Case Study: Young Entrepreneur’s search for a college course that could help her build her business.

Emma was in Leaving Cert and while she had a strong sense of what she wanted to do after finishing school, she wasn’t 100% sure that college was the right route for her. Nor was she sure that the course and college she had chosen would be the most suitable.

Emma was extremely entrepreneurial, having already set up her fledgling business. She wondered if completing a business degree in the local university would be the right thing to do. Her concern was that perhaps it would pull her away from her own business, which she was passionate about.

It was with this in mind that Emma sought my help.

Unaware that there was an emerging area in the study and practice of entrepreneurship, Emma discovered that she had more options than a business degree offered by the traditional Universities. When she compared the business course that she had provisionally signed up for in her CAO application with a Business Studies in Enterprise and Innovation at her local Technological University, she could hardly contain her excitement.

She learned that this programme was geared towards supporting young entrepreneurs to design and develop their own business plans from day one. In addition, she would have an opportunity to work with real start-ups.

One thing that held Emma back from looking at colleges other than the traditional universities, was her parents’ belief that a university degree was of a higher calibre than those of the Institutes of Technology, now Technological Universities.

As she explored further, she began to realise that this wasn’t true.

Each had a different ethos. She felt that smaller classes and a more hands-on applied approach to learning suited her best. She loved the idea that she would get work experience with start-ups rather than big established companies, an experience that she could apply to her own business in real-time.