About the Programme

It is an ONLINE Programme, where we will give you access to our virtual learning space, hold live online sessions, supervisory meetings, and Business Partner meetings via Zoom. There is a possibility that our Final Celebratory Event w/c 6th of August will be held in person.

Stage 1: Learn

During this intensive Online Short Course, we will cover the following areas:

• Entrepreneurship Foundations (including among others creativity, innovation, problem-solving, opportunities recognition and business model design);

• Entrepreneurship skills (including among others strategic planning and thinking, marketing, finance, operational set-up, and sustainability);

• Personal reflection on, and evaluation of, your personality, values and skills in relation to your self-employed career path, and entrepreneurial aspirations;

• The development of personal brand (through facilitated reflection, pitching, and building your LinkedIn profile).

You are expected to devote 8 hours in 3 weeks to the independent online learning, and 8 hours in 3 weeks to attendance and engagement with live online group sessions.

Stage 2: Practice

After (and conditional on) the completion of the Online Short Course, participants will be allocated with a task to work on the solutions to the challenge, that the Business Partner has been facing.

This will include a 1-hour long briefing meeting with the Business Partner, to understand the organisation context, and align the proposed solutions with the Partner’s needs, capabilities, and resources, as well as weekly 1-hour long supervisory meetings with an academic staff member, who will support you throughout the process.

You are expected to devote 8 hours per week (for 3 weeks) to the work on the allocated task to produce a 5-page actionable Plan with the solutions by the 30th of July. This is in addition to five 1-hour long meetings with the supervisor (5 hours in total), and an introductory 1-hour long meeting with the Partner organisation.

Stage 3: Celebration

On the full completion of Stages 1 and 2, we will be inviting you to celebrate your success:

• Individual one-to-one 1-hour coaching session on career development and confidence building, reflecting on your Personal Evaluation Report;

• Final social event (potentially on the premises of the Partner Organisation if permitted), where Project Completion Certificates will be granted to Participants.

Other Commitments

There are a couple of (hopefully not burdening) things that we would like to ask you in return:

• We will invite you to compete two questionnaires before the start of the Programme, and on its completion. Those will relate to your evaluation of skills, confidence, and motivation in relation to starting your own business, and general feelings about your level of readiness to get your new adventure going. Each of them will take no longer than 10 minutes to complete, and will be anonymised.

• We will also invite you to have a 1-hour long conversation with us upon completion of the Programme so that you could share your feedback, experiences, and thoughts.

Expected Time Commitment between 21st of June and 6th of August:

• Stage 1: 16 hours

• Stage 2: 30 hours

• Stage 3: 3 hours

• Other commitments: 1.3 hours

Total Time: 50.3 hours