University of Phoenix is slated to open the RedFlint Innovation Experience Center in Las Vegas this fall, which will provide the community with an experiential, hands-on learning environment to stay on top of current business and technology trends.
The university is collaborating with Iron Yard Ventures, and hopes to show how effective such a center can be to providing businesses and individuals with the most current tools to succeed.
“The idea for the center came about as a result of a conversation between my college, the College of Information Systems and Technology, and the School of Business,” Dennis Bonilla, executive dean of the College of Information Systems & Technology at University of Phoenix, recently told Higher Education Tribune. “We were exploring the needs of the employer base and the needs of people seeking employment.”
Bonilla explained that there aren’t really places where one can get skills and competency synchronized to the speed of change between business and technology. It is changing so much faster than people are able to keep up with.
“We wanted to set up a center that focuses on experiential learning, and driving innovation in technology and business for entrepreneurs and people in the community,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that it was not just about University of Phoenix students.”
Bonilla also explained that it was important to line up with the community, and University of Phoenix chose the city of Las Vegas because the ecosystem there was ready to provide a “connecting tissue” for all elements between employers, education, private and public, as well as the gaming and hospitality industry.
“So, we created a center that was focused on business innovation, entrepreneurs and technology, and had the latest and greatest frameworks for business and the latest and greatest technologies for how to scale businesses today,” he said. “It would provide a big benefit for people in the community to be able to create and scale businesses at a level that was closer to the change of pace in the industry.”
Bonilla started lobbying this concept within the University of Phoenix, knowing it has always been at the leading edge of innovation education.
“We felt this center could act as a pilot for how education is done in the future that would be much more in tune with this pace as opposed to traditional four-year and advanced degrees, which take much longer and, in many cases, the skills or competencies one acquires has moved on to something much more current,” he said. “We wanted something that was able to provide those skills and competencies outside of the traditional degree program.”
The Las Vegas innovation center is the first location; and the school is hoping as it stabilizes and grows, it can be an experimentation center for the University of Phoenix.
“As we come up with new ideas and innovations around learning and different learning modalities, we can test them out through that center as an experimental site, but there will be some elements of it that can be scaled to other locations to provide additional options,” Bonilla said.
The center is 11,000 square feet and there are three main elements: to educate p to 250 students in various activities throughout various advanced classrooms; to incubate by helping startup companies build their business plans surrounded by technology and other resources; and to accelerate through a sponsorship with the Iron Yard Ventures;
“(The accelerator program) will be a three-month residency program for companies that will be selected to come in and help solve problems for the hospitality, gaming and entertainment industry specifically,” he said. “Then we will also have other sorts of events associated with technology showcases, and other workshops and certificates and non-degree programs in addition to our normal offering. Once we get the accreditation to operate for-credit, then we can offer for-credit programs after the opening.”
The RedFlint Innovation Experience Center is slated to open with a VIP event on Sept. 8. An official ribbon cutting with the mayor and other government officials is scheduled for Sept. 9, with the accelerated programs and showcases starting Sept. 10.
“It is really designed to be a community center, so we are trying to democratize access to this type of education for all members of the community,” Bonilla said. “You do not have to be a U of P student to participate in the center. It is open to anybody: public companies, private companies, K-12 and nonprofits. It is not just a University of Phoenix campus; it is for the whole community.”
Alerts Sign-up