Getting down to business

Employers in the chemical and related industries consistently criticise UK chemistry graduates as lacking in business-related skills and commercial awareness outside of pure scientific knowledge. Transferable skills, such as teamworking, solving open-ended problems, oral presentation and efficient information retrieval are highly valued, but often identified as lacking.

In response to the Royal Society of Chemistry’s call for proposals to develop business skills resources for chemists in higher education (under the National HE STEM programme), the University of Leeds has created a new second year module called Chemistry: Idea to Market. The course is worth 10 credits (of 120 required for the year), and is designed to lead students through the various stages of taking a new product from concept to market. The main emphasis is on developing new products within a larger company, rather than entrepreneurship and starting new businesses, which is well-supported by other resources.

Samantha Pugh summarises and reviews this module with input from students.