, their journey culminates at the Finals, where winning teams get the chance to win a grant of up to S$10,000 to kick-start the business of their dreams. For details of the finalists, see Annex A. Released on: 13 August 2013 2
About the Chua Thian Poh Entrepreneurship Education Fund Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is the proud beneficiary of the S$5 million Entrepreneurship Education Fund, made possible by a gift from business leader Mr. Chua Thian Poh, Chairman & CEO of Ho Bee Group. Together with a dollar-to-dollar matching by the government, Mr Chua Thian Poh s philanthropic contribution has been endowed to Nanyang Technological University to foster entrepreneurship and innovation education in four key areas, namely the Chua Thian Poh Annual Distinguished Speaker Series, the Chua Thian Poh Overseas Fellowship, the Chua Thian Poh Venture Fund and the Chua Thian Poh Overseas Immersion Award. As part of its reach out to the greater community, the Chua Thian Poh Entrepreneurship Education Fund is being extended to benefit ITE students as well, with its inaugural entrepreneurship training camp launched on 1 July 2013. A pioneer batch of 28 students with keen entrepreneurship interest went through 5-day camp and workshop to enhance their business knowledge and skills edge through the camp. About ITE The Institute of Technical Education (ITE), Singapore, was established as a post-secondary education institution in 1992 under the Ministry of Education. ITE is a principal provider of career and technical education and key developer of national occupational skills certification and standards to enhance Singapore's workforce competitiveness. Under its "One ITE System, Three Colleges" Model of Education and Governance, ITE has three Colleges, comprising ITE College Central, ITE College East and ITE College West. For more information, visit: www.ite.edu.sg. About Nanyang Technological University A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has 33,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, and Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences. It has a new medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, set up jointly with Imperial College London. NTU is also home to world-class autonomous institutes the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI), Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight (ACI). A fast-growing university with an international outlook, NTU is putting its global stamp on Five Peaks of Excellence: Sustainable Earth, Future Healthcare, New Media, New Silk Road, and Innovation Asia. Besides the main Yunnan Garden campus, NTU also has a satellite campus in Singapore s science and tech hub, one-north, and a third campus in Novena, Singapore s medical district. For more information, visit http://www.ntu.edu.sg/ 3
Annex A Finalists of #startable No Team Synopsis of Business Proposal Anuar Hassan, a cycling enthusiast and a first-year student in Higher Nitec in Shipping Operations & Services course at ITE College Central was shocked when he came across a motionless rider next to a crashed motorbike in an early morning road accident. 1 Scalar 2 ToyXC 3 Trendformer 4 Movezee 5 Ministry of Fans Highly conscious of road safety, he started brainstorming for ideas to make the roads safer for cyclists like him, as well as for other road users. He then came up with the idea of marrying a simple cyclist s glove with blinking LED lights. With its miniature size, light weight and low power consumption the LED device can be attached to the gloves to blink in the dark and, in turn, get the cyclist noticed, especially when putting out his hand to switch lanes or to turn corners at road junctions. A website for toy enthusiasts to meet, share and enhance their interest and knowledge on all types of toys. Toy enthusiasts are keen and always on the lookout for the latest and more fascinating toys to acquire. They are known to sell and upgrade and even throw some away to keep their collection quantity in check. The ToyXC acts as the exchange centre for the enthusiasts to sell, swap and exchange their toys. Have you ever eaten potato chips from a roller tube - like Pringles, Lay or Rollers? You will know it can be difficult reaching your hand deep into the tube as they run low. Ever got your hand stuck? Trendformer team aims to change the design by using a slider tray to hold the chips. This allows the consumer to draw out the tray to bring out the chips for easy pick up. The packing design can be used for other snacks as well. The design will make it easy and fun to use and promote group gatherings, too anyone can join in to have a bite. Movezee is a Mobile App for busy people on the move. It is a one-stop Mobile App platform for car owners to access and source for a wide range of products and services related to their vehicles. Quick, useful and costeffective, drivers can access information on locations, costs, special offers and discounts for frequent purchases such as petrol. Soccer fans and die-hards like nothing more than to share their love for the game with fellow enthusiasts. The game invokes lots of passion and interests in sharing and comparing their views on the latest happenings both locally and around the world. They enjoy sharing the latest views on the best team, the best game or the best player. They often predict the outcomes of upcoming games and even argue about their takes. They also trade and sell football products, souvenirs and memorabilia, including video clips. The Ministry of Fans platform aims as a resource to connect with the fans and football interest groups. 4
Mohammad Affandy typifies a selfless boy, who despite having great difficulties with anorectal abnormality and facing against great odds himself, still thinks of helping others. 6 BatiQ A second-year student in Higher Nitec in Logistics for International Trade course at ITE College East, Affandy currently puts his entrepreneurship interest and skills to good use in running a pushcart business on campus. He is keen to grow his business and is adding customised batik shirts to his product line. For this, he plans to tap into local artistic talents to contribute creative ideas to incorporate into his batik shirt designs. He will then sell his shirts beyond the campus, from which commissions can be paid to the artists. He hopes this will contribute to the batik culture and encourage more local talents. 5
Annex B About NTU s Nanyang Technopreneurship Center (NTC) The Nanyang Technopreneurship Center (NTC), a multi-disciplinary university-level centre in the Nanyang Technological University, was established in January 2001 with seed funding from the Economic Development Board (EDB), Singapore. It is committed to fostering, promoting and nurturing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship endeavours through technology entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship development initiatives. As part of its mission to deliver a holistic entrepreneurship education, the NTC encourages passion as a key motivator for dreams to be realized; inculcates an entrepreneurial mindset to initiate innovative changes wherever possible; harnesses technology as an enabling tool for learning and business; and stresses the importance of developing responsible and ethical entrepreneurs who are committed to using their entrepreneurial expertise and resources to bring about significant economic and social development in the communities in which they operate. Entire communities stand to benefit over the long term when livelihoods and lives are uplifted in this way, and this is in essence, the ethos of the NTC s philosophy in inspiring and developing entrepreneurs with the heart, will and capability to make a positive and meaningful difference to society. For more information, please visit www.ntu.edu.sg/ntc. 6