FUNDAMENTALS OF THE PROGRAM

Description: The Master in Entrepreneurship (MiE) Program is a two-semester graduate-level academic program for active professionals and entrepreneurs from Bulgaria and the CEE region. In mid- to long-term the Program will seek to expand and include Turkey and the Middle East. The Program is designed to develop entrepreneurial mindset and shape skills needed for effective initiation, and execution of entrepreneurial projects across different contexts: business, social services, art, sciences, politics, etc.

Mission: To inject entrepreneurship into the DNA of students from CEE (and the broader target region) by activating their entrepreneurial potential and innovation-oriented culture equipping them to execute impactful entrepreneurial projects across market, non-business and social contexts.

Vision: The Program will be the leading and most impactful program activating the entrepreneurial potential and enhancing the skillset of aspiring entrepreneurs in the CEE region, and contributing to the stronger positioning of the region’s vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems.

AMBITIONS: THE PROGRAM WILL:

✓ Be a state of the art program designed and executed according to leading cutting-edge thinking principles in entrepreneurship and business education;

✓ Be a program of regional significance impacting the entrepreneurial potential of young professionals across CEE countries;

✓ Enable the forming of a powerful knowledge network creating a growing community of proactive entrepreneurially-minded professionals eager to impact the socio-economic success of CEE countries;

✓ Contribute to the lifting of Bulgaria and CEE countries from the bottom of the EU in terms of economic development by keeping talent (and their businesses) at home and enabling them to market their products and services across borders.

OVERALL APPROACH

The Program will be grounded on the philosophy that entrepreneurship can be taught and disciplined on the basis of combining the delivery of knowledge from specific areas relevant to any entrepreneur, training of specific soft skills that enable the navigation of expected steps and challenges in the entrepreneurial process, and hands-on learning experiences that are designed around real-world entrepreneurial ventures.

THE PROGRAM

Below is a preliminary program structure for the Program proposed on the basis of comparative analysis of leading academic programs in entrepreneurship and knowledge about the specifics and existing needs of the ecosystems in the CEE region. Emphasis is placed on gradual understanding of the fundamental principles of business thinking, market culture and innovation.

PROGRAM APPROACH & LECTURER PROFILES

PROGRAM INGREDIENTS:

The Program will be designed around the contemporary thinking about effective business and entrepreneurship education emphasizing the building of fundamental knowledge, shaping of specific personal and professional skills, and engagement in experiential learning that prepares students for navigating their ideas through an effective entrepreneurial process. To achieve this the program will consists of three fundamental pillar elements the combination of which will produce powerful enabling effect and lead to gradual upgrade of the entrepreneurial mindset of students.

The three pillar elements are:
1) Classical courseware – delivering fundamental knowledge in areas that are relevant for successful entrepreneurship such as law for entrepreneurs and managers; accounting; fundamentals of business strategy; marketing principles; leadership and finance.
2) Facilitated experiential learning – shaping targeted soft skills identified as essential for successful team building and customer satisfaction and guiding students through an interactive, disciplined process of planning, preparing and executing an entrepreneurial project.
3) Inspirational real-life storytelling – presenting first-hand real-life stories of entrepreneurs, many of whom shared the same national and cultural background as the MiE students, revealing the ups and downs in their personal experience of initiating, leading, failing and succeeding with new ventures and social initiatives in similar national.