Second Major in Entrepreneurship
Course Overview
The Second Major in Entrepreneurship (SMiE) is developed with a focus on technopreneurship to nurture innovation-driven entrepreneurs who can contribute to Singapore's Smart Nation goals. This also allows greater flexibility for undergraduates to pursue interdisciplinary programmes and pan-university majors. Students will be inspired to be venturesome and more resilient in this ever-changing world.
SMiE is currently offered to students from College of Engineering (CoE), College of Science (CoS) and Nanyang Business School (NBS) and will gradually be offered to other Schools. SMiE students will be awarded a Bachelor of Engineering/Science/Business in their Engineering/Science/Business major with a separate certificate for the Second Major in Entrepreneurship.
Course Details
With the goal to prepare NTU graduates to impact the world and its grand challenges, the new Second Major in Entrepreneurship (SMiE) is introduced to:
• equip NTU students with the fundamental entrepreneurship competency and broaden their understanding in enterprise and innovation,
• enrich them with an entrepreneurial mindset to deal with uncertainties in a VUCA* world and be the drivers of technology innovation,
• provide them with hands-on experience in technopreneurship through experiential learning approach and 20-week overseas/local internship with startups, venture capital firms, or other entrepreneurship related organizations,
• expand their network and be part of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and
• seize the opportunities from new technologies and support NTU students to venture into technology startups
* Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.
Course Highlights
Students will be required to take 4 courses for 12 AU as Compulsory Courses so that they will be equipped with the fundamental entrepreneurship competency and the technopreneurial mindset, with an emphasis on experiential exposure and interactive learning :
ET5214 Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures (3 AU)
ET5211 Entrepreneurial Mindset and Technology Innovation (3 AU)
This course provides fundamental knowledge in entrepreneurship and innovation. With special focus on training students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and exposing them to various technology innovation, specific technology expertise will be brought to the classes to share their knowledge, real life industry experience, and insights.
Students will learn the applications of the new technology - such as how to use it?; Who will find it useful?; Where are the main users located?; Who will pay for it?; How to commercialise it?
Pre-requisite: Nil
ET5212 Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (3 AU)
This course provides students with an understanding on the concepts, practices, and tools of the entrepreneurial world through experiential projects and activities, readings, and speakers. Since the most effective way to understand entrepreneurship is to communicate with many entrepreneurs and customers, the course takes a very practical approach and requires students to interact with the business community, potential customers, participate in class activities/discussion and be active participants in the learning process.
Pre-requisite: Nil
ET5213 Managing New Ventures (3 AU)
This course seeks to relate theoretical concepts of strategy and organisation design, with practical and execution issues in the context of a growing enterprise; and studies the key elements that propel scaling up and impede growth. Students will be taught how investors commonly look for sustainable and repeatable growth in an enterprise performance, and what makes a start-up succeed or fail.
Pre-requisite: Nil
ET5214 Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures (3 AU)
The course is for the would-be entrepreneurs and for those considering a career in commercial banks, investment banks, private equity firms, venture capital firms, as well as in corporate venture investments. Unlike a typical corporate finance course, this course highlights the special and unique considerations when planning the financial needs of new ventures and young companies. Many typical avenues of funding (such as bank borrowing, issuing of bonds or issuing of liquid equities) for established or public listed companies are not accessible to small and young companies due to the lack of business track record. The analyses and requirements of investors who are considering to finance small and young companies may be different from that of public equity investments. This course will provide students with the understanding of the various aspects and processes in financial planning and financial management of new ventures or young companies, as well as investment analyses and considerations for investors providing funding to such companies.
Pre-requisite: ET5213 Managing New Ventures (3 AU)
To allow students to build greater breadth and depth in entrepreneurship, they will select at least 13 AU of Elective Courses based on their interests and needs. A diversified range of topics will be offered by Nanyang Technopreneurship Center (NTC) and other Schools* to promote interdisciplinary learning in SMiE.
ET5216 Venture Capital Investments and Practices (4 AU) |
This course trains students to understand how to value a start-up, a corporate venture, or a project. Emphasis is placed on developing a systematic framework in Venture Capital (VC) concepts and related techniques pertaining to venture capital investment as a profession. More specifically, the course helps students to develop an advanced level of skills on valuing a venture. It guides students in going through venture capital investment term sheets systematically, which covers important facets of the financing: economic issues such as the valuation given to the company (the higher the valuation, the less dilution to the entrepreneur). It also covers control issues such as the makeup of the company’s Board of Directors, the approval or “veto” rights the investors enjoy; and post-closing rights of the investors, such as the right to participate in future financings and rights to get periodic financial information. The course also examines several real-life venture capital and private equity investment deals. Students will identify the best practices and draw lessons from actual cases to deepen their knowledge and skills in VC investment. Pre-requisite: ET5213 Managing New Ventures (3 AU) |
ET5218 Innovation and Commercialization of Technologies (3 AU) |
An integral component of the course is the exploitation and commercialisation of technologies. The course provides a platform to examine trends and key issues in commercialising inventions and technological innovations. Students need to understand the latest technological research and development and identify technology commercialisation possibilities. This course places emphasis on the successful transfer of technologies from a research environment for commercialisation. It teaches how successful and sustainable products or services go to the global market in a knowledge-based entrepreneurial wealth-creation process. Challenges and opportunities posed by emerging technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution will also be examined. Pre-requisite: Nil |
ET5215 Entrepreneurial Business Development (3 AU) |
