The Hawke’s Bay economy is changing and EIT is adapting to meet the era of the entrepreneur.

“Over the past decade there has been a massive global shift to entrepreneurial ecosystems,” said Jonathan Sibley, EIT’s Director of Research and Associate Professor, School of Business.

“It’s been estimated that 50 percent of all jobs created in OECD countries over the last decade have been created by innovative young firms. There is an increasing need for workers to be able to create their own jobs.”

This mindset is driving EIT to adapt and extend beyond teaching business courses for students looking for full-time career employment. Now it’s also working to foster and nurture the development of students’ abilities to create new businesses and new jobs. “It is important that we develop students’ ability to adapt to an uncertain and unpredictable future,” says Jonathan.

Entrepreneurship@EIT is the School of Business’ response to this new world of work.

It has three elements, working with students and budding entrepreneurs at differing stages of their development. YES@ EIT targets secondary school students; Entrepreneurs@EIT is for students at EIT; and Entrepreneurs Gym, which is currently in development, extends entrepreneurship

development capabilities across business in Hawke’s Bay.

Managing the first two elements is Ben Deller, a Masters in Applied Management post-graduate student. He was one of the original founders of the business that has since grown to become NOW. In true entrepreneurial style, the Airnet NZ business started in Ben’s brother’s laundry.

Ben started studying at EIT in 2015 and through his involvement with the School of Business faculty, he came in on the ground floor of the programme’s development. His role in the short term is to get Entrepreneurship@EIT off the ground and to create a framework to ensure it is authentic and sustainable.

“It’s amazing the ideas and existing businesses that students have. There’s incredible potential for some of them to be doing something really special. Our goal is to help them do that something special much earlier in their business career by supporting them through the programme,” said Ben.

YES@EIT, launched in 2017, aims to stimulate entrepreneurial interest by supporting the secondary schools’ Young Enterprise Scheme already running in the region through Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce.

EIT staff provide teaching sessions through its Trades Academy to those schools that don’t offer a business curriculum and an increasing number of the business faculty act as mentors for teams.

Importantly, EIT has provided seeding capital by way of competitive small-scale grants, recognising that not all school teams have family connections or discretionary income to assist teams establishing their YES business. In 2018, 28 teams were granted a total of $8400.

In 2019, EIT aims to launch the YES@ EIT programme at its Tairāwhiti campus in Gisborne.

The second element, Entrepreneurs@EIT was launched on the Hawke’s Bay campus in September this year. Its objective is to assist students to launch new business ventures or to grow existing businesses while they study. On offer are skills development, mentoring, networking, business support and an ‘entrepreneurs’ clinic’ to assist aspiring entrepreneurs to develop their skills.

An Entrepreneurs’ Clinic aims to develop self- awareness about a student’s entrepreneurial skills, capabilities, and importantly, what gaps they may have, says Ben, whose job it will then be to help develop a programme specifically to match their needs.

Ben is also responsible for helping the budding business owner with an industry- aligned mentor from the wider business community to support their business progress.

In addition, there are exclusive offers from businesses, such as membership of the Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce at a 50 percent discount.

The third strand, the Entrepreneurs’ Gym is in its early stages. EIT has been exploring the concept of development capability with various other economic powerhouses in the region including territorial authorities, Business Hawke’s Bay, the Hawke’s Bay Angel Network and the Icehouse.

EIT’s School of Computing is continuing to fine-tune its suite of programmes with robotics and automation as it responds to the changing needs of a fast-growing and evolving industry.

Late last year, a Government-backed report warned of a growing IT skills shortage in New Zealand.

The industry-driven Digital Skills Forum study, described as this country’s most comprehensive report on technology in a generation, noted that the number of New Zealanders graduating with tech- related degrees and diplomas was increasing at the rate of about seven percent – encouraging, it said, but not enough to meet industry growth.

Responsiveness to computing sector needs is reflected in EIT diploma and degree programmes that include industry-based placements or internships. These can and often do lead to offers of permanent employment.

Consulting regularly with an advisory committee that includes people working locally in the IT sector, the School of Computing tailors its programmes to prepare students for the fast-paced job market.

As an example of that – and subject to NZQA approval – it is introducing a new intelligent systems major as a further option for Bachelor of Computing Systems students.

Widely known in the business community as the co-founder of NOW, Ben Deller delights these days in telling people he is a student.

Having left the successful telecommunications company early last year, the 38-year-old is now dovetailing business consultancy work with part- time postgraduate studies at EIT.

Ben enjoyed his 14 years heading NOW’s sales and marketing team, but over time, he says, the focus became less about innovation and more about management and scale.

Having broadened its customer base, the company was continuing to expand beyond Hawke’s Bay. It needed an injection of capital to achieve further growth. In 2015 Spark bought a stake and, over a period of 12 months, Ben started looking at what else he might do.

“I was working with some really smart people,” he says, “and one in particular – she has a master’s degree – suggested I study, as she had, purely for the enjoyment.”