A first grant from the PRESE has made it possible to consolidate the Pôle d’entrepreneurship collégial de l’Estrie (PECE), in collaboration with the Accélérateur entrepreneurial Desjardins (AED) from the Université de Sherbrooke. This project made it possible to hire a coordinator who in collaboration with the Hub Establishments, developed a major annual entrepreneurial activity program intended for Estrie students (business models, social economy, art of the pitch, etc.), and to create a learning community of teachers from three colleges and several disciplines in entrepreneurial pedagogy.

Part 1: development of entrepreneurial activities for students

• Development of an annual program and work processes.
• Opening a dialogue with the 3 college student associations.
• Mobilization of ecosystem expertise with students from the 3 colleges, and networking opportunities for youth.
• Expertise in business networking (Pôle d’entrepreneurship collégial de l’Estrie, Youth Entrepreneurship from CQCM, La Ruche, etc.)
• UdeS expertise; from entrepreneurial knowledge and pedagogy, to AED coaches in workshops

Winter program 2020

A total of 417 students from 18 different programs participated in the following activities:

• 3 business model workshops (217 students).
• A workshop on social economy (37 students).
• A conference on the art of the pitch (163 students).
• In the COVID-19 context, 4 of the following activities were cancelled: Défi Osentreprendre, Crowdfunding Panel, Salon de l’entrepreneuriat collégial and the Concours de Pitch Étudiant

Part 2: forming of a learning community (teachers and staff)

• Including a greater number of educators in the conversations (teachers from various disciplines and guidance counsellors, project leaders, teachers who hold student training at heart).
• Creation of training spaces for educators.
• Experiential Learning workshops on collective intelligence offered during Winter 2020.
• Design Thinking workshop (16 participants).
• Prototyping workshop for a pedagogical entrepreneurial activity (30 participants).
• Hosting the Célébrons la pédagogie entrepreneuriale event in Sherbrooke (45 educators from 25 colleges in Quebec).