Looking to become an entrepreneur? Want to grow your side hustle or be your own boss? iAccelerate at the University of Wollongong (UOW) is the perfect place to jumpstart your entrepreneurial journey!
Entrepreneurship at UOW
What is entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is about a mindset and a set of skills. An entrepreneur is someone that identifies a problem that needs to be solved and takes the risk to make a business from the solution. Social entrepreneurship creates profit for purpose and implements solutions to social, cultural, and/or environmental issues.
Getting started
One of the most important things you need to do, is understand what problem your business is going to solve, and whether your solution is viable and valuable. You’ll probably hear about concepts like ‘MVP’ and ‘Lean’ – which is all about starting small and testing your idea out. UOW is committed to helping students on this journey.
Entrepreneurs at the University of Wollongong are supported by a community of like-minded people, inspired to invent, share and change the world.
UOW Careers and Employability provide resources, programs, events and services to help students to establish appropriate career goals and to identify pathways and strategies to achieve those goals.
iAccelerate Activate Program
Turn your business idea into reality with iAccelerate Activate Program. This program helps students transform their concepts into commercially viable ventures, making a real impact.
- Concept to commercialization: Develop your idea from scratch to a market-ready product.
- Boost employability: Gain valuable skills and experience attractive to employers.
- Innovation & problem-solving: Learn to apply an innovative mindset to real-world challenges.
- UOW advantage: Benefit from UOW's dedicated entrepreneurial community and resources. Access workshops, mentorship, and funding opportunities.
Study options in entrepreneurship
Learn skills and knowledge to turn a business idea into reality.
- Cross faculty subjects - POWERED BY IACCELERATE
- Degrees, majors and minors
- Self-paced learning modules
UOW 200 and UOW 300 are interdisciplinary subjects that can be applied to any degree across any faculty. The following subjects integrate innovative and entrepreneurial learning content and modules developed by is UOW’s iAccelerate and is delivered in partnership with UOW’s award winning accelerator program.
UOW 200 Innovation and Impact in Practice
UOW 200 Innovation and Impact in Practice equips students with transdisciplinary problem-solving skills by tackling a complex organisational issue provided by a partner organisation. By integrating different perspectives, data, information, tools, concepts, techniques and theories from multiple disciplines, students will discover new and impactful ways to tackle organisational problems together. Students will develop innovative and entrepreneurial solutions that take the systemic and context-specific nature of the problem into consideration. Students present their analysis and impactful innovative solution to the sponsoring organisation and a panel of experts who provide feedback and input.
UOW 300 Entrepreneurship for Impact
UOW 300 Entrepreneurship for Impact equips students with tools, techniques and thought processes necessary to start their own entrepreneurial journey with the support of industry professionals. Students evaluate innovative opportunities from a range of perspectives and disciplines including financial, technical/ engineering, and legal in order to identify a feasible and authentic idea for an impactful start-up. Students conduct market research on their opportunity, develop a plan for exploitation and have the opportunity to present their proposal to a panel of experts who provide feedback on the commercial feasibility of the chosen project and how to strengthen overall impact.
There are also entrepreneurial opportunities within each faculty that can be found in the 2024 UOW Course Handbook by searching for ‘entrepreneurs’.
Degrees
- 1190 Graduate Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- 3031 Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Majors
- MAJ40527 Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- MAJ44005 Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- MAJ44178 Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Minors
- MIN1303 Creative Production
- MIN1910 Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- MIN3045 Entrepreneurship
- MIN3057 Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Self-paced learning modules to develop your entrepreneurial skills and mindset are available through UOWx. Also available for embedding in subjects. Students who complete three out of four modules will receive an iAccelerate digital badge.
SDGengage
In this module students explore the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the impact they are making on the world, their history, implementation and relevance. They are encouraged to think about their place as responsible global citizens and what the SDGs mean to them. This understanding can then be applied to future entrepreneurial or career interests.
This module works well in a subject that includes content around the SDGs or that gets students thinking about their values and purpose. It would also fit in well with any subject that examines real world challenges or where students are encouraged to produce an idea or innovation.
Pitching to your audience
Pitching is a vital skill in today’s fast paced world, and not just for entrepreneurs. The ability to deliver a concise, engaging and persuasive message is important in all forms of communication. In this module students are taken through the process of creating and delivering a pitch using the same template that our entrepreneurs use as part of the Activate education program. Along the way, students learn the importance of considering their audience when communicating their ideas and are taken through the steps of developing an audience persona to direct their pitch to. They are also given advice on how to structure their slides and deliver their pitch, both in person and online.
Delivered via Moodle, this module works well in any subject that includes public speaking, particularly where the presentation is being delivered to influence an outcome.
Entrepreneurial Mindset
Entrepreneurship is not just about starting a business; it is a mindset, a way of thinking and acting that drives individuals to identify opportunities, take calculated risks and create value. Entrepreneurs are innovators, problem-solvers and visionaries who thrive in uncertainty and adversity.
Delivered via moodle, in this module students learn about what it means to have an entrepreneurial mindset and the importance of starting with the problem when developing ideas. This module works well in subjects that have an ideation and/or problem-solving focus. It also complements career thinking and subjects where students may be contemplating future direction after study.
Test Your Idea
In this module, students will learn the importance of testing ideas and making small incremental changes along the way to develop a sustainable solution. They will be introduced to the lean startup methodology as a tool to guide them through this process.
Delivered via moodle, this module works well in any subject that focuses on idea development and innovation.
“We have a strong entrepreneurial culture here that’s based on collaboration, passion and teamwork. So that’s probably what makes our alumni such stellar employees.” Vice-Chancellor Patricia M. Davidson