Course Description

This Certificate in Entrepreneurship & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: HOW TO START AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS is a novel course created by the TREMMBiT CONSULT under the GRaSYES Initiative, to train, develop, equip and empower the youth in developing contexts, especially, Africa, for effective entrepreneurial life. This multidisciplinary course combines knowledge from several fields of study entrepreneurship, organizational behaviour, management, ICT, Accounting and Finance, HR, and Marketing. The Program is carefully designed by academic and industry experts to equip our students with the required entrepreneurial and corporate mind-sets, attitudes, skills, competencies and expertise that would make them excel as successful “job creators”. Our training and educational pedagogy combine theory with interactive case‐based studies, in addition to helping students develop successful and implementable business plans.
Besides, students who enrol in the GRaSYES Programs have the opportunity to sign up to, and become members of the TREMMBiT Consult Business Club, to receive mentorship, coaching and professional business consulting services at reduced prices, aimed at making them successful entrepreneurs and leaders in their respective fields.

Course/Certification Title

Certificate in Entrepreneurship & Business Development: HOW TO START AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS

The Problem

The empirical evidence on the labour market dynamics reveals that Ghana’s unemployment rates are higher among the educated than the uneducated. The available data depicted in Figure 1 below reports the lowest unemployment rate among those with no formal education followed by those with basic education. The highest rate of unemployment is reported among those with secondary education followed by tertiary graduates.

Figure 1: Unemployment Rates by Level of Educational Attainment (%)

Why are the educated, that is, those with secondary and tertiary education more unemployed in Ghana than those with no formal education? Two reasons account for this trend. The first reason is that there are limited job openings in the formal sector for those with secondary or tertiary education who do not consider employment in the informal economy as an option. The second, rather more critical reason is the problem of skill mismatch as a result of the gap between the type of training offered by academic institutions and the type of skills required for employment in the labour market.  In essence, the higher unemployment figures among the educated compared to the uneducated provides very strong evidence that the educational system has failed in averting unemployment in Ghana. The increasing phenomenon of unemployment among the educated is a reflection of the problem of skill mismatch between skills churned out by educational and training institutions and skills requirement by firms, raising concerns about the relevance of education and training on job prospects. The strong emphasis on examinations in the assessment of the performance of students in Ghana’s education system as opposed to the adoption of problem-solving and practical oriented teaching methods could be blamed for the phenomenon of skill mismatch in the Ghanaian labour market. This calls for a thorough review of the current education system in Ghana that emphasizes a shift from examination focused training to practical and problem-solving education that links training with the requirements of the industry.

The Motivation

The over-arching motivation of the Certificate in Entrepreneurship & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: HOW TO START AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS is to equip students, graduates and the Youth in Ghana and Africa with the requisite knowledge base, information, and practical tools that would make them more effective, efficient and successful in the as Entrepreneurial Leaders.  The program content has been carefully crafted by academic and industry experts to inculcate in our Seminar Participants, the required entrepreneurial and managerial mindsets, attitudes, skills, competencies and expertise that would make them excel as “job creators” in a highly competitive global business landscape.

Course Philosophy

The philosophy of the course (Entrepreneurship & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: HOW TO START AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS) is pragmatism. The pragmatic paradigm advocates the use of mixed methods as a pragmatic way to understand human behaviour and solve societal problems – hence It employs advocates a relational epistemology (i.e. the approach to problem-solving in life are best determined by what the problem-solver deems appropriate), a non-singular reality ontology (that there is no single approach to problem-solving and all societal problems require unique solutions), a mixed-methods methodology (a combination of theory and practical applications), and value-laden axiology (finding solutions to the problems for the benefit of people). The TREMMBiT Consult firmly believes that Entrepreneurship is the best and sustainable solution to the youth/ graduate unemployment problem in Ghana and Africa.

Course Objectives

The ultimate crux of this course is to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit, develop the mindset of creativity and innovation, activate the power of the right brain, instil the attitude of success, inculcate the character of discipline, determination, and focus, and drive Seminar participants along the rather rugged entrepreneurial pathway with the spirit of optimism, endurance and perseverance until they can transmute their intangible business ideas into concrete realities.

In particular, the course seeks to;

1. Equip students with the basic ICT skills required to succeed in the current entrepreneurial landscape.
2. Help students develop, nurture, understand and apply all the theoretical and empirically grounded research findings on entrepreneurship to their own business ideas. This course will train and equip students to brainstorm and generate some ideas, conduct market research and produce a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound) Business Plan.
3. Help prospective and practising entrepreneurs to understand accounting and finance theory and apply them within an SME setting. The course will place special emphasis on software such as Microsoft Excel etc., for preparing annual financial statements.
4. Expose students to the principles of marketing. It shall place a special focus on integrated marketing communications and digital and social media marketing.
5. Introduce students to the basic legal framework surrounding businesses.
6. Enable students to appreciate the principles of organizational leadership. It will also introduce students to some basic concepts of human resource management, including practical issues bordering on HRM policies and practices in organizational environments.
7. Aid students to understand the principles, concepts and tools for business strategy development and implementation. It pays special attention to competitive strategy.
8. Help students to transmute their entrepreneurial idea into reality through the effective development and implementation of a business plan.

Mode of Course Assessment

• Case Studies
• Written Assignments & Reports
• End of Course Written examination
• Practical Business Plan Development Project.

Certificate

Soft Copy format (received digitally/online).

RECOMMENDED TEXTS

Entrepreneurship

• Stokes, D., Wilson, N., & Mador, M. (2010). Entrepreneurship. South-Western Cengage Learning, Singapore.
• Timmons, J. A., & Spinelli, S. (2009). New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21^st (8^th.ed.). McGraw-Hill/Irwin: New York.

Organizational Management & Leadership

• McShane, S. L., & Glinow, M. A. V (2008). Organizational Behaviour (4^th). Mc-Graw- Hill Companies: New York.
• Achua, C. F., & Lussier, R. N. (2010). Effective Leadership. South-western Cengage learning: Canada.

Human Resource Management             

• Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2004). Human Resource Management (10^th). Thompson-South Western: Singapore.
• Snell, S., & Bohlander, G. (2007). Human resources Management. Thompson South-Western: China.

Accounting & Finance

• Brigham, E. F., & Houston, J. F. (2008). Fundamentals of Financial Management (9^th). Harcourt College Publishes: USA.

ICT & Management Information Systems

• Laudon, K. C., & Landon, J. P. (1998). Management Information Systems. Organization & Technology (3^rd). McMillan College Publishing Company: New York.

Marketing Management & Research

• Churchill(Jr.), G. A. (2001). Basic Marketing Research (4^th). South-Western Thomas Learning: USA.