I am keen to pursue self-employment, freelancing or running my own business after my studies

Self-employment, freelancing and running your own business

Mycareer Digital Resources has a range of useful resources when considering self-employment. If you are keen to pursue self-employment after your studies these short films and articles are particularly useful:

Develop your self-awareness by undertaking assessments:

In order to succeed it is vital that you understand the way you work, your strengths, weaknesses, tendencies and preferences.

Relevant programmes and events:

The Cube: business start-up, self-employment and freelancing, weekly drop-in, workshops, monthly support sessions and more

If you are keen to pursue self-employment and/or you have a business idea, The Cube offers weekly opportunities for students and graduates to access information on a variety of free self-employment and business start-up support all in one place. This includes:

bespoke expert-run workshops and events
1:1 business and self-employment support appointments
1:1 business expert appointments on legal, finance, intellectual property, digital marketing, business start-up and more
weekly drop-in sessions
support to access Santander funding
business challenges and competitions
networking opportunities.

To find out which services may be most appropriate to you, simply email thecube@plymouth.ac.uk

The Cube also delivers an ongoing programme of business start-up and development workshops on a variety of topics including:

body language and rapport building
goal and action setting
mindset habits for entrepreneurs and the workplace
stress management for entrepreneurs
podcasting, vlogging and TikToks for business
video production and editing
intellectual property
the legalities of starting a business.

View graduate video case studies

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP’s) for graduates

A Knowledge Transfer Partnership is a partnership between a business seeking expertise, an academic institution (such as University of Plymouth) and a recently qualified graduate/postgraduate, who is known as a KTP Associate.

The Associate is supervised to work on a specific project, which facilitates innovation, wealth creation and helps to embed new capability within that business.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships are one of the UK’s largest graduate employment programmes. Upon successful appointment, the KTP Associate is employed by University of Plymouth (between 12–36 months) but works within the business to deliver an agreed project plan. Along with providing you with a fantastic platform to launch your commercial career, you can apply the skills you gained to successfully work as a freelancer or set up your own business.