The Academic Working Capital program will have big news this year: students from eight State Technical Schools (Etecs) will be able to subscribe to the 2nd call to participate in the program. In addition, the AWC team will provide training on scientific entrepreneurship and innovation to teachers of the eight Etecs and two Technology Colleges (Fatecs). Around 30 principals and teachers of the institutions met on February 17th at the Central Administration of Paula Souza Center – partner of Instituto TIM on this initiative –, in São Paulo (SP), to learn about AWC and the work to be done.
Professor G. Monteiro, Project coordinator of the Department of Management and Business of the Paula Souza Center, opened the event talking about entrepreneurial skills that can be an advantage to keep the student in the job market. According to the professor, the partnership with AWC responds to a change in teaching and learning methodology by which Etecs are going through. Entrepreneurial skills, such as planning, initiative, creativity, teamwork, among others, will be present in the curriculum of Etecs to prepare students for the demands of professional life.
“This project will complement our student training policy for the job market, bringing the student close to the job market with new teaching methodologies and, also, collaborating with the training of teachers”, he said. The professor said that the financial support offered by AWC will be essential for students to improve the projects that they already carry out during the semester. “With this investment that students will have, they can develop a project that meets the demands of the market”, he said.
The coordinators of AWC Marcos Barretto, professor at the University of São Paulo (USP), and Diogo Dutra, mechatronic engineer, presented Instituto TIM and the program and explained how the work will be developed with teachers and students of Etecs and Fatecs. In the first semester, participating teachers will form groups to create a technology-based product and prepare a project according to the requirements of the Public Notice. “We are proposing that the groups of teachers experience the process, live the process. It is an invitation for you to dive right in and behave like students”, said Marcos.
Between April and July, the teachers will participate in four training meetings and in AWC’s online and on-site workshops. In addition to expanding the knowledge of teachers in entrepreneurship and business modelling, the goal is to help them to become mentors for students in the development of technology-based products. Therefore, in the second semester, they will be invited to follow AWC’S mentoring sessions, workshops and Investment Fair. “Mentoring is not about giving answers, but asking questions. Thinking differently to leave the role of teacher and enter the mentor role is part of what we will work with you at this stage”, explained Marcos.
As for the Technical High School students of the Etecs, they will undergo the same working process that the groups of university students (including students from Fatecs) are already going through at AWC. Ten groups of participating Etecs will be selected in the 2nd call of the program, which will be open between March 1st and April 13th. At the end of the event, principals and teachers asked questions and talked to the AWC team.
