Brett Centre for Entrepreneurship launches ‘Becoming Entrepreneurial’ module
The Brett Centre for Entrepreneurship is one of six Research Centres at the University of Liverpool Management School, whose mission it is to develop and harness the power of entrepreneurship across its international collaborative network.
One of the key pillars of the Centre is a focus on entrepreneurship education, acknowledging the critical role that entrepreneurship can play in preparing students across all disciplines for career and life success beyond their studies.
A new cross-disciplinary module ‘Becoming Entrepreneurial’ has been developed and launched by Dr Zeineb Djebali, the Centre’s Senior Lecturer. This is available at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for students studying at the University of Liverpool.
The module is designed to equip students, whatever their core subject or discipline, with an entrepreneurial mindset and the skills such as identifying opportunities, value creation and capture, effectuation, business simulation, entrepreneurial planning, and capital resourcing.
A successful rollout
In its first year, around 100 students from across the University have already taken the new module, including from STEM subjects (Maths and Chemistry) and Social Sciences (Business & Law, Business and Languages, Business and Communication; and Business & Sociology). The students main focus during this time has been to reflect on their own entrepreneurial capabilities and tendencies and develop innovative and real-world business solutions.
Commenting on the new module, Zeineb explained “the unique mix of entrepreneurship and STEM and Social Sciences disciplines has inspired students in unexpected ways. The module approach is to encourage students to be bold and entrepreneurial. Students are able to create an innovation for a designated company that can enhance its value and competitive positioning in the market, while reflecting on their entrepreneurial tendencies through a peer-to-peer pedagogy. This enables them to reflect on their career anchor and ambitions. The assessments encourage students to take bigger risks in their work and become ambitious in developing real world solutions.”
The response from students has been very positive with one student from the Chemistry Department stating “Studying ULMS254 has been the highlight of my academic year– the ability to diversify the teaching style in comparison to my Chemistry modules has significantly benefitted me as a student. The module leader provides highly engaging and interactive lectures with a vast support network to aid the transition into a new topic of entrepreneurship. I was able to able to critically reflect on my entrepreneurial tendencies, identifying areas for growth in the future. The balance of theory and innovation has sparked my creativity and led to a more subjective approach to my writing– I would highly encourage any STEM student to pursue this module.
The Becoming Entrepreneurial module is a testament of the Brett Centre for Entrepreneurship and the University of Liverpool’s progressive educational environment in meeting the challenges and opportunities in today’s dynamic economy and society. It equips students with the tools and the mindsets to go out and define what success means for them as well and how they may contribute to society’s grand challenges, such as sustainability, through entrepreneurial solutions.
Nurturing the next generation of graduates with an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset helps equip our graduates for success as they move from education into the workforce.