Sydney School of Entrepreneurship

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The Sydney School of Entrepreneurship (SSE) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides entrepreneurship education to diverse communities.
What are the main aims and objectives?

The Sydney School of Entrepreneurship (SSE) primarily aims to build Australia's knowledge and skills economy and eliminate barriers to employment. It does so by delivering work-relevant skills training to more individuals across diverse communities. Moreover, SSE works with various partners, including industry, government, and education providers, to ensure equitable access to future job opportunities. Additionally, SSE aims to broaden access to opportunities for learners from the First Nation communities and has committed to increasing the proportion of learners from low socio-economic and historically under-represented groups, including young people, women, and Culturally and Racially Marginalized (CARM) communities.

How does the program work?

The Sydney School of Entrepreneurship (SSE) operates by offering academic and co-curricular. These programs, generally delivered over a 10-week online period with opportunities for the on-campus experience at the SSE campus in Ultimo, aim to expand the students' skillsets, challenge their thinking, and establish valuable connections. SSE is currently offering 6 distinct programs:

Discovery

The discovery program is built around the exploration of how innovation and entrepreneurship can solve everyday problems. Learners are taught how to apply an entrepreneurial mindset to ideate and solve challenges, and will model an innovation and entrepreneurship process to demonstrate solutions to the problems they identify during the course. The program is supported by industry leading online learning platform, SSEQuad and facilitators provide expert feedback and mentorship to all learners. 

Invest In Yourself

This program brings together financial literacy and enterise education to provide students with good money management and an understanding of the basic components of self-employment and the different forms it comes in. Additionally, students are taught to understand the environment in which self-employed workers operate in, including the Australian financial system, taxation and credit.

Youth Accelerator

This program is focused on helping students commercialize their business ideas. Learners are supported to develop a simple go-to-market strategy and develop their understanding of the environment startups operate in. This includes learning how to pitch and seek funding from venture capitalists, angel investors, and government bodies. This course also includes the opportunity to present business plans to a panel of industry experts, mentors and investors.

Startup Success

Startup Success directly addresses skills gaps including the developing of products/services, how to establish a business, access/growth of customers, access to capital, access to talent and regulatory barriers.

Pitch Perfect

This program is a development Masterclass built around growing participants ability to empathize, inspire, and communicate efficiently through the pitching of ideas. This includes the effective communication of projects proposals, business ideas, or commercial research.

Digital Internship Programs

This program offers participants the opportunity to gain work experience with high-impact organizations. Currently SSE is collaborating with Western Sydney University Launch Pad and Tech Central to deliver two internship programs that showcase innovative startups and scaleups. 

What is the overall cost?

The full annual cost of the SSE is not known, however, the school was funded with an initial AUD 25 million (approx. $16 million) from the New South Wales State Government. 

How was it implemented?

The Sydney School of Entrepreneurship was launched in 2017 and is led by Nick Kaye, a prominent entrepreneurship specialist. The school was modelled on the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (previously led by Kaye) which has graduated over 13,000 students with one-third of them launching startups. SSE collaborates with each of New South Wales’s eleven universities, providing free access to entrepreneurship programs for all of their students.

What impact has been measured?

Since 2017 over 22,000 people have participated in SSE programs with over 2,000 "microdentials" (digital certificates) issued. The program also sites that 40% of participants are from regional and rural areas. There is currently no information on the wider impact of the school in terms of startups launched by students and wider economic impact.

CURATED BY

Tom Hancock

Research Associate
Global Entrepreneurship Network
United Kingdom