Growing Indonesia – a Triangular Approach (GITA) integrates business – university collaboration, graduate entrepreneurship and enterprise creation.
With a population of over 260 million, Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy and the world’s fourth most populous nation. Current support for start-ups is fragmented and there is a need for a more coordinated approach by educational institutions, government bodies and industry in building Indonesia’s entrepreneurial capacity and in reducing reliance on foreign labour as well as outward economic migration.
The Growing Indonesia – a Triangular Approach (GITA) project is creating a growing network of Growth Hubs across Indonesia aimed at embedding entrepreneurship education into University curricula and providing support services to local entrepreneurs and start-up businesses. These hubs are physical spaces with an incubation facility for cultivating innovation and exploiting new ideas applied to the local and regional economies.
The creation of Growth Hubs is the central and outward facing component of the innovative Growing Indonesia Triangular Approach (GITA) that integrates business-university collaboration, graduate entrepreneurship and enterprise creation in a strategic way to embed entrepreneurial thinking and activity across all organisational levels.
The GITA project is funded by the European Union Capacity Building in Higher Education Programme which offers a unique opportunity to strengthen higher education ties between Europe and Indonesia.
Why does the EU support entrepreneurial capacity building in Indonesia?
EU funding through the capacity building programme offers a unique opportunity to strengthen higher education ties between Europe and Indonesia. Funding within Indonesia does not currently exist which would allow for Universities to capitalise on this innovative step change in activity.
Although established at the University of Gloucestershire (UK), the Growth Hub model is an emerging initiative across the UK and this funding will allow Indonesian Universities and their stakeholders to participate in this exciting approach to university-enterprise cooperation.
Without EU funding, the project would not be able to draw together leading expertise from four EU countries. The EU partners in this project have relevant expertise that can be applied to the different Indonesian Universities’ contexts and aligned to their specific and unique capacity building requirements.
Who are the stakeholders in Indonesia and how will they benefit?
The project operates at a national, regional, local, institutional and programme level.
- The Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education in Indonesia
- The Ministry of Trade
- Universities in Indonesia
- Students and academics
- Local enterprises
- Local communities
How will the project be implemented?
The project started in October 2017 and will run until October 2020. It is implemented in five stages.
Stage 1: This stage involves a self-assessment exercise of each participating University aimed at establishing the extent to which entrepreneurial capacity building is institutionally embedded. The HEInnovate self-assessment tool is used for this purpose, leading to the creation of action plans for each of the three components of the project: university-enterprise collaboration, graduate entrepreneurship and enterprise creation.
Stage 2: This stages involves a review of current programmes of study to assess in how far these encourage the development of entrepreneurial capacity building within students and graduates. This will culminate in the development of a comprehensive framework for embedding an interactive and progressive set of entrepreneurial learning outcomes (ELO) into programme curricula and career development planning.
Stage 3: This stage focuses on the design of a multi-level (i.e. network, institutional, and programme) learning outcome programme plans to embed sustainable state-of-the-art and targeted entrepreneurial learning pedagogies. This will involve engagement with external stakeholders with the University who contribute to enterprise support, guidance and advice within the student learning experience.
Stage 4: This stage involves the training and development of University staff in relation to the knowledge, skills and competences required to design and establish an Enterprise Incubation Unit within each participating University. Creation of a resource base for student learning, academics , graduates and early stage entrepreneurs, to support local enterprise development activities.
Stage 5: This stage concentrates on the development of physical Growth Hub space and creation of the digital infrastructure for the GITA Learning Network. The objectives are for Indonesian partner Universities to identify a space within their organisation that can be used to locate their Growth Hub, and for the EU partners to create the GITA Learning Network portal.
Quality management
Project quality planning will ensure the quality of all project activities, outputs, and partnership working through the entire life of the project. This will ensure that the project has a significant impact on the capacity for governance, strategic planning, and management in Indonesian Universities. The Advisory group and External Evaluator will provide externality and produce regular progress reports and evaluate the extent to which the project delivers the aims and objectives of the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education programme.