SeAMK Innovation Week
About this good practice
SeAMK second-year students, all 800 of them, work in about 12 multidisciplinary groups on company assignments for one week. Each group of students (about 60-80 students) works on one assignment. Group work and Design Thinking - the use of the method is guided by coaches who are SeAMK teachers or R&D project personnel.
Each student group is divided into smaller teams that come up with ideas and conceptualize the given development challenge. As a result of the work, 10 to 12 solution proposals or concepts are created to solve the assignment.
During SeAMK Innovation Week, work is done in a multidisciplinary way, which prepares students for the future working life. Due to the multidisciplinary nature, the assignments are not necessarily the student's own field: students look at the problem of another field with fresh eyes and can also find solutions that deviate from the usual ones. Innovation Week is implemented as face-to-face teaching or online if necessary. The week's work starts on Monday and ends on Friday of the same week, when the results of the student teams are presented to the clients.
The main stakeholders and beneficiaries are the clients, that get solutions for their challenges, as well as the students, who learn about innovation work. The original idea for the Innovation Week came from JAMK (Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences), where they have their own version of Innovation Week.
Resources needed
The clients pay 250€ to participate, this is mainly for the need of spaces needed to accommodate all the groups working. Other funding comes from the university itself, with own staff and spaces used. The main coordinator responsibility is held by two people.
Evidence of success
SeAMK collects feedback after each Innovation Week from the participating organizations and companies. The feedback has been extremely positive and the companies have been happy with the results the students have come up with during the week. They can use the concepts produced by the students in their own development work later.
Potential for learning or transfer
During Innovation Week, student projects are based on real challenges faced by companies and organisations, which students try to solve. In the best cases, the Innovation Weeks will result in a boost to the competitiveness, production or other economic/operational competences of the actors involved, improving their overall capacity to act. On this basis, the Innovation Week has a real impact on social entrepreneurship, innovative action and policy development in the region. Moreover, the Innovation Week is an event where organisational actors and students meet, creating opportunities, for example, for increased employability and an interactive exchange of ideas and thoughts. The benefits of these Innovation weeks carry on further than only the mere project tasks and results.