Dragons’ Den celebrity and self-made retail millionaire Theo Paphitis (pictured left) will launch the University’s new BA honours degree in Enterprise Development at SAVILES Hall at the Royal Armouries in Leeds today.
As part of his day in Leeds, Theo will also address over 600 students representing 300 high schools who have all been invited to ‘An Audience with Theo’.
The distinctive new degree – which tongue-in-cheek has been described as a ‘pracademic’ – has been designed to help young entrepreneurs start and run their own business whilst studying for a degree.
Over the three-year period of their studies, the students will also have the opportunity to talk to several successful entrepreneurs including Theo who has agreed to mentor the students with his very own ‘masterclass’.
Other inputs will come from world-renowned business guru Michael Gerber who has influenced and supported the business development part of the degree.
Gerber argues: “We need to re-invent the way we start a business. The current thinking isn’t working and hasn’t worked properly for over 30 years – too many small businesses still fail in the first five years of their existence. This must stop.”
Building businesses to succeed is a sentiment shared by the University of Huddersfield’s Professor of Entrepreneurship, Professor John Thompson (pictured right), who stated: “Most people who start a business are good at the technical aspects of what they are doing, be it web-design or language translation, chiropody or fashion design. What they are typically less good at is running a business and this affects the growth potential. In large part, this is because they never trained to run a business – they trained to be a technician and they became expert at that. This degree will change the way a would-be entrepreneur starts and runs the business from the outset.”
The BA Enterprise Development, which was the brainchild of Professor Thompson, has also been heavily supported by Chris Owen, the Marketing Director of Royal Armouries (International) plc, and Hugh Foster from Foster’s Chartered Accountants.
Chris Owen said “At a time when money has become a scarce commodity, getting the business model right first time has become an even bigger challenge. The new degree has been designed as an entirely new concept and in my opinion will almost certainly re-invent and re-shape the way we start and run a business in the future.”
For more information on the new course, please contact the University’s Business School on 01484 472206 or visit this web-site.
Courses at the University of Huddersfield