Singapore Polytechnic’s enhanced programme equips business students with practical entrepreneurial skills starting from 2025.
Starting from April 2025, Singapore Polytechnic (SP) will launch an enhanced programme, Business Essentials Through Action (Beta), offering first-year students an invaluable opportunity to run their own businesses as part of their academic experience. This new module, mandatory for all first-year students across five business-related diploma programmes, will provide real-world exposure by requiring students to design, pitch, and manage their own start-ups.
The initiative, first piloted in 2020, will now involve about 600 students in multidisciplinary teams, each tasked with creating a business plan based on societal gaps, particularly focusing on sustainability issues such as sustainable consumption. The students will work in teams of five and, over the course of the module, will receive mentoring from industry experts who will guide them at various stages of their start-up journey.
One of the key aspects of the programme is its emphasis on learning through failure. Instead of being graded on profits, students will be evaluated on how effectively they manage seed funding allocated to them, which will help them gain practical business management experience.
“Learning from failure is more impactful,” said Mr. Lucas Tok, acting deputy senior director of SP’s Business & Creatives Cluster. “Students will remember more when they apply what they’ve learned and solve real problems.”
The teams will pitch their business ideas to lecturers and industry mentors, and the best two teams in each class will receive seed funding of $1,000 to create their prototypes. They will refine these products over the course of the module, with the ultimate goal of selling them at the end. For students like Venkat Alagappan, a first-year business administration student, the challenge of presenting business ideas to experts is both a valuable and enjoyable experience. “I love the challenge that comes with presenting our idea to our lecturers and convincing them that our business is worth investing in,” he said.
Industry experts from partnering companies will mentor students and help them evaluate the feasibility of their ideas. They will guide the students through various business considerations and offer insights that only come with real-world experience.
The Beta programme will also provide a platform for students to address environmental concerns through their start-ups. Examples of 2024/2025 projects include creating terrariums from upcycled jars and crafting eco-friendly air fresheners from recycled coffee grounds. The programme is developed in partnership with the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, supported by Mentoring SG, and aims to nurture students into capable entrepreneurs who can apply their knowledge beyond the classroom.
At the end of the module, students will have the opportunity to showcase and sell their products to the public, completing their entrepreneurial journey.
