BY GRACE LIMA
TWENTY-FIVE youth from Kokopo, province of East New Britain, are now being empowered to add a Certificate of Entrepreneurship Education to their CVs in order to seek employment.
The students recently graduated from Fountain Business Institute, a new business school in Tavuiliu District, Central Gazelle LLG, Gazelle District.
The students were the first to graduate from Fountain Business Institute and Flexible Open Distance Education (FODE) after 16 weeks of study.
The Fountain Business Institute and FODE is owned and operated by secondary school graduate teachers specializing in business and education.
The school’s principal, Ambrose Kiapen, said the facility is registered with the Investment Promotion Agency and began as a sole proprietorship under his ownership.
Mr. Kiapen said he personally observed that at the end of each academic year, thousands of provincial and national school leavers entered the labor market in search of work.
“This bulk of school leavers is the group that contributes a lot to social problems and illegal activities in today’s societies,” he said.
“The purpose of establishing the Business Institute is to educate and equip young adults with business knowledge, skills and concepts so that they can develop entrepreneurial attitudes and discover their skills to start their own business.”
Mr Kiapen said the school is registered with the National Training Council (NTC) but the registration process with the NTC is pending.
That’s because they lack the funds to construct proper buildings that would be certified by the national building authority for lectures, libraries, washrooms and computer rooms.
The facilities are mandatory requirements of NTC. Land is available for the school buildings, but the only obstacle is the lack of funds.
The school is currently enrolling students in Computer Science and Accounting, and enrollment ends next month.
The principal used his retirement fund to build a double classroom with two staff offices that have yet to be double walled and wired.
“The Fountain Business Institute was founded with the hope of inspiring, shaping and equipping young and energetic Papua New Guineans determined to be part of the competitive business community,” said Mr. Kiapen.
He said the institution wants to inspire its students to work boldly and decisively towards realizing their dreams, and appealed to the government and stakeholders to get involved in education to improve youth in the province.
