York St John London Campus - Careers

Enterprise Academy

Find out about our start-up and leadership accelerator.

The Enterprise Academy is our start-up and leadership accelerator, developed and delivered by entrepreneurs and industry professionals.

Unlock your future with The Enterprise Academy, our flagship start-up and leadership accelerator, designed by expert entrepreneurs and industry leaders to sharpen your entrepreneurial skills for launching your own business or excelling in industry.

Through a structured 24-week experience, we support our students through the entrepreneurial journey, from ideation to investment readiness and everything in between.

You will learn how to evaluate and assess your market, your customer, and yourself, helping to turn your passion into a reality.

Overview

EA structure

In the first part of EA you will cover Enterprise Foundations. You will then follow a pathway of your choice during the last phase of EA. There are 3 pathways to choose from: Enterprise Pathway, Leadership Pathway, and our newest addition, Technical Pathway.

Enterprise Pathway

The Enterprise Pathway is designed for students who are looking to launch their business. Maybe you have a great idea and are not sure where to start. Maybe you have an existing business and would like to know how to reach the next level of growth. Maybe you have a side-hustle and want to explore how you can make it a full time opportunity.

In this pathway we will focus on improving your idea to be at 'investment readiness'. You will learn accurate forecasting techniques as well as preparing for our Big Pitch Competition, where you will have the opportunity to win cash prizes and potential funding for your business.

Leadership Pathway

If launching a business isn't right for you, the Enterprise Academy also serves as a leadership development programme. In this pathway, we focus on self-development and equipping you with the skills to become an effective leader within an existing organisation. With workshops focusing on effective communication, influencing, negotiation, accountability and coaching. Get ready to become the best version of you.

Technical Pathway

The Technical Pathway will allow you to develop and practically apply the skills needed to become a successful technical co-founder, or to hit the ground running in industry. We will focus on latest trends, technologies and industry standards with topics centred around app and web development, MVP building and developing coding fundamentals.

For any questions or queries regarding Enterprise Academy, please contact: enterpriseacademy@yorksj.ac.uk.

How EA is delivered

Learning approach

Learning is delivered through a range of hands-on and interactive approaches, including:

Workshops and reflection sessions

The Enterprise Academy will be delivered both virtually and on campus. Each week, there is one workshop, followed by 2 two-hour group reflection sessions with your allocated Enterprise Academy Mentor. Here, your mentor will guide you through the tasks assist with any knowledge gaps and pass on their considerable experience.

After your sessions each week, you will be expected to complete a reflective survey, reflecting on what you have learnt and the activities you have completed. This allows us to track your progress and consistently make changes to make the programme a better experience for everyone.

Pathways

You will study the following pathways:

Enterprise Foundations

Self-understanding
Ideation
Market research
Target audience
Value proposition
Business models
Project planning
Marketing
Legal

Enterprise Pathway

Forecasting costs
Pricing strategies
Sources of funding
Investor decks
Presentation skills
Planning for growth

Leadership Pathway

Introduction to leadership
Leadership styles
Leader characteristics
Micro moments and emotional intelligence
Handling difficult conversations
Personal branding
Power, influence and negotiation
Followership
Authenticity and confidence
Strategy development and driving change

Technical Pathway

Introduction and industry context
Data visualisation and Python basics
Data visualisation tools and practice
Machine learning for business
JavaScript fundamentals
App development principles
Application prototype design
Modern development framework
Types of modern devices

Experiences and opportunities

Competitions and opportunities

Throughout your Enterprise Academy journey we have some really exciting perks, opportunities and competitions lined up for you to participate in.

Examples include working with peers in digital marketing, receiving a budget to test your marketing strategy, a talk from a prominent entrepreneur, or access to a bespoke personality profile.

Collaboration

We support collaborative and independent learning. This means that our sessions are designed to provide all the foundational knowledge for you to build upon with the guidance and support from peers and mentors.