19 October 2012

American Professor Kent Millington visited Vitebsk region, where he shared with Belarusian pupils and students secrets of effective start-ups and spoke about principles of modern education that can make them competitive in the labor market.

Director of technology commercialization in Utah Valley University (Utah, USA), Professor Kent Millington held trainings on building and development of successful business for students of Polotsk State University and Masherov State University of Vitebsk. American professor gave a detailed description of the stages of business: idea - its implementation – business management. What is interesting, in the expert’s opinion, there is no need for multipage business plans to understand a business model clearly – comprehensive information about the company's business strategy must fit on one sheet of paper.

If you have a clear vision of your company business model, you can fit it on a single sheet of paper

He paid attention to the fact that companies engaged in innovative activity become successful in the first place. One of the main difficulties to overcome for a young business is building a system of effective management at the stage when implementation of business idea leads to sharp increase in the company performance.

The professor also underlined the importance of keeping an eye on market tendencies, so that to be able to adjust to new technologies and therefore not to find the company lagging behind.

Kent Millington’s advice sparked a great interest among the audience that resulted in numerous questions. Participants showed the most acute interest towards real life examples from Kent Millington’s experience.

There was not enough time to answer all the questions during the training

Also, Mr. Millington met with pupils and professors of Novopolotsk Gymnasium #1. Professor advised them how to approach the choice of future occupation and organize processes of self-education and self-development.

He noted that in the last ten years, world education system underwent significant changes, Internet being one of the reasons, removing barriers between countries and therefore between local labor markets. In connection to this, Kent Millington recommended pupils of the gymnasium to pay close attention to the study of foreign languages that will expand their opportunities for self-realization and travelling.

Novopolotsk gymnasium was a pleasant surprise for Kent Millington

Kent Millington believes it is especially important for students to put maximum effort into studying in high school. He explained that this will help to quickly adapt to the changing process of education in the university and get used to self-education. The latter is a must for a specialist who wants to be in demand in the labor market.

“I've never seen such a school, not in a single country. The design of classrooms is unique here, a very cosy environment is created for studying”, - Kent Millington shared his impressions of the gymnasium. Comparing Novopolotsk gymnasium with American schools, he was surprised that even at 8 pm students do not hurry home, doing elective courses and studying on their own.

The training of Professor Kent Millington is by no means boring, it’s a live chat with students

The visit of Professor Kent Millington who is well-known in US academic circles is a continuation of Hi-Tech Park (HTP) co-operation with leading American universities. The visit was organized at the request of HTP with the support of American party and will increase the attractiveness of innovative entrepreneurship in IT in Belarus.