Certificate in Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship

ATU Galway has developed this free, 16-week part-time course to enable ambitious students to transform their ideas into new businesses.

The course is not taught in a traditional classroom setting. Students will have the opportunity to interact with a broad range of project hosts, practitioners, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs.

There will be two days of lectures per week (the majority is online, with three on-campus sessions in the semester). The practical application of learning is embedded in the course through regular real-life project challenges and the incorporation of industry and practitioner guest speakers and contributors into the course.

Multi-disciplinary team participation ensures students are exposed to alternative knowledge, skill sets and perspectives. This exposure broadens participants' horizons and networks, stimulating the crossfertilisation of ideas and capabilities. Delivery of the course will be led by the Innovation Hubs at ATU Galway, which have enabled dozens of potential entrepreneurs to take their ideas from concept to full commercialisation

See our brochure for further details.

What our graduates say:

“The course really helped me develop my business idea and business plan.  More importantly, it helped me with the transition from homemaker to entrepreneur”.  Hilda Patton

“The course is full of inspiration with totally up-to-date information delivered by a professional team”. Deirdre Bennett

Students will undertake three modules as part of this course, each worth 10 credits.

The three modules are:

• Creative Thinking and Opportunity Recognition  - download module details here (PDF)

• Food Sector Entrepreneurship - download module details here (PDF)

• Food Sector Specific Skills - download module details here (PDF)

• Please monitor the HEA website www.hea.ie for an announcement as which GMIT courses are funded under Springboard+2022 and when the Springboard website www.springboardcourses.ie will be open for applications

This course is focused on forming and supporting job creators. Throughout the course, participants are encouraged to seriously consider food entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to employment. There is a strong emphasis on the development of implementable and sustainable economic and social entrepreneurship ventures and projects.

In addition to the development of technical and transferable skills required for entrepreneurial activity, we also offer individual practical supports to participants who have identified business ideas, which they wish to pursue further. In such cases we act as a start-up platform introducing participants to experts and mentors as well as potential sources of funding.

For those seeking employment, rather than hoping to create employment, the course provides participants with sought-after skills in the areas of creative thinking, innovation, opportunity recognition, networking and team building, entrepreneurial thinking and action. Confidence building and ability to act autonomously, as well as peer-to-peer network development will be a strong features of our course. Standard CV and interview preparation are offered to all participants but due to the nature of the course are not always required.

Duration:

16 weeks

Entry Requirements

Honours Degree (Level 8) in any discipline, or an Ordinary Degree (Level 7) in any discipline plus two years of relevant experience working/ self employed in the area of food entrepreneurship/ innovation, or five years working/self employed of relevant experience in the area of food entrepreneurship/innovation.

Contact Us

School: School of Science and Computing

Department:  Sport, Exercise and Nutrition

Head of Department: Dr Lisa Ryan

Academic Contact: 

Maria McDonagh (maria.mcdonagh@atu.ie)

Emma Finnegan (emma.finnegan@atu.ie)