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As a public institution, UTS is committed to the sharing of knowledge and experience, so that we can all help to build a future, and a community around us, that we are proud of. We spoke to Maya Marcus, Manager of Entrepreneurship Education at UTS Innovation and Entrepreneurship, about how we’re making education available and collaborating to ensure our graduates make a positive, sustainable and scalable impact.
What drew you to entrepreneurship in the first place?
I stumbled into entrepreneurship accidentally. I was running women in STEM initiatives for the Faculty of Engineering and IT and absolutely loving it, but when I started running a female STEM and entrepreneurship program I saw the impact of entrepreneurial skills on young women still in high school and how it changed the way they thought about their future, their education and their ability to create change. I was hooked.
What are some of the ways UTS educates students in this space?
UTS is really focusing on practical, engaging and active learning across all areas and entrepreneurship is no exception. Students have a plethora of entrepreneurship subjects to choose, ranging from subjects that help launch their own business, to subjects that teach product and business model design. Students also have the choice to go beyond the classroom and apply entrepreneurship methods through their internship subjects. Many students are already interning with startups or being intrapreneurial by applying design thinking principles within large organisations - all for course credit. The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit is supporting this through our Startup Internships program where we are matching students with startup communities such as Fishburners, Cicada Innovations and EnergyLab as well as more intrapreneurial roles such as internships with Coca-Cola Amatil. We’ve also recently started supporting students to use their internship subject to take some time and create their own career by working on their own startup.
Additionally, our unit is supporting students to enhance their university experience by participating in co-curricular entrepreneurship experiences. As soon as students have an idea for a startup, they can join UTS Startups. We provide community, coworking space, mentoring and connections with opportunities and contacts that will help them on their entrepreneurial journey. We’re also running early stage boot camps and providing online content to take students that are curious and excited about entrepreneurship and give them the skills, knowledge and contacts they need to succeed.
Not only are we getting great feedback from students about these experiences, but our partners are also loving the entrepreneurial mindsets that students are applying to their work. We’ve also started to see more and more success stories from our startups, such as Resolution123 and Tech Gym.
As a university, what do you think we can offer to the ecosystem, and wider industry when it comes to entrepreneurship education?
UTS is an active part of Sydney’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and we’re committed to helping this ecosystem grow and flourish. One of the ways that we can do this is by ensuring that students are developing the skills they need to innovate.
UTS students are injecting fresh thinking and energy into the local, and the wider Australian entrepreneurial ecosystems.
The university also, as a for-purpose organisation, has a responsibility to share its knowledge and education. Our unit is doing this through our online content that can be accessed by anyone in the world. We currently offer an Introduction to Entrepreneurship module on UTS Open that will introduce anyone to the basics of entrepreneurship and startups and how this differs from the small business model. Through this, we’re raising awareness of entrepreneurship and encouraging more people into the ecosystem.
Students also have an opportunity to impact large organisations. They will be future staff, CEOs, and board members. By equipping them with valuable skills, entrepreneurial mindsets, and ethical awareness, we can help create a future that we can all be proud of.
What would you say to an employer who is considering candidates with entrepreneurship experience; is it a risk to hire someone with a perspective and background in startups and similar environments?
It’s always a challenge to find the perfect fit for an organisation. Every decision could have some level of risk associated with it. However, I think the riskiest thing is to avoid hiring people with an entrepreneurial mindset.
These are the people that are going to keep businesses innovating, disrupting and relevant. These are the people that have the skills to thrive in an ever-changing workforce. Working in a startup is a unique experience. Students understand the big picture of a business, they understand how to solve problems, and they’ve faced situations and decisions that normally are not standard in a corporate role.
What are some of the ways that industry can engage with the University, and help achieve some of the goals we are setting in entrepreneurship education?
The best outcomes always come from collaboration and as part of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, UTS is happy to welcome industry partners to collaborate with us. Partners can provide our students with practical experiences, complex problems, skills building and more - all of which are invaluable to the student experience. UTS can also provide incredible value to the industry through our way of thinking, our talented and innovative students and our educational offerings. We can partner with organisations to run hackathons, startup weekends, boot camps, workshops, online content, events, co-designed innovation challenges and more. We’re all about mutually beneficial partnerships that will provide more entrepreneurial experiences and education for our students, the ecosystem and industry partners.
Congratulations on your involvement with the AiR (Academics in Residence) project, it looks really exciting. What does this involve and what will be on offer for students?
Thank you! It’s an amazing opportunity to work alongside my extremely talented entrepreneurship focused colleagues, and with the fabulous team in the LxLab. It’s been great bringing together so many amazing minds and the product of this collaboration will be high quality, interactive and engaging online content that will help students develop entrepreneurial ideas, address real-world problems, and take an early stage idea through to a successful startup or venture. The online modules we’re creating will all be in the UTS Entrepreneurship Toolkit as well as become core content in the Bachelor of Entrepreneurship (Honours) that is launching this year.
To find out more about internships, or how to connect with UTS student talent, visit industry.uts.edu.au. To discover more about Entrepreneurship at UTS, visit entrepreneurship.uts.edu.au.