This course aims to introduce students to a framework of business development strategy, equip students with theories and tools to develop strategies, engage students in the application of these theories and tools to real-life business cases. This course focuses on strategic decisions, which will have a long-term impact on the organisation. The course enables students to discover how adopting entrepreneurial marketing thinking will help them to:
Pre-requisite: Nil |
ET5217 Design & Systems Thinking for Entrepreneurs (4 AU) |
From high-tech electronic products to low-tech children’s toys, human-centered design leads to the creation of great products or services through a deep understanding of human needs. The key to any start-up success is the quick and accurate identification of its customer base, and the value to its target market. Design behaviours – collaboration, empathy towards others, prototyping new ideas, and continuous improvement – are important when delving into any new experience. On another note, entrepreneurs spend most of the time interacting with all kinds of systems, which are often complex mixes of technology, people, and issues. Even in a simple system there can be several subtle cause-and-effects that we have to deal with if we want to change or improve things. Learning about systems thinking means learning about these behavioural properties and characteristics. This course consists of two parts:
Pre-requisite: Nil |
ET5134 Enterprise Strategy (3 AU) |
This is an immersive experiential learning module which provides a platform for students to experience the process of managing a business. Students are exposed to some of the major business decisions that entrepreneurs face when growing their ventures and competing with other companies in the same industry. Students will be grouped into teams to compete with one another. As students work through the organisation's life cycle in the simulation, external forces and managerial dilemmas are added. Students will apply the various tools, case-studies, and theories from previous modules and subsequently tackle new tasks, take on additional responsibilities and make difficult decisions. Pre-requisite: ET5211 Entrepreneurial Mindset and Technology Innovation (3 AU) |
ET5122 E-startups and Social Media Strategies (3 AU) |
This module aims to provide students with the essential knowledge on social media marketing, especially for start-ups. For this purpose, various social media tools that start-ups may explore will be introduced. The concept of social commerce will be covered. Students will also learn how to carry out strategic planning with social media. Topics such as social media metrics and social models and monetization will be covered to give a holistic understanding of social media marketing. Pre-requisite: Nil |
BU5503 Innovation Marketing (3 AU) |
In a rapidly changing, dynamic, uncertain, and engaging world, which quickly renders various products and services obsolete, organisations need to continuously innovate and come out with new solutions when new opportunities or challenges arise. This is pertinent and urgently needed in an increasingly connected and competitive world, where technological innovations continue to proliferate our world and the digital revolution generates fast impacting values demanded by customers. This course aims to enable students to learn practical skills and knowledge on market innovations for sustainable success. Pre-requisite: Nil |
ET5135 Business Venture Implementation (3 AU) |
There are two parts to this module. PART A: This module allows students to learn the importance of opportunity recognition and creation, and to learn how to evaluate new venture concepts. This module is a continuation of earlier modules students covered in MiE and SMiE. Students will be exposed to the ups and downs that start-ups face and the challenges of operating new business ventures. They will appreciate and learn from the lessons of under-performing or ‘turn-around’ companies. PART B: The objectives of the module are to cultivate a proactive mindset in students, to tap on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Singapore through meeting and mingling with venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, angel investors, government officers, and intellectual property lawyers. The module will provide opportunities for forums and discussions, where students get to explore and test potential business ideas with like-minded people. In addition, students will understand the importance of networking and professionalism at work. Pre-requisite: ET5211 Entrepreneurial Mindset and Technology Innovation (3 AU) Co-requisite: ET5214 Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures (3 AU) |
AB0603 Social Entrepreneurship (3 AU) |
Social entrepreneurship is rapidly emerging. These entrepreneurs help solve social and environmental challenges which are ignored or missed by businesses and pursue predominately donor-driven models of the nonprofit sector. This field includes “social intrapreneurship,” where employees in companies develop new income opportunities for their firms by addressing social and environmental challenges in a profitable and scalable manner. In this evolving social entrepreneurship landscape, the traditional lines blur among nonprofits, government, and business. Through use of case studies and class discussions, lectures, guest speakers, and a field project, students will gain better understanding on the opportunities and challenges in this landscape. Students will learn what a social enterprise is and its similarities and differences with other types of business, engage in problem/ opportunity assessment, and learn about the trade-offs between social and financial returns on investment. Pre-requisite: Nil |
To intensify the experiential learning, students are required to take a compulsory *20-week overseas or local internship with organizations, including startups, venture capital firms, entrepreneurship support organizations, and innovation setups in corporations.
* CoS and NBS students are able to take two 10-week overseas or local internship.

Important to note:
- This compulsory internship in the SMiE programme will also fulfil the internship requirement for your 1st degree specialisation.
- Students will take either a 20-week overseas or local Professional Internship with startups, venture capital firms, entrepreneurship support organisations or innovation set-up in organisations. It is credit-bearing and comprises 10AUs.
- Students keen on overseas internship should approach OEP 3 to 4 months ahead of the internship.
- Students must submit job description (JD) to NTUpreneur and check with NTUpreneur on suitability of organisation for local internship.
- Job description should include some elements of developing an entrepreneurial mindset, planning and/or executing strategies and implementing innovation in job tasks.
Admission Info
For more information, you may refer to the Office of Admissions.
Career Prospects
The Second Major in Entrepreneurship provides NTU students the unique competitive advantages in highly transferrable skills, entrepreneurial mindsets, and global exposure to address the world’s grand challenges. SMiE students will be the game changers and have the versatility to choose from a wide range of career options as entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, government policymakers, management consultants, business innovation and new venture development in large corporations.
Register Now
Please check the respective School's website for more details.
College of Engineering | College of Science | Nanyang Business School
For enquiries, contact us at
Second Major in Entrepreneurship [email protected] 6513 3732 / 69047086