The first in a series of lectures for university students on how to start a business began yesterday.

Organized by the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau at the Jianqiao College in Nanhui District, the lectures are designed to encourage new graduates to start their own businesses.

Yesterday's lecture, the first of its kind on the campus, showed students how to draw up a career plan and set goals for businesses.

Xue Wenxiang, a senior consultant with the Shanghai Professional Managers Association, gave the first lecture of the course to more than 100 students.

Speaking from his own experiences, Xue talked about the preparations needed to start a business and the difficulty in preparing a career plan as well as the happiness that starting his own business had brought him.

The students were enthusiastic.

"I had thought it was too difficult, even impossible, for students to start a business, but after the lecture I am inspired by the idea of managing my own business and will probably think about this seriously when I graduate," one student named Huang said.

Launched by the Publicity Department of the Shanghai Committee of Communist Party of China and the bureau, the lectures will cover problems and difficulties faced in starting a business.

Four lectures will be held in Shanghai University, Shanghai Fishery University and the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade.

Another expert, Cao Tianfeng, will speak next week on detailed planning.

(Shanghai Daily October 25, 2007)