Objective:
- The learner will understand the importance of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behaviour in the context of their subject area
- Will engage with subjects outside their discipline to pitch for and explore ideas and concepts
- To reflect and draw personal conclusions about their capacities and capabilities for entrepreneurial behaviour
- To research and persuade others of the feasibility and viability of their ideas
- To conclude with a âliveâ opportunity which they can research and develop further through a research project/dissertation, employment or a new business venture
Overview:
This type of module is appropriate on applied courses, or courses âwith enterpriseâ. It is especially valuable where students from a range of disciplines are taught together, invited to âbring their discipline and interests with themâ (of course, discipline and interests are not always/often synonymous, and this approach helps with that!)
Activity:
Students engage in a shared first lecture, setting the context for the module, discussing, and responding to individual learner expectations, and an introduction to innovation, delivered by an inventor, which asks the students to invest in one of a series of inventions, based on a case study of each in practice. They are encouraged to reflect on their choice, and in particular the reasons why they feel that their chosen option represents most value.
In week 2 students return to their own discipline (or choose an area of interest based on the available disciplines) and a session is led by academics and industry guests/entrepreneurs focussing on âthe current and future trends in the XYZ industryâ. This tends to be âproducts for users in Science and Engineeringâ subjects (e.g. pets and children), and âapproachesâ in other subjects (e.g. social and online media).
Week 3 is a facilitated session in which students join interdisciplinary groups (formulated with as wide a variety of disciplines as possible (e.g. 1xcomputing science, 1xbiology, 1xmarketing and management) and share their findings from the previous week to identify areas of shared interest and the skills each member can contribute.
The remainder of the sessions are built around convincing the module assessors, and industry/entrepreneurs that your emerging idea is worth spending more time, money and effort on developing, and that individual students have the appropriate skills and motivations to deliver on the opportunity. The design of the remaining sessions is aimed at students achieving this objective. Remaining module content and tools can be designed together with the students, using flipped classroom, online resources, and update meetings alongside taught lecture material.
Skill Development:
The confidence gained by the students is seen as they engage with each other and with externals (industry experts). They are exposed to entrepreneurship through opportunity spotting and evaluation, and through building their reflective and persuasive/selling skills. By working in teams they are building collaborative approaches to problem solving and task completion.
Resources:
Planned engagement â including engagement of academics, entrepreneurs and industry partners in each discipline where a student originates.
Time to coach groups individually, access to mentors or online interaction.