In a significant new development for faculty engaged in teaching entrepreneurship in India, the IIMB and NEN have come together in a strategic relationship to work together as partners in the NEN initiated Entrepreneurship Educators Course (EEC).

As part of this partnership, NEN will work closely with the Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at IIM Bangalore, a leading center for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education in Asia to bring important knowledge and skills to faculty participants, with the aim to launch a pool of world class entrepreneurship educators in India.

The Entrepreneurship Educators Course was originally launched by NEN in partnership with Stanford University's Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP). As a result of the MOU, IIMB will now join NEN as a partner in EEC along with Stanford. The IIMB partnership will help provide critical input on overall EEC course design, content, teaching and certification, along with physical infrastructure.

Laura Parkin, Executive Director, NEN says, "NEN is delighted to be partnering with IIM B and Stanford, two of the world's best institutes, to develop the Entrepreneurship Educators Course. Increasingly, young people are learning entrepreneurship while on campus. Therefore, faculty must be armed with the best global practices in entrepreneurship education, so that they can help prepare their students to make the most of today's opportunities. The EEC fills a vital need by bringing world class, innovative practices to India's growing pool of entrepreneurship faculty."

Over 80% of the faculty that enrolls in the EEC has never taught high growth entrepreneurship. The EEC, a rigorous foundation course has been specifically designed to address the needs of new entrepreneurship faculty. The EEC is designed to educate faculty to build comprehensive high impact entrepreneurship programs on their campuses. This is the only such course in Asia, and one of the most comprehensive entrepreneurship faculty development courses in the world. Currently the EEC helping to develop over 250 entrepreneurship faculty members from NEN institutes across 26 cities and towns in the country.

According to Prof. Kalyani Gandhi, Professor and Chairperson, Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at IIM Bangalore, "IIM Bangalore as one of India's premier institutes of learning recognizes its responsibility to provide an impetus to entrepreneurial learning programs. It gives us great pride to collaborate with NEN and STVP to facilitate a process which will help plant the seed of entrepreneurial learning amongst the youth of India."

Tina Seelig, Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program says, "We are happy with the new phase of collaboration in the Entrepreneurship Educators Course. At STVP our mission is to spearhead the process for faculty and students worldwide based on best practices and lessons learned. Similarly, the goal for EEC is to inspire the entrepreneurship educators in India and to provide a framework that they can use immediately with their students."

The EEC is supported and funded by the Wadhwani Foundation (WF), a foundation that catalysed NEN in 2002. WF is helping by providing full scholarships to each faculty participant to cover the cost of participating in the course, as well as covering costs incurred by NEN's partners.

About NEN

National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) is a not-for-profit initiative of the Wadhwani Foundation working to inspire, educate and support the younger generation of entrepreneurs. Currently NEN is working with more than 200 top-tier academic institutes reaching over 200,000 students on their campuses.

The organization was co-founded in 2003 by leading Indian institutes, including IIT-Bombay, IIM-Ahmedabad, BITS Pilani, SP Jain and IBAB. NEN's annual Entrepreneurship Week (E Week) India is a nationwide campaign to celebrate the opportunities of today, and help improve the ecosystem for entrepreneurship in India. NEN's support to member institutes includes on ground consultants; a nationwide network of peers; an online platform - www.nenonline.org; the NEN Speakers Club; as well as courseware and other teaching resources. NEN's Advisory Board includes eminent experts such as Kiran Mazumdar Shaw - Biocon; Naina Lal Kidwai - HSBC; Arun Seth - British Telecom; Prof Howard Sevenson - Harvard Business School to name a few.

About Stanford Technology Ventures Programme (STVP)

STVP is dedicated to accelerating high-technology entrepreneurship research and education for engineers and scientists not just at Stanford, but across the world. Its affiliation with NEN is but one of many outreach efforts fast-establishing STVP as the global glue for a network of educators and business people focused on entrepreneurship.

About IIM Bangalore (The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore)

IIM Bangalore has evolved into a premier centre for management education and research. In addition to its flagship management programs, IIMB is a leader in a wide range of top quality executive education programs to meet the continuing education needs of business executives. IIM Bangalore consistently figures among the top business schools in India in domestic and international surveys.

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