Career advice

Become an Entrepreneur

Want to learn how to start your own business? Or bring new ideas and energy to your current organisation? Develop key entrepreneurial skills with short online entrepreneurship courses from top universities and business schools.

What are the characteristics of an entrepreneur?

  • Resourcefulness

    Entrepreneurs spot opportunities to develop new products and markets. To do this, they monitor customers, competitors and technological trends.

  • Creativity

    Once an entrepreneur has spotted an opportunity, they seize it. They use innovative thinking to improve existing products and develop new ones.

  • Commerciality

    Entrepreneurs know how much it costs to produce something and how much customers will pay for it. They focus on finances, making their business processes as efficient as possible.

  • Leadership

    Entrepreneurs are passionate about their idea or business. And they inspire their teams too, through top-notch communication, management and leadership skills.

Develop your entrepreneurial skills. Take an online short course

The Open University

Bookkeeping for Personal and Business Accounting

Learn how to balance your books and develop the skills to manage finances in personal and business environments.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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CIPD - Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

HR Fundamentals

Get an introduction to the practice of Human Resources, and develop the skills you need to become an HR professional.

5 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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University of Leeds

Innovation Management: Winning in the Age of Disruption

Learn how successful organisations like IBM manage innovation to disrupt markets and achieve business advantage.

2 weeks

4 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Deakin University

Competitive Advantage: Using Information to Build Business Success

Learn the value of information to businesses and how it can give the business a competitive advantage.

2 weeks

3 hrs per week

Free digital upgrade

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The Open University & The Open University Business School

Business Fundamentals: Effective Networking

Learn how to build and sustain your network to enhance your professional relationships and open up career opportunities.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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The Open University & The Open University Business School

The Digital Economy: Effective Supply Chain Management

Learn how supply chains work in the digital era, and how you can make them more effective and efficient.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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The Open University & The Open University Business School

The Digital Economy: Success through Market Segmentation

Explore how and why market segmentation can be used to improve customer satisfaction and business performance.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Accenture

Digital Skills: Digital Skills for Work and Life

Learn how digital is changing our personal and professional lives and develop the skills to thrive in the digital world of work.

2 weeks

1 hr per week

Free digital upgrade

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Accenture

Digital Skills: Digital Marketing

Learn about some of the different digital marketing strategies and techniques that are available for businesses to use.

2 weeks

2 hrs per week

Free digital upgrade

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Accenture

Digital Skills: Social Media

Learn how to use social media for business, from creating a social media presence to measuring success.

2 weeks

1 hr per week

Free digital upgrade

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CIPD - Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

People Management Skills

Learn about the key methods, strategies and principles of people management and develop your own management style.

5 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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University of Strathclyde

Understanding Modern Business and Organisations

Learn how knowledge, technology, ethics and globalisation affect businesses today, with this free online course for graduates.

6 weeks

6 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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UCL (University College London) , UCL Consultants & PA Consulting

Introduction to GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation

Learn how to handle data in the digital economy safely, securely and respectfully.

3 weeks

2 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Deakin University

Becoming Career Smart: How to Sell Yourself

Thinking about a career change? Identify your key strengths and professional skills, and learn how to sell them and yourself.

2 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Queensland University of Technology

Teaching Entrepreneurial Thinking

Get an introduction to what entrepreneurial thinking is, and how and why we should teach it.

2 weeks

1 hr per week

Included in Unlimited

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The Open University & The Open University Business School

Business Fundamentals: Customer Engagement

Learn how to design business and marketing activities to engage customers through relationships instead of one-off sales.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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The Open University & The Open University Business School

Management and Leadership: Leading a Team

Develop a business plan and build a team with this online course from The Open University and CMI.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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The Open University & The Open University Business School

Management and Leadership: Well-being and Welfare at Work

Learn to support the development and well-being of the people you manage with this online course from The Open University and CMI.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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The Open University & The Open University Business School

The Digital Economy: Finance for Business Growth

Learn how to develop a funding strategy for your business; explore different types of finance and learn when, and how, to use them

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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The Open University & The Open University Business School

The Digital Economy: Selling Through Customer Insight

Uncover new perspectives on the role and behaviour of your customers, to enhance your sales and marketing.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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University of Groningen

Understanding the GDPR

Get to grips with the General Data Protection Regulation and take the first steps to ensuring that your organisation is compliant.

4 weeks

3 hrs per week

Included in Unlimited

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Browse more courses in Business & Management and IT & Computer Science

What do people say about these entrepreneurship courses?

It has been a great course and truly inspiring! The course gave us a series of new areas to think about. It gave us a new way to look at some of the areas in our business that we thought were all wrapped up but in reality, we had glossed over the subject matter. The material of this course was so easy to follow because of how relevant and interesting the readings and videos were. The learner comments and discussions made a great contribution, making the course easier and successful for me.

Enam Haque
Learner on Supply Chain Innovation: How Technology Can Create a Sustainable Future

The benefits of taking entrepreneurship courses online with FutureLearn

Learn flexibly online, for free

Develop valuable skills with a short, online entrepreneurship course wherever you are. Start learning for free, on desktop, tablet or mobile.

Upgrade or buy Unlimited for extra benefits

Upgrade your course for ongoing access to the course content, tests, and the chance to gain a Certificate of Achievement. Buy Unlimited for access to hundreds of short courses in a year and the ability to keep access to courses you gain a certificate on.

Meet experts and entrepreneurs

Learn with experts from top international universities and business schools. Network with developers all over the world.