This spring, the University of Texas at Arlington – College of Business will offer a new program for students to obtain a certificate of entrepreneurship. The program will include courses that teach students how to plan and run their own business.
The new certificate program is a joint venture between the colleges of Business, Engineering and Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs, and Liberal Arts. Although the certificate itself is in business, the program hopes to be an opportunity for nonbusiness majors to gain interdisciplinary skills and apply entrepreneurial knowledge to their own field.
According to Susanna Khavul, associate professor of strategic management, today’s economy has a renewed need for entrepreneurial expertise, primarily since new technology is allowing tasks to be accomplished as individuals, rather than a large corporate organizational structure. With this shift, individuals can be much more proactive with their own ideas than before, making entrepreneurial acumen an imperative skill.
Khavul also emphasized the importance of diversity in the program. “The magic is when you get all those people in the same room, and then sparks start flying because the ideas start mixing,” she said. “People are looking at the same problem and seeing different things.
The certificate program is broken into three courses: a foundational overarching course and the choice of two focused studies, with options such as entrepreneurship in the arts and engineering, social entrepreneurship or innovation and creativity for entrepreneurship.
According to Khavul, most of the program’s work is hands-on, with students going out to conduct interviews and collect their own data. Other work might include feasibility studies, which requires students to research their ideas and discover if there is real market demand for their proposals.