FDSC40630 Food Sector Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development

Academic Year 2020/2021

Indicative Module Description

This module is an undergraduate course designed for stage 4 BSc Food Science students. The module will focus on the understanding and appreciation of the trends and drivers in the Irish and global food markets. An emphasis will be placed on the required marketing, financial and other managerial strategies and tools designed to establish and manage a successful and entrepreneurial food business by targeting selected consumer markets.

The course will comprise of a series of online lectures and online guided group work that will be assessed by continuous assessment including online individual tests and a group assignment. A business design based project - in which teams of learners develop and assess an innovative food business idea considering various marketing, financial and managerial aspects of the business - will be developed as a technical report and will also be presented online to an audience.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

Indicative Learning outcomes

The expected specific learning outcomes for the module include:

1. Develop an appreciation of the Irish and global food markets.
2. Ability to understand and explain the challenges and opportunities presented in dealing with the retail multiples.
3. Analysis of the existing and potential segmentation of the food market.
4. Identify possible new product opportunities in segmented markets.
5. Achieve a competence in creating and developing new food product or service opportunities.
6. Understand the basic principles of management, including operations, marketing and finance management of food businesses.
7. Apply the basic principles of management, business development and entrepreneurship by developing a realistic business plan.
8. Develop and implement team and leadership skills by significantly contributing to a team project.

Indicative Module Content:

The topics covered in this module include

- The Irish food industry and the global market.
- Management: theory and practice.
- Operations management.
- Marketing management.
- Business strategy.
-Financial analysis.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

30
Small Group

15
Specified Learning Activities

30
Autonomous Student Learning

45
Total

120
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Teaching and learning strategy on this module is designed to facilitate the development of an entrepreneurial mind-set among learners, promoting the development and use of valuable critical thinking skills, and to facilitate active-learning by applying 'learning-through-doing' approaches. This strategy incorporates traditional delivery with active-learning and facilitates peer-to-peer skills transfer. Dissemination of discipline knowledge will be done using traditionally guided lectures so that students have the opportunity to ask questions and get answers rapidly.

Task-based learning will help develop valuable transferable teamwork skills of the learners in a structured way, with a number of online-class group and individual activities. A realistic business canvasing scenario will enable the learners to work as a team and develop their team and leadership skills and business management principles that guide Food Businesses entrepreneurs. The students will consult with the academic mentors and invited lecturers and will be guided by additional reading and audio-visual materials helping them to apply and answer issues arising as the portfolio of work is being developed. This approach and task allows the Food Science students to actively research and contribute to build their identity not only as Food Scientists, but as Food Business Entrepreneurs with an overall understanding of the multiple agents governing the food industry before they leave the Food Science Programme.
 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Pre-requisite:
FDSC30070 - Product Development, FDSC30160 - PWE (Food Science)


 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Continuous Assessment: Regular MCQs/Short answer questions and other assessments Throughout the Trimester n/a Standard conversion grade scale 40% Yes

40
Continuous Assessment: Development of project (group presentation and report) and attendance. Throughout the Trimester n/a Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

60

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Self-assessment activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Post-assessment feedback (where no further similar assessment is scheduled) will take the form of grades and/or feedback comments indicating areas for improvement. Students may make an appointment to discuss assessment grades at a time convenient to both Module coordinator and the student. More important however are the feed-forward insights on the students’ learning. This module has a scheduled series of in-class assessments designed to promote team building and develop competence in food business development. Feedback will be given during the group-work sessions, prior to completing the tasks so that the feedback can feed forward to inform improved performance. These tasks then build to inform higher-stakes group project work later in the module.

Name Role
Dr Marco Garcia-Vaquero Lecturer / Co-Lecturer