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.