UNIT TITLE: Plan to Succeed (P2S)
CREDIT POINTS: 20 UNIT CODE: CPU117
FHEQ LEVEL: CP
UNIT DESIGNATION: Traditional School: SBL
Date validated: April 2010Date last modified:August 2011
Unit delivery model: BL
Max & Min Student No.: 50/10
TOTAL STUDENT WORKLOAD
Students are required to attend and participate in all the formal timetabled sessions for the unit. Students are also expected to manage their directed learning and independent study in support of the unit, as outlined below.Where normal timetabled sessions do not take place, additional directed learning may be provided, and/or students are expected to undertake additional independent learning.
PREREQUISITES AND CO-REQUISITES
This unit is designed to take students who have a genuine business opportunity through a structured programme of support that culminates in the development of a robust business plan. It is therefore unsuitable for any student who has not either completed the Curriculum Plus unit “Capability for Innovation” (C4I) or been independently developing a business idea over a period of time and ideally engaged in some form of pilot or trial trading. It is therefore a requirement for entry to this unit that each student would present an elevator pitch to demonstrate their suitability. Students whose business ideas are assessed to be not sufficiently robust for entry to P2S and who have not completed C4I will be encouraged to take that unit instead.
UNIT DESCRIPTION
This unit provides you with a unique learning opportunity to actually plan and develop an entrepreneurial idea, within a supportive and nonthreatening learning environment.
You will be exposed to the stable of business start-up skills that fledgling entrepreneurs usually have to acquire from ‘dawn at day one’ in order to survive in a competitive market place. The difference being that you are in the unusual position of making your plans before the commitment of precious financial resources, thereby considerably reducing your chances of failure before wastage of time and/or money occurs.
The discipline of careful planning for future success runs through every element of the course (after all if you ‘fail to plan you should plan to fail!’). By quantifying and planning your business activities in advance you should be ready to ‘hit the ground running’ when you are ready to finally ‘go for it’ either after graduation or later in your working life.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of the unit, students should be able to:
Knowledge and Understanding
K1 Identify the key areas of knowledgethat are essential to produce an effective Business Plan.
Cognitive Skills
C1 Plan the development, testing and evaluation of an idea for and entrepreneurial venture from the perspective of persuading Business Support professional (lawyers/accountants etc).
Practical and Professional Skills
P1 Produce a comprehensive business plan to secure start-up finance for your business.
P2 Successfully engage business professionals and agencies to support and/or invest in your project/idea via a pitch.
Transferable and Key Skills
T1 Plan the attainment of your entrepreneurial potential. These should include the ability to demonstrate determination and perseverance; drive to achieve and grow;
an orientation to goal setting; creativity; conceptual ability; the drive to investigate
and quantify an opportunity; high levels of energy and motivation.
AREAS OF STUDY
Areas of study will include;
- Marketing and Strategic elements of business planning
- Financial elements of business planning
- Loss Forecasts, risk analysis
- Setting up your company
- Planning to get it right
- Risk management
- Legal Aspects
- Identification of Sources of Finance
LEARNING AND TEACHING STRATEGY
The teaching strategy is designed to facilitate self-directed learning by providing abusiness planning template. The learner is expected to develop their individualbusiness plan with support from the tutor.
The tutor will provide the basic areas of enterprise information from handouts andsuggested sources and other learning materials will be provided in the learningsessions and on ‘mycourse’. You will then be expected to build up materialpertaining to your own idea/concept utilising your own research skills into an effective Business Plan..
After every directed session you will be encouraged to put yourself into the mindsetof an investor considering whether to invest or not in you and your idea; thevery focus of the learning and teaching strategy is to understand the perceivedrisk from the investor/s perspective and to reduce it as much as possible.
Reflecting the recent growth of and interest in social networking, this unit willencouragethe University’s open-source e-Portfolio learning management system as anintegral aspect of its learning. You will be encouraged to create folders/sub-folders of information,sharing critical incident diaries reflecting how you and others predicted and solved‘teething’ problems, build reflective blogging tools and develop groups and forumsfor interaction with student colleagues, staff and selected audiences in the creation of your Business Plan.
ASSESSMENT STRATEGY
Formal Assessment will bein three parts.
The learning contract provides the opportunity to demonstrate understanding of experiential learning and provides the framework within which you set out your learning objectives and thus triggers evidence of development.
Other assessmentswill bevia the development of a Business Plan which will be communicated in writing (via an effective Business Plan) and orally via a pitch (elevator pitch) delivered to the class. The exact format, nature and timings of the pitch may vary depending on class sizes. This can be summarised:
- A credible business plan. This should include financial and non-financial elements and will demonstrate that you have reflected on, assimilated and synthesised large amounts of information in a format recognised by business professionals and investors. The assessor will be looking to see a business plan that represents a viable ‘working document’ which can be altered and expanded on when you enter the market arena.
- A short business (elevator) pitch that communicates the essential components of the Business Plan in a different format and for a different purpose. The target audience will be a potential investor or bank manager as the purpose of the pitch is to secure funding for your business idea. This will possibly be scrutinised by an invited audience of professionals and tutors and will normally involve input and marking from another member of staff and/or external business support professional/s. You will be given a list of criteria that make an effective pitch and receive training/support and a ‘practice session’ in advance of the presentation session. If you are a student who finds public speaking difficult you will be offered full support and encouragement as well as tips as to how to conquer nerves from the tutor who is an experienced presenter/trainer.
ASSESSMENT
AE1weighting %: 10%
assessment type: learning contract
length / duration:500 words max
anonymous marking:No
AE2weighting:80%
assessment type: portfolio
length/duration:Business Plan (min. 1500, max. 2000 words)
anonymous marking:No
AE 3 weighting% 10%
assessment type: ‘Elevator Pitch’
length/ duration 10 minutes max
anonymous marking No
Aggregation & Re-assessment Rules
The assessment conforms to standard university regulations.The marks for all elements of assessment will be aggregated as per the Assessment mark ratios outlined above.
Re-assessment for the learning contract will follow the same format.
The Business Plan is the primary output and must include at minimum the learning outcomes specified above. If you submit a portfolio that fails to satisfy the marking criteria sufficiently to achieve the learning outcomes and get a pass mark, you will be referred, receive feedback and be required to revise and resubmit the Business Plan. Non submission will also result in referral and requirement to re-submit.
If you are unable to attend the planned elevator pitch session for a valid reason (such as a timetable or examination clash) then you will be offered a mutually convenient alternative date to present to the Unit tutor (who may or may not be able to engage further colleague support). If the elevator pitch fails to meet the required standard then you will receive a full feedback and de-briefing session and afforded the opportunity to re-pitch at a mutually convenient time, not less than two weeks from the first presentation session.
Unit Author: Dr Simon Brown, Stephen Brown
Date of version: 18th August 2011 (amended by Stephen Brown)