30 May, 2018

Helen McGuirk, head of the Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence and George Bulman, Operations Manager for the Rubicon Centre are once again travelling to Vietnam to provide valuable input in to the successful Vietnam Ireland Bilateral Education Exchange (VIBE) programme.

The overall objective of the VIBE programme is to contribute to Vietnam’s socio-economic development priorities by encouraging mutually beneficial development links between the two countries, with particular reference to third-level education and research cooperation.

Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) is strengthening its educational links with Vietnam through the StartUp Runway programme, established in 2015. This programme links CIT and the University of Economics at the University of DaNang (UE-UD) in a programme to support entrepreneurship education and research. The project is funded by Irish Aid through the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland and supported by the Irish Embassy in Vietnam.

The programme facilitates Vietnamese student entrepreneurs to compete to win an opportunity to spend a month at CIT’s Rubicon Centre participating in the CIT Student Inc. programme. The StartUp Runway programme enables lecturers from CIT’s Rubicon and Hincks Centres to provide lectures and workshops in Vietnam on the topic of new venture planning.

Now in its fourth year, the CIT visits take place in March, April and June. The exciting awards ceremony announcing the three winning groups will occur during this June visit.

The 2018-2019 StartUp Runway programme extends beyond DaNang city to include lectures/workshops at the University of DaNang-Kontum City Campus, Hui and Quy Nhon Universities. In addition, the VIBE project provides valuable opportunities for research collaborations between CIT and UE-UD, in the area of entrepreneurship education and comparative studies in entrepreneurship opportunities.