HBCU Morehouse College recently announced a new partnership with tech company Sage to help educate students on how to develop as business owners.
Through a 15-week course titled the “Micropreneurship” course, Morehouse students will be taught more about the inner workings of businesses, including payroll technology, finances, HR and accounting.
The course will place an emphasis on teaching the students how a tech company would work specifically as the initiative was created to increase the number of Black-owned businesses in tech.
Created in partnership between the school and Sage, the course will be teaching students on how to develop a business idea from the beginning stages to the usage of software through training as well as financial planning. Available in Fall 2024, “Micropreneurship” will also connect students with former Morehouse students who have now made a name for themselves in the tech world.
With the addition of the new course, the school and Sage are building upon a previous partnership dedicated to artificial intelligence. Launched this semester, the course uses lectures, student competitions and events to teach Morehouse attendees about generative AI.
Morehouse College and Leading Tech Company Sage Launch Program to Help Prepare Next Generation of Tech Entrepreneurs.
— Sage USA (@SageUSAmerica) April 24, 2024
New course curriculum with hands-on experiences will immerse Sage Fellows in many facets of business ownership.https://t.co/L4EvpkddCj pic.twitter.com/76SZ3fCCf7
Through generative AI, users are able to produce content such as audio, music, videos and pictures to create new projects.
“The initial support from Sage had made Morehouse a leading HBCU—if not the leading HBCU—in the space of Generative AI,” said the director for the Center for Broadening Participation in Computing, Kinnis Gosha. “The course is a game-changer for Morehouse. Not only are students exposed to the skills learned from the course, but we have a faculty that has been trained to teach the course. We anticipate the same type of impact in the space of entrepreneurship.”
The creation of the courses comes amidst reports of a lower presence of Black tech leaders. Per a 2023 report by the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility, Black tech employees make up about 8% of the tech workforce. Of these 8%, only approximately 3% hold high positions on the C-suite level.
McKinsey predicts that the gap between Black and white tech executives will widen; while roles across the tech industry are expected to expand by 14%, the estimated growth in the number of Black tech employees holding these positions is only 8%.
The lack of development in these positions stems from the increasing barriers and difficulty for Black tech employees to advance beyond their current positions.
Per a report by Info-Tech Research Group, after 29% said it took them seven or more months to land the job, Black tech employees were 55% more likely to say that they haven’t been given the opportunity to move up above their current position.
While at work, they were subjected to discrimination at work as 54% said that they were forced to deal with microaggressions from co-workers.
