Learn Business Do Business

Tackle real-life business projects, gain valuable professional experience and develop your skills and commercial understanding, thanks to Aston Business School’s wide range of practical business initiatives.

You’ll have opportunities to take part in consultancy projects for small businesses, receive support to start your own venture, help young, aspiring entrepreneurs as well as many other exciting and rewarding programmes.

Start your own business

If you’re looking to start your own business or develop a new venture idea, you can benefit from our on-campus start-up support programme.

BSEEN (Birmingham Skills for Enterprise and Employability Network) provides an intensive start-up bootcamp to develop your entrepreneurial skills. There’s valuable mentoring and networking opportunities, allowing you to grow your network of contacts and learn from experienced entrepreneurs. A financial grant and free office space are also available to help you build a successful venture.

Pitchfest is our exciting initiative which will teach you to deliver a successful business pitch and give you support in refining your venture plan. It’s a fantastic opportunity for personal development too - grow in confidence, develop key business skills and connect with investors and entrepreneurs.

Be a consultant

We offer you a unique opportunity to provide advice and support to small and medium-sized enterprises as part of our Business Clinic. Use your subject knowledge to undertake consultancy projects and tackle real-life commercial challenges. Carry out research and provide practical recommendations related to specific business activities.

How can you get involved?

• Lead Advisor – focus on building relationships with a small number of businesses and act as a project lead for a specific business area, such as digital marketing or finance.
• Advisor – take on a more research-based role and gain exposure to a wide range of projects and areas of business.

In both roles, you can help solve strategic problems and make a valued contribution to the success of small and medium-sized businesses. You’ll be able to add your achievements to your CV, giving you an advantage when applying for graduate roles. What’s more, you’ll develop your understanding of today’s competitive business environment and grow your network of professional contacts.

Professional skills training and access to a dedicated workspace is provided to participants. There’s even the opportunity to use your experiences as the basis for academic assignments.

This exciting initiative is open to all Postgraduate students. You’ll find out more as part of your induction programme.

Business Projects

All postgraduate students have the opportunity to work on a real business project during their degree studies. To achieve this, we're teaming up with local organisations, asking them to partner on our modules. A business that partners a module will:

• Attend one of the first lectures on the module and present a real business issue that's happening in the organisation
• Return to one of the final lectures and receive solutions from students
• Award a placement of at least four weeks to the best student.

Find out more 

This exciting initiative is open to all Postgraduate students. You’ll find out more as part of your induction programme.

The Prince’s Trust

We’re proud to partner The Prince’s Trust, a charity that supports disadvantaged young people in the UK. You’ll have the chance to take part in their exciting and rewarding initiatives:

• Fundraising challenge – Come up with a business idea, develop this and try to raise £10,000 in just six months.
• E-mentoring – Become an online mentor and use your knowledge and experience to help young entrepreneurs.
• Learning Materials – Inform, guide and empower young entrepreneurs by creating educational guides.
• Training Programmes – Help facilitate our on-campus training programmes for The Prince’s Trust beneficiaries.

You can make a real difference to lives of other young people. You’ll gain a lot yourself too by developing key business skills through hands-on experience and by helping your CV stand out from the competition when applying for graduate roles.

Work experience and internships 

All our MSc programmes give you the opportunity to undertake a work placement or internship. This practical work experience can be hugely beneficial and make the difference when applying for graduate roles.

Societies and clubs

Our student societies and clubs organise a range of exciting initiatives. With opportunities to take part in entrepreneurial challenges, support the local community, attend guest lectures and networking events, whatever your interest, there’s a club or society for you. We want the best for our students, starting with our postgraduate induction.

TEDx - Sharing ideas and innovation

In the spirit of ‘ideas worth spreading’, TEDx is a programme of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share the TED experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark discussion and connection over inspiring, thought-provoking and sometimes even mind-changing topics.

Aston University has been hosting TEDx events for a number of years, featuring speakers from across England and the local West Midlands region. It’s an initiative that many of our postgraduate students are keen to get involved with.

Enactus - Entrepreneurship in action 

Positioned as ‘the world’s largest experiential learning platform’, Enactus is a not-for-profit network of entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators. It’s a global group of business, academic and student leaders, who share the vision of using their passion, personal ambition and professional skills to create a better, more sustainable world for everyone. We have a lively Enactus group at Aston University.

This student-led society works to develop entrepreneurial ideas to support social enterprises.