As students continue to call for a practical return on investment in their education, CCE is responding to the call with a brand new Diploma in Entrepreneurship.
The program, which is officially launching September 16, 2019, was designed to provide students with three distinct paths — digital entrepreneurship or Online Business, SME for small to medium-sized businesses and Tech Business, for high-tech entrepreneurship — and to serve three previously underserved populations: women, immigrants and the middle-aged.
“When we design a program, there is a considerable amount of time spent conducting market research to identify the skills and competencies that people need within their specific fields,” explained Sherry Blok, the Director of Programs at CCE. “We also look at competing schools, not just within the city but also across the country and in the US and Europe as well. As a result, we decided to develop a program which embraces an ideation approach to entrepreneurship.”
According to statistics, the number of female entrepreneurs has steadily been rising over the past few years, even tripling since 2009, but unfortunately, that number hasn’t been reflected in the kinds of programs being offered — until now.
The index for immigrant entrepreneurs is 35.3 per cent compared to 20 per cent of the general population, but many programs have language requirements that make it difficult for them to participate in, not so at CCE.
People between the ages of 45 and 54 should be prime targets for entrepreneurship programs given their experience, contacts and financial resources but unfortunately, they’re not, which is another area CCE is trying to bridge the gap.
“We spend a lot of time analyzing learner profiles: we do that because it helps us in defining our direction,” said Blok. “When we looked at the competitor analysis, we saw that many entrepreneur programs were very general and open to all kinds of entrepreneurs. They often focus on young people, or people who have recently graduated from university.”
As the future of entrepreneurship grows and more and more people take the risk of starting their own business, so will the kinds of programs being offered. “Entrepreneurs are driving forces of economic development. I think now more than ever the community understands this, and there’s a lot more support for entrepreneurs than ever before. The Diploma in Entrepreneurship is a perfect example of how universities are going beyond the classroom to support entrepreneurs and provide more real world experiences,” said Blok.
“We’re dealing with a very complex labour force: there are a lot of technological changes and jobs are being phased out, so we as a society need to adopt more of an entrepreneurial mind set, where we develop skills to become better innovators, risk takers, and also to be willing to accept uncertainty.”
In total, CCE’s new Diploma in Entrepreneurship includes 150 hours of class time that’s spread between six compulsory courses — Accounting and Financial Management, Creating Your Business Plan, Sales, Networking and Business Development, HR For Startups, Optimizing Business Operations and Search Engine Marketing — plus one of three elective courses, depending on the student’s chosen path. Compulsory courses are 20 hours and elective courses are 30 hours in length.
“Students want practical applications that they can apply directly to their business, and that ties in very well with our approach to teaching and learning here,” said Blok.
“What also makes us stand out at CCE is that we hire practitioners; we tend not to go the academic route. We find people who are actually working as entrepreneurs, because that’s where the really great learning happens.”
Explore all the courses in the new Diploma in Entrepreneurship and register today!