This week, Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran announced the recipients of the Department of Education’s Perkins V Entrepreneurship Education and Training Grant.
The grant aims to help scale entrepreneurship-related initiatives across the state’s career and technical education (CTE) programs. A total of 22 agencies were awarded, ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 dollars for each proposal.
“While we know the quality of Florida’s career and technical education programs is unmatched, it is vital that our students graduate as critical thinkers, value creators and excellent communicators,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis. “Entrepreneurship education and training ensures for a well-rounded graduate and this is another step toward our goal to make Florida the best state in the nation for workforce education by 2030.”
Florida’s Perkins V State Plan has committed to creating a robust entrepreneurial statewide ecosystem through its CTE programs. The plan recognizes how self-employment and the ability to create value contributes to Florida’s economic security. For this reason, the plan attempts to help all CTE stakeholders understand how to better support interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial ways of thinking and acting across all career pathways.
“Being an entrepreneur, or an intrapreneur – an employee who can add value from within – is a viable path to improving Florida’s economic and social mobility rates. CTE does not just prepare students to take jobs, but to create the jobs of the future,” said Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran. “The idea is that we do not want to just technically train, but to also equip all students with the necessary employability skills.”
The $1.5 million will fund a variety of initiatives, such as teacher professional development and certification programs in entrepreneurship education to the development of student idea-accelerator programs or start-up CTE boot camps for budding entrepreneurs; and underwriting the costs associated with integrating entrepreneurship education and training into existing CTE programs of study. The grant aims to help school districts and colleges expand community and business partnerships to better connect CTE students with area enterprises and venture capitalists.
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