Seneca News

Oct. 30, 2018

There are no crazy ideas in Kareen Hall-Clarke’s classroom.

In fact, as one of the intrapreneurs to have recently come out of HELIX, Seneca’s on-campus incubator, Hall-Clarke is all for “crazy” ideas that she might encounter on the job — teaching students in the digital age.

“They are the Uber type, you know?” said the School of Health Sciences professor. “They think Alexa and artificial intelligence are going to solve health-care problems, and as professors, we need to have that creative mindset when we walk into the classroom. We need to challenge our students to think outside the box and there are no textbooks for that.”

Intrapreneurs are employees who can help advance their organizations by bringing entrepreneurial ideas forward. At the same time, these employees build up their resilience as they navigate the ever-changing employment landscape. Thanks to a $1-million grant from the inaugural TD Ready Challenge, of which Seneca is one of 10 winners from across North America, more mid-career professionals like Hall-Clarke can now benefit from programs offered at HELIX — free of charge — to become intrapreneurs.

Seneca is the only postsecondary institution in the Greater Toronto Area to receive the grant. With it, a new TD-HELIX Transformation Initiative will allow Seneca HELIX to dramatically expand resources, awareness and accessibility to help transform mid-career professionals into creative thinkers, designers, problem-solvers, collaborators and communicators.

“HELIX is a hidden gem. I was blown away,” said Hall-Clarke, interim Program Co-ordinator and Digital Health Lead for the Honours Bachelor of Healthcare Management degree program.

Hall-Clarke has worked in the health-care industry for more than 20 years and with the help of HELIX, she is applying the entrepreneurial tools and 21st-century skills she learned during the HELIX Summer Institute in her class.

Building on HELIX’s success on developing the entrepreneurial mindset, the TD-HELIX initiative will provide participants with additional strengths and expose them to things like data analytics, design-thinking and financial literacy.

“Seneca HELIX helps individuals develop their entrepreneurial mindset, which will allow them to be intrapreneurs who innovate from within a company,” said Chris Dudley, Director of Entrepreneurship, Seneca HELIX.

“The TD grant will allow us to provide these critical skills and supports to this important target market — mid-career professionals — who may be at risk of job loss due to disruptive changes in the labour market. It will allow us to help them change their career DNA.”

The TD-HELIX Transformation Initiative is open to any mid-career professionals who want to re-skill, including employees, alumni and members of the community. For more information about how you can become a HELIX participant, check out the HELIX Process.