Three courses in rapidly growing areas will be offered for the first time through the business division at Essex County College (ECC) during the spring 2014 semester, with the goal of creating a trio of new Business Associate degree majors.

Collectively dubbed "Taking a New Route," the courses are defined as experimental and a prelude to being developed into formal degree programs, said Carlos Rivera, acting dean of Business, Industry & Government. He projects the new majors, pending formal state approval, will be fully developed by the end of the fall 2014 semester. The new courses and majors include Introduction to Entrepreneurship (Entrepreneurship Option); Introduction to Hip Hop Business (Hip Hop Business Studies Option); and Introduction to Public Administration (Public Administrative Option).

"Entrepreneurs create 80 percent of all new jobs in this country and small businesses (less than 100 employees) account for 50 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product," said Rivera. "Small business is the economy's engine and in Newark we have both the infrastructure and the need for job creation. ECC sees this as a great growth opportunity to prepare our students to effectively compete as business owners and/or executives who truly understand how the private sector works." Hip Hop is a $20 billion global industry and growing, said Dr. Augustine A. Boayke, chair of the Division of Business. "The course, and eventually the Associate Degree major, will help interested students formalize their talents and understand the economic conditions necessary to help them grow in this practically recession-proof industry."

Rivera said the proposed Hip Hop major will go beyond the music and offer a heavy concentration on how to launch, plan, organize and control a startup business in an Industry that was actually born in the inner cities of America. Additional information on these courses is available by contacting ECC's Division of Business at 973-877-3222.



