Micro-credential
5 weeks
Online - Part-time
5 ECTS
12 May 2025
About
Enhance your ability to develop and implement strategic business plans in the healthcare and related fields with the Micro-credential in Business Planning for Healthcare Innovation* from RCSI Graduate School of Healthcare Management.
With a practical focus readying you for immediate impact in healthcare you'll delve into business planning principles, hone your critical thinking and develop the practical skills you need to innovatively address healthcare challenges.
Emerge as an organisational influencer, leading positive changes through strategic planning.
This five-week micro-credential course is delivered entirely online with learning content delivered through pre-recorded videos and online activities. At the end of each week there will be a 90-minute live webinar. All webinars are recorded for those who cannot attend live, and will be available to view at your convenience.
The development of this micro-credential was funded by the Higher Education Authority Ireland to deliver initiatives around entrepreneurship education.
*Course title is subject to final accreditation. This course was previously known as Business Planning and Development for Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs in Healthcare and Science.
Explore key concepts and ideate for positive change in health and wellbeing contexts
Practice strategic business planning and how to use business tools, theory and practice
Develop essential skills in negotiation and pitching healthcare concepts
Suitable for
If you’re a healthcare professional, scientist, or aspiring entrepreneur seeking to master business planning and development in the healthcare and science sectors, this course is your ideal starting point.
What you will learn
Learn to generate ideas and convert them into viable opportunities in healthcare and science.
Focus on feasibility analysis, covering its components and practical application.
Explore the business canvas and its role in industry analysis.
Create effective business plans, including organisational, product/service, and marketing aspects.
Develop skills in negotiation and pitching to present business concepts confidently.
Faculty highlight
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Course information
- Develop capacity to understand key concepts in business planning and development as applied to or enacted in health and related sectors.
- Develop critical understanding of how business planning tools, theory and practice can be employed to alter working lives and human health.
- Understand and apply business frameworks appropriately to the issues or challenges that arise in delivering or changing health and related sectors.
- Develop competence in evaluating concepts pertaining to business viability with a view to assessing and identifying what works (and what does not) in particular scenarios and why.
- Demonstrate the ability to challenge assumptions and question processes in the development of an effective business canvas/plan in a contextually sensitive manner.
- Enact critical understanding and skills necessary to perform as an effective organisational actor with the confidence and ability to work with and lead others in pursuit of better health and wellbeing through application of business planning and development.
- Develop critical reflection and reflexivity so as to understand how their specific approach to organising and managing impacts on the people, processes or structures through business planning and development.
- Reflect on how to change practice as an actor/manager/leader in organisational contexts in support of the betterment of human health and well-being, and in support of principles linked to relevant components of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
A four-week online learning experience awaits you. Each week is carefully designed to offer a dynamic blend of both direct and indirect synchronous and interactive activities. These include live lectures, exercises, discussions, reading assignments, self-study sessions, formative learning assessments, and summative preparation tasks. Week 5 will be dedicated to the assessment phase, where you'll receive detailed feedback.
- Week 1: During the first week, participants will gain proficiency in generating ideas and converting them into viable opportunities within the healthcare and science domains.
- Week 2: In the second week, we'll focus on feasibility analysis, covering its components and practical application to assess the viability of ideas.
- Week 3: Week three involves a comprehensive exploration of the business canvas and its significance in analysing the industry.
- Week 4: During the fourth week, attention will be directed toward creating effective business plans that encompass organisational, product/service, and marketing aspects.
- Week 5: In the fifth week, participants will work on developing essential skills in negotiation and pitching, enhancing their ability to confidently present healthcare and science business concepts.
This five-week course is fully online so that you are able to study at a pace that suits your lifestyle. The course consists of four weeks of content and teaching. The fifth week is reserved for assessment.
Learning content is delivered through pre-recorded videos and online activities. At the end of each week there will 90-minute live webinars. All webinars are recorded for those who cannot attend live and will be available to view at your convenience.
Assessment methods on our micro-credential courses can include written assignments, continuous assessment, and/or presentations. Full details on the end of course assessment will be available to students on commencement of the course.
Micro-credentials are awarded based on successfully completing a course and demonstrating the required learning outcomes through assessment. Micro-credentials are designed to be stackable – learners can accumulate credits from other specific micro-credentials to achieve a larger, major award, such as a diploma or degree.
We have two other micro-credential courses in this suite:
On successful completion of all the micro credentials within this suite*, participants may be awarded a Professional Certificate in Innovation in Healthcare (15ECTS).
*Innovation in Healthcare, Design Thinking for Healthcare, Business Planning for Healthcare Innovation.
We are proud to be a recognised University of the National University of Ireland (NUI).
Recognition by Ministries and bodies in other jurisdictions must be determined by the individual applicants.
Course title is subject to final accreditation.
Please note: This course was previously known as Business Planning and Development for Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs in Healthcare and Science.
Admissions
To apply for this micro-credential course, you must:
- Hold a bachelor degree (if you don’t hold a bachelor degree, see the recognition of prior learning pathway)
- Be working in healthcare or a related industry
- Meet the English language requirements (unless exempt): IELTS score of 6.5 or equivalent score on another standardised test (certified proof should be uploaded with your application; see below for exemptions)
If you do not have an undergraduate degree at level 7 or above you may still be eligible to apply through recognition of prior learning (RPL). RPL is the assessment of knowledge, skills and competence previously acquired.
Learning occurs in many contexts which include work, involvement in social and community activities, or learning through life experience generally. RPL does not give credit for experience as such; rather it considers the learning that was acquired as a result of the experience.
RPL may be used to gain:
- Admission to courses/programmes where a person may not have obtained the standard entry requirements.
- Exemptions from course modules which duplicate the learning outcomes an individual has already demonstrably acquired through prior learning.
Exemptions may apply for:
- Applicants who have completed their school or undergraduate studies (three or more years) through English in a country where English is the majority native language
- Applicants who have completed their school or undergraduate studies (three or more years) in an English speaking institution in a country where English is not the majority native language and where an IELTS score of 5 or more was a requirement for admissions to the programme
- Applicants who have been working in a country (three years or more) where English is the majority native language or for an employer where English language is the official language
- Graduates of an RCSI Undergraduate, Masters or Professional Diploma programme in Dublin and Bahrain
Please note: Certified proof must be uploaded as part of your application.
The fee for this course is €1,000.
How to apply
Applications are now open for the 2025 intake. Please begin your application by completing the form below.Please ensure you attach the following supporting documents with your application:
- Clear copy of a valid passport
- Copies of your academic transcripts/degree
- Copy of your CV
- English proficiency test (if required)
Already begun your application? Complete it via our application portal now.
Continue your application