[SITE4Society] Co-Designed new course on Social Entrepreneurship and Public Policy

Social Entrepreneurship and Public Policy

 Increasingly, bottom-up social entrepreneurship initiatives by citizen, corporate and government leaders are generating viable and innovative solutions to present-day economic and social problems. Social entrepreneurs and social enterprises are also being called to partner with the State and firms to trigger social transformation in their communities, and thereby contribute to sustainable development. Thus, social entrepreneurship offers unique opportunities to meld social values with professional work. No wonder then that the study of social entrepreneurship has emerged as a new and fast-growing field of academic, policy and career relevance.

Likewise, students taking this track will discover how social entrepreneurship can be leveraged to tackle contemporary challenges at local, national and global levels. They will learn the intricacies of making business plans, evaluating the impact of new technologies, preparing advocacy reports to influence policy, designing systemic solutions and communicating the value of social initiatives to citizens, organisations and policy makers. Finally, they will get opportunities to network with practitioners and social enterprises from different parts of the world.

Over its four modules, students will uncover social entrepreneurial processes to tackle diverse global challenges and gain exposure to transdisciplinary approaches drawing upon social sciences, business studies, environmental studies and behavioural sciences. They will also acquire practical skills through projects involving hands-on creation of business models, advocacy reports, policy briefs and even a social innovation.

In sum, this track is for students, who want to learn how to become impactful change makers, especially in boundary organisations interacting with government, firms and NGOs.