Why should I do this

The Certificate of Entrepreneurship comprises eight courses.  Everyone will be required to complete Planning and Exporting.  Of the remaining six the diagnostic will determine which you can gain a credit for.  The six remaining courses cover personal planning, the functional areas of business and e-commerce.  The diagnostic helps in finding out which courses you need to do and those you don't.

The diagnostic is designed to assess your current knowledge, abilities and skills across a range of subjects.  The results will show where your skill and knowledge gaps are and help determine what existing knowledge could be credited towards your study.

Completing the diagnostic also allows the courses to be discounted.  They are normally $300 per module, please refer to the brochure for discounted pricing.

What are the questions like - how many are there

The questions cover your business skills and understanding in planning, marketing, managing your financials, the operational and personnel aspects of your business as well as your own personal motivations and objectives.  They also cover your knowledge of e-commerce and exporting.  It also includes questions on business sustainability.

There are about 350 questions and it will probably take between 2 - 4 hours to complete depending on how you answer the questions.  It can be completed over a number of sessions.  On receipt of payment you will be issued a log-in and a password and this will allow you to go back to the questionnaire as many times as you need until it's completed.

What happens after

Once you have completed the questionnaire we receive a detailed report with graphs showing your level of skill, knowledge and capability across the eight courses that are part of the CertEnEx programme.  We review your results and within 7 working days a business mentor is briefed and assigned to you.  The mentor will make a time to visit you to discuss the report and verify the results with you.

The next step will be a call from one of the tutors at the Open Polytechnic.  They will discuss with you which courses you should enrol in, and in which order as you may not need to do them all.  They will also answer any questions you may have.

Once enrolled the business mentor will visit a further 4 times and work with you to ensure what you learn from the course is applied and integrated successfully into your business.

If you complete the diagnostic and go on to enrol into the Certificate of Entrepreneurship the programme will help you to:

• have a fully integrated business plan, marketing plan and e-commerce web strategy
• grow your business
• develop your personal and business capabilities
• develop website / web strategy
• enter export markets
• if seeking funding, you will have all the information a bank or investor will be looking for.