UA News

The Eller College program helps aspiring entrepreneurs - including UA employees - get their businesses off the ground.

Faculty and staff entrepreneurs can better their business sense with three new online certificate courses offered through the University of Arizona's McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship at the Eller College of Management.

The classes are designed for people seeking to commercialize an innovation, start a small business or grow a current venture. They offer working professionals interested or involved in a new venture with flexible and convenient learning options, including an online classroom environment, while having regular communication and interaction with McGuire Center entrepreneurship mentors.

Sherry Hoskinson, director of the McGuire Center, said the courses will help employees who are building businesses and ventures understand how to assess problems and needs, propose solutions, estimate costs and communicate resource needs – "all of which can move forward new ideas within their units and communities."

The courses provide training in three specific areas. The first class is for people who want to build their ability to move a discovery, invention or other innovation-driven concept to market. The second course is designed for those who want to start an owner-operated, lifestyle business. The third class is aimed at anyone who wants to grow an existing business.

Online access, Hoskinson said, has its benefits: "People don't need to be tied to a given classroom at a given time. However, they do access the benefits of working with local faculty members."

The courses are designed to dovetail with the UA's land grant mission and are funded in part by a U.S. Department of Labor WIRED (Workforce Innovation Regional Economic Development) grant. "The WIRED grant created a wonderful opportunity to make high-quality entrepreneurship education available across our region," Hoskinson said. "If we can help Southern Arizona entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs develop profitable and scalable businesses, the whole community benefits."

Randy Accetta, McGuire Center communications mentor and course instructor, said the classes were developed in consultation with educators and entrepreneurs throughout southern Arizona. "We wanted to be sure that we're creating resources that are needed for working adults across the region," he said.

The online classes, which begin in mid-September, are open to the public through the noncredit arm of the UA Outreach College. Credit-bearing versions of each course will be available in the coming months.

Established in 1984, the McGuire Center is one of the first university-based centers for entrepreneurship and one of only a few to consistently maintain top-tier ranking status. The center houses the McGuire Entrepreneurship Program, open to graduate and undergraduate students from across the University. It offers a variety of elective and stand-alone courses, a robust research agenda and a rich community service mandate.