Businessman and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton told
Newsmax TV on Monday that he has joined with his alma mater, the University of Georgia, to launch an online certificate program designed for people who own, or plan to start, small businesses.
The Tarkenton Certificate in Entrepreneurship, a joint program of the Tarkenton Institute and Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, is especially for those business owners and starters with operations in the one-to-10 employee range, Tarkenton told "Newsmax Now" co-host John Bachman.
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"Seventy percent of all the companies in this country are sole proprietors, and these are the underserved people," said Tarkenton, referring to the mom-and-pop operators who anchor the U.S. economy but don't have ready access to high-quality education to help them build or expand their businesses.
"We have developed over the last year together with my company,
the Tarkenton Institute, a 100-hour online MBA-quality program to serve this particular audience," he said.
Tarkenton said the self-paced program — which combines assignments with video lectures from business professors and successful entrepreneurs — is educationally rigorous, and available on mobile devices as well as traditional computer screens. It costs $850, which can be divided into installments.
"We wanted this to be affordable for our clientele," he said, adding, "There are no restrictions. They don't have to be a college graduate. They don't have to be a high school graduate. They have to be someone who's looking to start a business or is running an entrepreneurial business."
"This gives them access to the best information, the best knowledge, the best learning that will make them smarter," he said. "And smarter people have a better chance."
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