Innovative Entrepreneurship

The Innovative Entrepreneurship study programme is aimed at the professional training of entrepreneurs, innovation managers, business people and marketers in an excellent learning environment of a learning organisation (learning disciplines: systems thinking, self-development, team learning, shared vision and mental models). At the beginning of the study, students in the study group set up a team business corporation (team company) and thus manage a real business in a team environment with real competitors, customers and real finances from the beginning. Through their own experience, they gain skills and knowledge of the complete business cycle, i.e. from the issues of setting up a business, through all its financial, legal, economic, personnel, product, marketing, business and other aspects, to strategic decisions about the future direction of the business. This unique educational concept is based on the 23-year tradition of the Finnish educational model Team Academy.

Our mission:

We bring about a change in the education system for all those who want to develop their creative potential to the maximum and together change the world into a better place to live.

Our Vision:

Most of our graduates are entrepreneurs after graduation and contribute to the sustainable development of the region.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• implement their business ideas from concept to commercialisation;
• run your own business company and apply innovative business principles;
• create and implement business strategies, carry out their continuous evaluation and propose changes necessary to achieve the set objectives;
• identify market opportunities and demonstrate the ability to exploit them (by launching your own product on the market);
• build and lead a team, use appropriate techniques for managing conflict and crisis, motivating others and self, setting goals, building team performance, and more;
• apply planning, budgeting, organising and project management in the implementation of business plans;
• independently and proactively seek out information from a variety of sources and synthesise it for their own use and for use in an enterprise context;
• self-knowledge and acceptance of responsibility for one's own learning and personal development;
• identify different types of customer reference groups and apply the appropriate role in meeting their customer requirements, using sales tools effectively (sales visits, presentations, telemarketing, etc.);
• use the professional knowledge acquired in English at level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

According to statistics available from the international Team Academy network, half of the graduates continue their entrepreneurial activity after graduation. The rest are employed in various positions on the labour market. Typical jobs for graduates of the professionally oriented study programme Innovative Entrepreneurship include: managing director, business owner - entrepreneur, co-owner or investor, but also leader, team worker or supervisor, project worker or supervisor, manager, consultant, advisor or buyer and salesperson.

The study programme is fully based on the ECTS credit system. The length of the lesson is 45 minutes. The length of the semester is 13 weeks. The student is obliged to obtain 180 ECTS credits in the course of his/her studies.

During the course of study, the student will take compulsory courses representing a total of 137 ECTS credits (76 % of the study plan). Within this category, 6 courses are designed as basic theoretical courses (ZT). The other 7 subjects fall under the category of profiling foundation (PZ), which covers specific skills of teamwork and innovative entrepreneurship. Their completion completes the standard graduate of an economically oriented program based on the international educational concept of TA, whose educational methods accompany the student in the five semesters of the subject Team Academy principles. The compulsory courses also include additional courses developing IT and legal knowledge (9 ECTS), foreign language preparation AJ 1-4 (8 ECTS), professional practice (20 ECTS) and activities related to the creation of a bachelor thesis (15 ECTS).

Within the compulsory elective courses of the study programme, the student is obliged to obtain 34 ECTS credits (19% of the study plan). This usually means taking 7-8 courses (according to their ECTS rating) out of a total of 13 courses. A wider selection of subjects allows for an individual approach to profiling students in the chosen professional discipline as well as reflecting the needs within the business in a team company. The course Quantitative Methods in Economic Practice also falls into this category. This course has been included here again because if a need arises in the student's business practice for the use or application of quantitative methods, then the student has the opportunity to enrol and take this course. A detailed definition of the required and elective courses is illustrated in Table B-IIa and the corresponding forms B-III.

A total of 9 ECTS credits (5% of the study plan) are reserved for elective courses in the study plan. The student may choose from all the Bachelor's degree courses offered at the faculty. This allows the student to profile himself/herself to a lesser extent in another discipline or world language in addition to the study programme and compulsory electives. The student may also fulfill the credit allowance for elective courses with credits earned during a study abroad experience or by engaging in real-world business assignments within the Business Gate Academy.

In the Innovative Entrepreneurship study programme, professional practice is mainly carried out in a team company that students set up in the first year of study. Within the study, students devote substantial time to the implementation of their own entrepreneurial activity, which is also perceived as a tool of education (learning by doing method) and a way of applying theory to practice, the so-called ATP model (Applying Theory to Practise), which works with the level of individual and team learning and is a support for the implementation of individual entrepreneurial projects. In the curriculum, the professional practice in the team company is planned for a total load of at least 500 hours (spread over 5 semesters), however, from the experience of Team Academy branches, the deployment of students in entrepreneurial activities is much higher.

For the Innovative Entrepreneurship study programme, BP can take the following form:

- An annotated set of realized projects, or a coherent description of a complete entrepreneurial portfolio, realized during the course of the study.

- Critical evaluation of theory in the form of case studies based on own practical knowledge.

- Design and evaluation of a business plan for the student's future career or focus.

- Preparation of a BP on a selected topic

The acquired knowledge and skills enable the graduate of the Bachelor's degree programme Innovative Entrepreneurship to continue in further studies of economically oriented study programmes. At the SU OPF, this includes in particular the programme Business Economics and Management (or Economics and Management), where they can choose, for example, the specialisation Entrepreneurship or Business and Marketing. Students with the prerequisites for scientific and innovative activity can exercise a high degree of independence in education in the doctoral degree in the study programme Economics and Management, which is accredited at SU OPF.