Study across Queensland with courses delivered in person and online simultaneously, plus the flexibility to complete learning at your own pace.
First course dates announced
The first course dates are now available. Choose from four free business short courses, with sessions delivered on Tuesdays or Wednesdays across October–November 2026.
Available now in Cairns
Choose from four business short courses:
- Business planning
- Leveraging AI
- Workforce development
- Continuity and resilience
Coming in 2027
More locations and new courses
New courses in cyber security and procurement are currently in development, with availability expected from early 2027. Express your interest today to be notified when new courses become available.
Email bsc@usc.edu.auAbout the courses
Business Planning
Tailored to meet the needs of Queensland small and family businesses, this practical, short course focuses on developing skills associated with business planning. By undertaking this course, you will create a tangible asset to help develop your business.
Continuity and Resilience
Is your organisation ready to tackle both expected and unexpected challenges? This course covers the essentials of building your preparedness to continue operating when issues arise and enhancing overall resilience.
Workforce Development
Discover the power of effective workforce development to improve productivity and operational efficiency with our free, six-week course for Queensland small business owners and managers. By completing the course you will develop a workforce development asset to guide you as you grow your business.
Leveraging AI
This course will help you leverage the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) and build your understanding of the tools and applications available. Before integrating AI into your business, you will review your organisational activities and assess your AI goals against your business goals and organisational policies. You will also explore the importance of implementing AI incrementally to improve productivity and build digital capability within your business.
Frequently asked questions
We welcome participants from all over Queensland at each of our course deliveries. If you represent a Queensland-based small or family business, you are welcome to attend any delivery date and location, either in person or online.
The benefit of our courses is that we deliver the workshops online and in person simultaneously. This means you are part of the same interactive workshop regardless of how you attend. Our facilitators are highly experienced in this dual teaching environment so there is no disadvantage in choosing one over the other. We encourage you to consider your availability and how you prefer to learn when making your choice.
Yes. We encourage you to attend as many live workshops as you can, either online or in person as this is where participants typically find the most value. However, we understand this is not always possible. So that you don’t miss a minute, we also record our workshops, and the recordings will be available to review in your course resources at your convenience.
Our main course content runs across six weeks with a two-hour workshop each week. There are additional course activities and resources we encourage you to explore outside of these workshops as well. How much time you commit to these will vary person to person, but allowing yourself the extra time will maximise your learning experience.
Absolutely. Our courses complement each other well, and many of our participants have attended more than one of our courses. We would suggest that attending one course at a time is the best way to optimise the learning opportunities and set yourself up for success.
We recommend Business Planning as the first course as this content is foundational and all other courses build on the material presented in this course.
Thank you. We will be in touch soon with further instructions.
