- Spend five to ten hours a week on their social entrepreneurship project across the duration of the programme
- Work in teams of three to five students coming from different academic backgrounds
- Follow a design-thinking approach that will lead them towards innovative solutions, supported by the Forward faculty
Certificates
Sustainability and Social Impact Entrepreneurship
The Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship Certificate runs in parallel to the academic programme and follows a project-based learning approach where students are empowered to implement viable solutions to a real-world challenge in a sector they are passionate about be it education, health, gender equality, responsible consumption, inequality.
It is dedicated to students who want to complement their academic development with a concrete experience in which they will have a positive impact on an issue they care about.
Expectations and
benefits
- The impact of their project based on a rigorous assessment and their engagement in the process
- Their journey: how they make sense of the different steps they went through, including the failed attempts that are part of the learning process
- Their skills development
- A concrete experience that will impress future recruiters
- First-hand understanding of societal and sustainability issues
- Basic social sciences research skills
- Teamwork skills, such as communication and negotiation
- A set of core entrepreneurial skills and mindset
Certificate structure
The design of the programme is based on five steps that echo the approach to real-world problem-solving of social issues:
Teaching & learning activities
Each step to gaining the certificate is divided into one-to-three-week assignments that teams are expected to complete to progress.
Each assignment (for instance: “perform a quantitative survey of your target group”) follows the same sequence:
- Students are expected to explore the learning material communicated by the faculty corresponding to the assignment
- Students attend a small group seminar and/or workshop to discuss how to implement the tools, methods, and concepts from the learning material to be used to complete the assignment
- Each team shares with its Faculty a two-to-four week plan to complete the assignment (milestones, task definition and assignment to individual members…)
- Each team implements its plan while adjusting to circumstances with the support of the faculty
- The assignment is completed by a team debriefing session with the faculty member to check advancement, explore, bring corrective measures, and reflect on progress and challenges
Skills development
While undertaking the social entrepreneurship certificate, you will gain strong project management skills and acquire a set of core business techniques essential to your future career:
