Cisco creates budding entrepreneurs in Ohio, D.C., and Phoenix

Helping to revive the U.S. economy one small start-up at a time is Cisco, which is piloting a national program aimed at teaching entrepreneurship. Cisco is targeting business-wannabes in Phoenix, Washington D.C., and Northeast Ohio. According to a report in the Home Builders Association of Greater Cleveland, Cisco is developing an entrepreneur training program with the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative (Eli), which received an undisclosed cash injection from the network giant. Eli aims to begin training teachers in the coming months.

Eli says the classes won’t be academic in nature, rather they will rely heavily on online content and video. Much of the material is based on advice from entrepreneurs as opposed to professors, according to the report on the HBA site.

The article adds:

Mr. Shoeniger (Eli CEO) rejects the notion that entrepreneurship can’t be taught. He noted how he and Mike Baird, CEO of health care financial services company Human Arc Corp. of Cleveland, taught a class on the subject at Lake Catholic High School about a year ago. It resulted in a student starting a business cleaning parking lots that earned him $40 an hour.

I guess budding Cisco entrepreneurs have to start somewhere.

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