Learn transferable skills related to business and management, create your own business opportunity and develop a tailor-made business plan step by step

Transferable skills – relevant to all 4 clusters; research & valorisation, leadership & personal efficiency, career management, communication skills.

Use a personal, practical business case to acquire the skills, that are theoretically taught.

The theory is divided into different modules, each covering the theoretical and practical steps of an important part of the business plan. According to wishes of the organisers (e.g. teaching transferable skills in general or stimulate entrepreneurship), different modules can be chosen.

Number of contact hours: 15 (theory) + 16,5 (practice)

For some selected candidates, the opportunity will be given to start up a follow-up trajectory in 2021, either under the guidance of OVO (Ondernemers voor Ondernemers) for entrepreneurs who wish to start a business in the Global South or of Durf Ondernemen! for UGent students with a strong business case.

The course starts on Wednesday September 22nd and ends on Monday September 27th, 2021. The classes start around 9 AM and end around 5 PM.

Added value is the fact that this is an all-in-one plunge in the basics of business development/business skills. The theoretical principles are immediately implemented in a practical environment, preferably a specific business case.

This summer school is complementary to existing entrepreneurial courses, in that case that it acts as an intensive boot camp, instead of the weekly courses e.g. under the Durf Ondernemen flag. Within that context, the English language is – for international students – a surplus.

It covers main topics in all 4 clusters (research & valorisation, leadership & personal efficiency, career management and communication skills), delivering a wide array of transferable skills that are often lacking in the regular scientific master and doctoral school programs.

(Inter)national PhD-students (in their last year) or post-docs, who want to learn the practice beyond a good idea. Entrepreneurial students, maybe with a vague idea of ‘wanting to start something’ have a plus.

Deadline for registration and forwarding concept note: July 25^th, 2021
At the latest by August, 2nd a decision will be taken whether or not the minimum criteria are achieved to organise the summer course. Participants will then be notified and informed that cancellations are still possible for 10 working days, i.e. on the latest August, 15^th. If they cancel after the 15^th of August, they will be charged €300, due to costs that are made in advance (course material, catering,…).

Under normal circumstances:
Minimum n° of attendees: 25
Maximum n° of attendees: 35

We will set up teams of 4 to 5 persons. To determine the cases that will be subject of the group work, we ask you to think about possible cases for a future business development, select your best idea and prepare a one-pager describing your idea/case (max. 400 words).

These one-pagers will be shared with your group members (under strict confidentiality rules), some days before the start of the Summer School, so that they can be read in advance to make the selection of the topic to work on easier. You will receive more information about this concept note after we received your inscription.

• Registration fee for UGent personnel: €300
• Registration fee for non-UGent participants: €950
• Free of charge for:
  • members of the Ghent University Doctoral Schools
  • postdoctoral fellows, originating from one of the VLIR-UOS list of countries, with either an appointment at Ghent University or holding a postdoctoral fellowship from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO). You can find the complete list of countries here: https://www.vliruos.be/en/countries/96

For questions and more information, mail Jitske.Neirinck@UGent.be