Entrepreneurship and Business

This is a Connected Degree

Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course.

Overview

Explore business and entrepreneurship in one of the UK’s most entrepreneurial cities as you discover core business topics and access University startup support.

If you already have a new business idea, we’ll help you develop it with practical business modules and direct support from our dedicated start-up team. If not, this course will give you the skills you need to support and grow the businesses you work for.

Organisations of all sizes need passionate people with an entrepreneurial mindset to foster creativity and manage innovation every day. That’s why many of our graduates go on to apply their skills in managing innovation, new products and business growth for existing organisations.

You’ll develop a strong foundation of knowledge in key areas of business such as marketing, managing people, and operations management. You’ll learn to spot opportunities, develop your entrepreneurial skills, and explore how to create value by developing new products, as well as learning the processes you need to bring them to market.

If you choose to do an industry placement after your second or third year, you could complete a paid placement with an existing organisation or undertake a self employed placement year and develop your own business with support from our Placement Club and startup support.

Whether you want to run your own company or to develop your business and management skills to excel in an existing organisation, this course gives you the knowledge, skills and experience you need to succeed.

Course highlights

• Experience a practical course, where you'll apply your knowledge to real-life projects, such as helping local businesses in our Business Consultancy Project, developing your own venture, or setting up a social enterprise

• Be mentored by one of our successful Entrepreneurs in Residence

• Gain an understanding of how different business models work and how these generate value in a variety of contexts

• Use your placement year to develop your own business, either independently or by working with other students to combine your strengths and knowledge, or to work in another innovative business

• Learn in one of the UK's most entrepreneurial cities – between 2019 and 2020, the number of new businesses launched in Portsmouth grew by 33% (InstantOffices survey 2020)

• Gain an understanding of how all the parts of a business work together and rely on each other

Careers and opportunities

100% of graduates from this course are in work or further study 15 months after graduation according to the latest HESA Graduate Outcome Study.

Several of our students set up their own business during the course, or go on to run their own business after graduation. Many others, however, go on to apply their skills in existing businesses, particularly in the areas of product development and marketing.

Previous graduates of this course have secured jobs at companies such as:

• Origin Kitchen

• Cera Data

• Buckinghamshire Council

• Magnolia

• Worldwide Business Research

• The Future Factory

Graduates of this course have secured jobs within 15 months of graduation as:

• director of sales

• data consultant

• business consultant

• business intelligence and insight officer

• business development representative

• sales executive

(Data sourced from HESA Graduate Outcomes Survey)

You could also choose to continue your studies at postgraduate level.

After you leave the University, you can get help, advice and support for up to 5 years from our Careers and Employability service as you advance in your career.

Year 1
Core modules in this year include:

• Business Accounting
• Business Innovation Development Project
• Business Operations and Systems Management
• Economics for Business
• Managing People in Organisations
• Marketing Principles and Practice
• Quantitative Methods and Data Analysis

There are no optional modules in this year.

Year 2
Core modules in this year include:

• Business Analysis and Decision Making
• Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship
• Innovation Management
• Business Venturing
• Managing Product Portfolios

Optional modules in this year currently include:

• Developing Individual and Team Creativity
• Introduction to Digital Marketing
• Professional Selling
• Business and Employment Law

Placement year (optional)
On this course, you can do an optional work placement year between your 2nd and 3rd years to get valuable experience working in industry. We’ll help you secure a work placement that fits your situation and ambitions. You’ll get mentoring and support throughout the year.

Year 3
Core modules in this year include:

• Business Consultancy Project
• Contemporary Issues in Product and Service Development
• Entrepreneurial Development
• Strategic Management

Optional modules in this year include:

• Business Improvement and Creativity
• Negotiation For Entrepreneurs
• Project Management For Enterprise
• Responsible And Sustainable Business
• Sales Management
• Work Based Learning (placement students only)

We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies.

Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry and some optional modules may not run every year. If a module doesn’t run, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.

Placement year
After your second year, you can do a paid placement year. Previous students have worked at big names like Rolls Royce and Fujitsu or set up their own businesses on their own of with others on their course.
Interested in running your own business on your placement year instead? You can start up and run your own company for a year as an alternative to a work-based placement. You'll work alone or with fellow students to build and launch a successful venture.

You’ll be assessed through:

examinations
analysis of topical case studies
written reports and essays
presentations
practical artefacts such as small websites or systems
You’ll be able to test your skills and knowledge informally before you do assessments that count towards your final mark.

You can get feedback on all practice and formal assessments so you can improve in the future.

The way you’re assessed may depend on the modules you select. As a guide, students on this course last year were typically assessed as follows:

Year 1 students: 55% by written exams and 45% by coursework
Year 2 students: 25% by written exams, 7% by practical exams and 68% by coursework
Year 3 students: 27% by written exams, 7% by practical exams and 66% by coursework

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

• Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business