Challenges & Competencies

Very often traditional SMEs believe they cannot innovate or cannot integrate digital solutions in their process / communication / organisation, as these tools are more dedicated to bigger companies. In addition, they are not aware of skills that are available in schools of their area, fact that is shared by students that do not know local companies and leave the area for their internships or after their studies.

The “Challenge & Competencies” aims to gather students, with their innovative and creativity spirit, and local SMEs, in order to initiate new and mainly digital projects in the companies.
With no constraints forced on them, during the week of the Challenge & Competencies, in 5-people teams, the students will suggest ideas and develop an innovative and digital project up to the mock-up stage (a kind of POC of their main idea). Their challenge is to use their skills, the skills they are learning at school, to solve companies’ issues or concerns.
Local companies will then get a first hint on the type of project / product they could implement.
After the end of the Challenge, part of the SMEs will have the student projects developed by students within internships or by companies into a ‘real’ product / service.

The main stakeholders and beneficiaries of this practice are :
- Local high schools
- Students from these high schools
- Local companies
- Business support organisation or creativity specialists