Course Catalogue

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This course is aimed at individuals in rural areas who are considering starting their own business.

Entrepreneurship in rural areas entails a distinct set of opportunities and challenges - including issues around connectivity, demography and environmental concerns, and the importance of place-based assets - and has strong potential to support a variety of social, economic and environmental goals.  This course will cover some of the techniques and methods required to develop sustainable business models with the potential to deliver economic and social impacts.  These include the application of concepts and research findings relevant to rural enterprise, researching and identifying opportunities and challenges, and preparing a business proposal that can be put into practice.      

Most course content will be available online anytime.  This will take place over 9 weeks with recorded content of around 1 hour per week.  In addition, 3 online live sessions will be provided at key points to allow participants to work together on exercises and share experiences.  These will each last approximately 1 hour 30 mins. Participants will be given exercises for each unit to guide their independent study and build towards the assessments. There will also be pre-set tasks for participants to prepare before the live sessions.

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1. A Contextual Analysis, outlining a business proposal for an entrepreneurial project, identified by students, with an analysis of potential barriers and opportunities supported by evidence.  The word count limit for this assignment will be 750. (30%; ILOs 1 & 2).

2. A final Business Proposal (building on the Contextual Analysis) that sets out a full proposal for a sustainable business model, an articulation of its economic, social and environmental benefits, and an associated action plan. The word count limit for this assignment will be 1,500. (70%; ILOs 1, 2 & 3).

The aims of the course are:

1. To introduce students to key concepts, models and research findings relevant to entrepreneurship in a rural context. 

2. To equip students with techniques for researching the rural business environment and undertaking critical contextual analysis of potential entrepreneurial opportunities and challenges.

3. To support participants in the preparation of a practical business proposal.

4. To provide the opportunity for networking and peer-to-peer learning between prospective rural entrepreneurs.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Describe different concepts and models relevant to entrepreneurship. 

2. Identify and research the specific opportunities and challenges associated with enterprise in a rural setting.

3. Develop and write their own sustainable business plan, incorporating a consideration of environmental and social impacts.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.