Located in the small village of Cleveland, WI, along the shore of Lake Michigan, Lakeshore Technical College serves a manufacturing and agricultural community where unemployment hovers around 12 percent. Several large plants have moved out of the area in the last year, a scenario that Lakeshore Technical President Mike Lanser has seen before during his six years at the helm of the college.

"If we go back to 2003-2004, we had a similar situation when a major plant closed, causing high unemployment," Lanser recalls. "We sensed a need for a job creation effort then, and when I say 'we' I mean not just us; people throughout the community who saw this need. In working with the Chamber of Commerce and the EDC, we saw a way for our organization to help create jobs by developing the educational component so people who wanted to start a business had a way to get the needed education and to tap into the resources they would need."

The school established a Center for Entrepreneurship, a resource for small business development, expansion and innovation. Soon they joined with the Economic Development Corporation of Manitowoc County to offer a 10-session business planning course called e-Seed™, which was developed by Fox Valley Technical College in nearby Appleton, WI. The Center also provides consultations for would-be entrepreneurs who go through the program and runs an Inventors and Entrepreneurs Network that meets monthly at the school's campus. "We bring in people from the community who have been entrepreneurs or experts such as bankers for an education and networking event," Lanser says. "We usually have about 30 people there and I'm always impressed with the people and the programs."

The Center holds seminars throughout the year and sends out a weekly e-newsletter to highlight entrepreneurship events and opportunities in the region. "Data we've collected since 2006 shows that the program has assisted 252 clients and there have been 27 business started and 41 jobs created," Lanser reports. Lakeshore Technical is currently developing a certificate program in Entrepreneurship. Other plans call for having space available for people who are starting businesses and providing them with access to campus resources, such as students in the school's marketing, graphic design and Web design programs. "These resources are available now, but we want to bring more structure to this part of our program," Lanser says. "It's great experience for the students and it's a great value to the entrepreneurs."
 
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Asked about what he's learned that might be helpful to other schools that are just starting to get involved with entrepreneurship education, Lanser says, "Realize that it can't be about just one person or one department. Entrepreneurship should be an attitude and part of your culture. Our Center began with one person, our entrepreneurship coordinator, but that was the spark for a much broader effort. We want other people, other staff members, participating. Often others will bring a unique area of expertise that will benefit the entrepreneur. The broader the effort the more effective our coordinator and Center can be.

"The other thing I'd stress is that our strategy from the start has been to partner and not duplicate," he says. "We thought when we got into entrepreneurship education that it was not something we would own; we would work with other organizations. That's been a real strength of our program-having strong partnerships with the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Corporation of Manitowoc County and with organizations like SCORE."