Entrepreneurship and enterprise skills focus on how you identify opportunities, innovate solutions, and create value in various contexts.
Entrepreneurship skills involve developing new ideas, taking calculated risks, and turning concepts into reality. Enterprise skills encompass the broader abilities needed to drive change, manage resources, and work effectively in dynamic environments.
You can see a full list of the skills included in this category at the bottom of this page.
While commonly associated with starting and running businesses, these skills are valuable for anyone in any career path. They enhance your ability to spot opportunities, solve problems creatively, adapt to change, and contribute meaningfully to a team. By helping you navigate uncertainty, these skills are also beneficial to your ability to thrive in new situations whether you're joining a new society, giving presentation or managing a project.
You can use the Skills Discovery Tool to evaluate your skills in this area.
Easy ways to get started
These skills can be developed through everyday activities and mindset shifts. You could try:
- Identifying small problems around you and brainstorming creative solutions - you could suggest better ways to organise society events, or find more efficient study methods.
- Taking initiative - if you're a member of a society or committee, you could volunteer to lead specific tasks or propose new ways to engage students with your society.
- Embracing small risks such as trying a new activity, making a unique argument in a supervision, or taking on a responsibility you haven't done before.
Skills development opportunities
If you're looking to drive your skills in this area further, here are some suggestions:
- Take on project management roles in societies or committees to develop skills in leading teams, planning, and implementing changes. This could range from planning your College's May Ball to organising a European theatre tour to managing the student radio station, CamFM.
- Check out the University's entrepreneurship community IE Cambridge for events, competitions, groups and support on your entrepreneurial journey
- Engage with College entrepreneurial programs - many Colleges offer competitions and training programs such as Lucy Enterprise, Trinity Hall Entrepreneurs Network (THEN), and Kings Entrepreneurship Lab. Some of them are open to students across the university.
- Take a look at the Discovering Entrepreneurship course on the UIS Training website.
- Access workshops, mentoring and training through societies and enterprise hubs such as Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club, The Entrepreneurship Centre at Judge Business School and i-Teams.
- Explore the Careers Service's guide to entrepreneurship in Cambridge and entrepreneurship page
Check out the activities pages for more ideas on how to get involved and develop your skills in this area.
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Skill |
Definition |
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Accountability |
The ability to take ownership of one's behaviours and responsibilities and being able to provide reasonable explanations for one's decisions and actions. |
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Adaptability |
The ability to change one's attitudes or behaviours to accommodate new changes (e.g., new technologies, work patterns, new skills). |
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Adopting a different perspective |
The ability to consider a situation, idea, or problem from a new or alternative point of view. |
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Agile thinking |
The ability to understand, react and adapt quickly and effectively to changing circumstances. |
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Asking the right questions |
The ability to ask insightful, relevant, and purposeful questions to obtain information, clarify a point, or explore difficulties other people may have. |
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Autonomy |
The ability to make your own decisions and to govern your actions and decisions. |
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Building networks |
The ability to establish and nurture connections with individuals within one's existing network, as well as engaging with people from different educational or professional domains, clubs, or shared interests. |
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Career management |
The ability to create a long-term vision of future careers, seek opportunities for growth and skill development, reflect on one's progress, and ensure one's skills remain relevant and diverse. |
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Coaching others |
The ability to facilitate learning or training of another person, a small group, or a sports team. |
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Collaboration |
The ability to work together with others and coordinate individuals' different skills to achieve a shared goal. |
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Commercial awareness |
The ability to understand the market, the business environment, and the factors that influence the success of an organisation (e.g., customers, opportunities, or competitors). |
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Communication |
The ability to effectively share information, ideas, and emotions with others through written, verbal, and non-verbal mediums. |
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Coping with uncertainty |
The ability to navigate and perform adeptly in situations with significant levels of unpredictability or potentially unexpected changes. |
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Courage and risk taking |
The ability to embrace uncertainty and potential setbacks in the hope of desired results or great achievements. |
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Crafting an inspiring vision |
The ability to create a compelling and encouraging vision about the future that inspires others to work towards making it a reality. |
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Decisiveness |
The ability to make decisions confidently, resolutely, and quickly. |
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Drive change and innovation |
The ability to introduce changes and innovations and inspire others to adapt to new ways of thinking and working. |
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Entrepreneurial thinking |
The ability to be self-motivated, innovative, and capable of developing a compelling vision while being aware of potential future risks and challenges. |
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Financial literacy |
The ability to understand and make use of basic principles of business and finance (e.g. budgeting, investing, etc). |
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Fluency of ideas |
The ability to brainstorm or quickly generate a large number of ideas, concepts, or possibilities within a topic or a context. |
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Grit and persistence |
The ability to pursue a long-term task, mission, or journey in spite of obstacles and discouragements. |
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Initiative |
The ability to take a lead in a project or offer a fresh approach to something. |
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Inspiring Trust |
The ability to speak openly about one's intentions and goals, particularly in the capacity of being a leader. |
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Integrity & Ethical behaviour |
The ability to be honest and show a consistent adherence to strong moral and ethical principles that guide one in any situation. |
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Judgement and decision making |
The ability to make an informed decision based on analytical and critical evaluation of multiple resources or situations. |
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Optimism |
The ability to perceive situations with hope and stay confident about successful outcomes even in challenging situations. |
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Organisational Awareness |
The ability to understand different elements of organisations (e.g., their structure, culture, values, roles, and dynamics) to help navigate relationships within them and successfully meet their goals. |
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Originality |
The ability to independently generate new or fresh ideas, methods or thoughts. |
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Project management |
The ability to lead a team, plan and organise tasks, and implement changes, tools, or improvements to achieve successful delivery of a project. |
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Resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility |
The ability to quickly recover from setbacks or challenging situations and easily adjust to changing circumstances or requirements. |
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Storytelling and public speaking |
The ability to convey ideas to all types of audiences through diverse communication mediums (e.g., words, tone, symbols, gestures and body language) in a clear and captivating manner. |
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Teamwork |
The ability to work together with others or in a group to collaboratively achieve a common goal. |
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Time management and prioritization |
The ability to manage one's time, organise tasks according to their urgency, and choose the most efficient method of executing them. |