From Finance to Entrepreneurship Jacob Varghese, Ministry of Awesome
UC Business School | Te Kura Umanga is helping people transform their careers through industryrelevant training and opportunities to make connections in the city.
level and preparing him to tackle a managerial position.
Flexible study options and the ability to tailor study pathways to suit individual goals are a feature of the School’s business qualifications.
Varghese found this course very helpful and different from the usual Human Resource Management course. It had a strong focus on real world application of academic concepts and he found Wordsworth extremely helpful and a great mentor for students.
“At any stage in your working life, it’s important to keep learning to stay abreast of new ideas, processes and technology,” says Head of School Paul Ballantine. “We offer world-class lecturers, alongside realworld experiences, to prepare our graduates to be work-ready.” A day in the office for recent UC Graduate Jacob Varghese involves one-on-one business mentoring with multiple Christchurch startups as Ministry of Awesome’s new Startup Activation Coordinator. Varghese moved from India to New Zealand in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the Loyola College, Madras University, India. In December 2017, Jacob graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Business (PGDipBus) at the University of Canterbury. After a five-week internship at Ministry of Awesome in January, he now works as Ministry of Awesome’s Startup Activation Co-ordinator. Varghese found his PGDipBus very helpful in honing his business skill set, stepping up to a more senior
During his studies, Varghese had some great professors including Business School Senior Lecturer, Dr Russell Wordsworth, who took the MBUS603 Managing People and Performance course.
“Jacob brought a critical perspective to class and often challenged conventional thinking and theory. He was always able to draw on his work experience in India and relate this to the topic of the day and in doing so enrich the learning experience,” says Dr Wordsworth. Varghese was also a student at UC Centre for Entrepreneurship (UCE), participating in Bootcamps and coming along to guest speakers, his highlight being Bill Reichert. “The best opportunity UCE gave me was inviting me to a talk by Bill Reichert, Managing Director at Garage Technology Ventures. To engage with someone like that in a university setting was great and definitely a highlight.” A lot of his friends benefitted from the UCE EY Summer Startup Programme, where he discovered his enjoyment helping and mentoring them as a friend.
“My undergraduate study has been in economics and finance and I was an investment banker back in India, so while engaging with UCE, my focus wasn’t to become an entrepreneur, but to help other entrepreneurs and enterprises with the business knowledge I have,” he explains. Varghese was a volunteer consultant for UC Centre for Entrepreneurship based club, 180 Degrees Consulting. Over three months his consultant team worked with an Auckland based client in developing a solution for a critical problem that they faced. His team received guidance and support from an expert team from PwC. “Our team itself was very diverse; we had a PhD Scholar in Politics from the Philippines, a Masters in Psychology student and me with a banking and finance background, so we all offered something to the team,” Varghese says. During his time at UC, Varghese’s
experience and interactions between people from different backgrounds really expanded and opened his horizon to the business world. He describes his experience at UC as not being limited to the four walls of his classroom, but a whole package. “From classroom learning to being involved with different clubs and societies with different backgrounds, ethnicities and nationalities formed my whole UC experience and that experience was really great”. In Varghese’s experience, he found UC Centre for Entrepreneurship and Ministry of Awesome to be closely linked, “They both have an aligned vision in wanting to make Christchurch the city of opportunities, constructing a good ecosystem and creating jobs for our future workforce”. Whether you are considering studying fulltime or part-time, UC Business School can help you transform your current role or fasttrack into a new career.
Are you ready to make a difference? If you or your staff are looking for training, fees-free tertiary study is now available for eligible learners and the Government could pay up to $12,000 for those studying the Master of Business Administration (MBA), Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PGDipBA), and Postgraduate Certificate in Strategic Leadership (PGCertSL). There is a wide range of study options available, from preparatory course to undergraduate degrees, diplomas and masters study. Connect with us today. www.canterbury.ac.nz/business