Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2004

MWCC RECEIVES $25,000 GRANT TO DEVELOP AN ENTREPRENEURIAL RESOURCE CENTER

(DEVENS) – Mount Wachusett Community College announced today it has been awarded a $25,000 grant from The Coleman Foundation and U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship to develop entrepreneurship/small business education programs and an Entrepreneurial Resource Center to serve pre-startup, new and existing small businesses in North Central Massachusetts.

“This grant will strengthen the region’s business community,” said MWCC President Daniel M. Asquino.

“Small businesses are the backbone of the local economy,” said Asquino. “More than 75 percent of new jobs in U.S. are in small business. We’ll partner with today’s entrepreneurs to build these companies.”

Under the guidance of MWCC’s Division of Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development, the grant funds will be used to develop career pathways for entrepreneurship and small business development. “We constantly seek the advice of our business partners and will work to tailor these pathways to meet their needs,” said Vice President of Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development Jacqueline Feldman.

An 11 non-credit seminar series will begin at the Devens Applied Manufacturing Center, located at Sherman Square, 100 Jackson Road, Devens, in September. There will be course offerings in English and Spanish.

Meanwhile, MWCC’s business education specialists will design a one-year certificate program to present to college officials and will develop a strategic plan by September 2005 for the creation of an entrepreneurship/small business concentration area for the college’s associate’s degree program.

With the grant funds, the new Entrepreneurial Resource Center at the Devens Applied Manufacturing Center can provide equipment, reference sources and counseling support services to entrepreneurs and small business owners who aspire to develop or improve their business operations.

Some of these services will be available through the center’s Incubator Without Walls. The innovative Incubator Without Walls will give participating entrepreneurs and small business owners access to such resources as computers, copy machines, conference rooms and consultants on a fee-for-service basis.

Asquino noted that the U.S. Small Business Administration found that, in 2000, 98 percent of Massachusetts businesses were small (employing less than 500 workers). Also that year, businesses with less than 500 workers employed 49.7 percent of the state’s 3,087,044 employees.

In Worcester County, he said, the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2001 County Business Patterns report revealed that more than 50 percent of companies had one to four employees and almost 20 percent employed five to nine workers.

The 2000 Massachusetts census showed that 11.7 percent of households had self-employment income and more than 10 percent of households in Worcester County earned self-employment income, Asquino said.

Nationally, the SBA reports that small businesses provide around 75 percent of the new jobs added to the U.S. economy each year and employ 50 percent of the private work force in the country.

Starting a business is no easy task, however. “We want to be the helping hand that strengthens this economic engine in this region,” said Business and Professional Development Specialist Lisa Derby Oden. “There are many different things the new center can do to contribute to the success of this sector.”

Kimberly Caisse
Staff Writer
(978) 630-9564 / fax: (978) 630-9561
kcaisse@mwcc.mass.edu

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