President Irfaan Ali announced plans on Tuesday for an innovation fund aimed at fostering business development and entrepreneurship at St. Stanislaus College in Georgetown.
The Head of State also proposed launching an innovation competition within the school to encourage students to develop new products and technologies.
“I know many persons will be willing to contribute to that fund where we encourage innovation and have the children of this institution coming up with ideas, ideas of entrepreneurship, product development, developing a new scientific model through research and development, through critical thinking, through innovative thinking,” President Ali said.
He was speaking at the unveiling of the $51 million renovation of the science lab and staffroom at the school.
To support the innovation fund, the President also called on the private sector.
President Dr Irfaan Ali (Photo: Ministry of Education/October 2024)
With creative ideas through this fund, President Ali explained that they will invest and the school would “retain a proprietary stake”, generating future revenue to reinvest into the school.
“If we can build this model out and if we can showcase this model, because we also need to get the private sector to support the idea, we can be able to create many firsts in innovation of this school.
“Once a student comes up with an idea, we must be able to make that idea viable and then take them through the process of building out that idea so it can become a growing asset to them,” President Ali explained.
He further talked about possibly providing business grants to students with creative ideas, helping them transform these concepts into viable business ventures.
Meanwhile, President Ali also spoke about pushing sport, particularly hockey at the school.
He also mentioned plans of a world class hockey field that is currently underway.
“We cannot have a world class facility in every area of sport but we know in that new facility we can have our first international standard hockey field. To do this we would need to raise US$500,000 or $100 million GYD, the government is committed to being onboard,” President Ali said.
He urged everyone at the event on Tuesday night, including the diaspora to come together to make these plans a reality.
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