Webinar 5

Created: 20.11.2022, Last Edited: 23.11.2022

Our fifth webinar was different than the jig-saw puzzle model we have became accustomed with. Instead of each of us giving presentations, we witnessed a presentation from 2 of our colleagues who have professional experience with entrepreneurship. Our task was to assess our colleagues, according to a list of competences provided by our tutors. This blog post will contain my assessment and some personal reflection. I will refer to my two colleagues as T and M.

Basic concepts of entrepreneurship in education

What does the internal entrepreneurship mean?
I think M made an interesting remark that the concepts of internal and external entrepreneurship mean slightly different things depending on the country and the organization. In their session, T and M focused on Finland and the university setting in Finland, where internal entrepreneurship refers to the entrepreneurial behavior. I think they covered this topic well.

As a teacher, how do you support and develop students' internal entrepreneurship?
T and M made it very clear what characteristics an entrepreneur should have. T hosted an interactive session where we discovered the skills and attitudes of a successful entrepreneur (see Figure 1). We then learned from T what the governmental guidelines are [1]. A (future) entrepreneur should have project management skills (planning, organizing, leadership and management). They should be able to identify one’s strengths and weaknesses, and to assess and take risks when needed. In my teaching, I try to develop students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills as much as possible. Good to learn these skills are not just useful in computer science.

As instructed by our tutors, I will next reflect on whether I have such skills myself. I consider myself to be an expert at planning, organizing, problem-solving and critical thinking. My leadership and management skills need work because if students (colleagues) are difficult for some reason, I typically do the task myself instead of insisting too much. I think I'm above average when it comes to creativity (hope it's true, I'm currently planning a 'creative coding' course), and handle stress pretty well. I try to keep a positive attitude and avoid unnecessary risks. I actually take few risks, which is not ideal in the case of an entrepreneur. Whether these are skills or talents, I'm not sure... They are things I practiced a lot over the years, so, I consider them skills, but how can you really tell?

Figure 1: Screenshot of Padlet created by T

What does external entrepreneurship mean?
M explained clearly that in Finland, external entrepreneurship refers to the act of establishing a business.

As a teacher, how do you support and develop students' external entrepreneurship?
T gave good examples of programs at her university [2] where students experience external entrepreneurship. I found it interesting that some of these are compulsory studies like the basics of entrepreneurship (3 ECTS) and innovation week (3 ECTS). The latter reminded me of an optional course called innovation month (5 ECTS) that I took in 2012 when I was studying at the University of Eastern Finland (the course was offered by Karelia University of Applied Sciences but open to us as well). During it, I learned about the bureaucracy required when setting up a company, calculating expenses, estimating profits and so on. T listed other activities they organize with company envolvement: SeAMK Pro, Project hatchery, Talent hub, etc. It is great to hear that over 5% of students at T’s university become entrepreneurs.

What does the entrepreneurship in education mean in the context of your field of education?
M explained this quite well, stating that the role of the teacher is to provide value to students, and a lot of this value comes from connecting students with different ‘actors’ during their studies. In my work, I sometimes have guest lecturers from industry giving examples of how the things we study are used at their company. Some of my former students did internships at local companies. Having students engage with local companies develops their entrepreneurship skills because they get a glimpse of how businesses work in practice.

The social significance of entrepreneurship

Why are the different companies and entrepreneurs important to society?
T and M gave good statistics of companies in Finland. There are quite many of them (~ 368 622), however, many are quite small (89% have less than 5 employees) [3]. The reasons why companies are important were not really mentioned. I think these reasons are fairly obvious, so maybe my colleagues thought it’s not necessary for them to be clearly stated. If required, the presentation could have included some words about: Why companies exist? Is it better to have larger or smaller companies? Why do we need many companies that do (almost) the same thing, etc. with answers like: to better society as a whole, competition is key in making progress, etc. T and M did allude to some of these things like when talking about the skills someone needs in a small company vs. a large one. In my view, this was enough.

Why are the different companies and entrepreneurs important to the individuals?
Again, this topic was slightly underexplored by T and M. However, these things are, again, quite obvious. Companies create goods and services to satisfy our individual needs (and wants). Entrepreneurs are those who try to figure out (or speculate) what those needs and wants are. In addition to individual (consumer), benefits, individuals benefit from being part of a company. The skills and attitudes T and M pointed out are developed when being exposed to the inner workings of a company and, thus, individuals (employees) better themselves as a result.

What are the current and future trends in working life?
I think many of these were identified well by T and M. I would like to mention a few others. First, remote and hybrid work have seen a huge rise after the coronavirus pandemic. This put(s0 pressure on workers to be tech-savy. The second thing I would like to mention is that in the IT field (at least) many people are often resigning. I believe they do this in a hunt for a better salary, having a kind of safety-net = a lot of job openings in the field. I believe this might change in the future, when software automation will be able to handle more complicated tasks. In the future we need to be aware of automation and that robots may eventually do all jobs better than a human. What should happen then? Should people still work? What if they want to work? We may have to face these difficult questions soon.

What kind of general working life competences or skills are expected from an employee?
T and M discuss employees, like when students do internships or work on projects together with companies, they are, essentially employees. Perhaps the word ‘employee’ was not mentioned during their talk, however, the substance was there. A good employee is expected to contribute to the company and work well in a team. They should be honest, open minded, take feedback seriously and not be afraid to ask questions or seek help when needed. Critical thinking and ability to problem solve are important for employees to have as well, not just entrepreneurs. Employees that can identify problems and provide helpful solutions are considered to be an asset [4].

Teacher's working life networks and business

How can an educational institution support the development and maintenance of working life related networks?
I think T and M covered this topic well. T presented multiple programs involving cooperation between the university and companies. These are considered to be beneficial for all parties: students get a glimpse of their future working life, companies get potential employees interested and sometimes even trained to do things the way they expect at their company. M mentioned their courses where students at his university [5] solve actual cases coming directly from industry partners like MacGregor, Cargotec, Eco-Oil. In my experience, having guest lecturers from companies is also beneficial, so, if the institution embraces invited speakers, it is also a plus.

How do you utilize working life networks and companies in the teaching, guidance and assessment in your field?
T and M covered this well when they told about their connections and programs their students are involved in. I want to add that in my current and former work place, students sometimes do / did their master thesis or even PhD thesis (more rarely) as an intern or even a full-time employee at a company. In my view, these students shot two birds with one stone, in a sense, that they experience both the academic world and industry so they can make a more informed decision which to pursue afterwards.

Which teaching and guidance methods increase the learner's awareness of entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurship and promote the positive attitude towards entrepreneurship?
As pointed out by M, we can develop one’s entrepreneurial mindset using:

• Project-Based Learning
• Problem-Based Learning
• Service Learning – In class + NGOs
• Community Engagement (Mentors, Guest Speakers, etc)
• Work-Based Learning (Internships)

In addition, M also suggested utilizing the networks teachers establish with companies and using team-based learning to simulate working life. In my view such a collaboration must happen to keep a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship. I would also want to express my concern that in some institutions, these connections are intentionally cut off to keep good students in the academic environment... Fortunately I have not seen this kind of behaviour in Finland.

Interview with Juuso Enjala (Solenovo)

A second task for this webinar was to interview an entrepreneur and find out answers to the questions below. On 23.11.2022 I interviewed Juuso Enjala, CEO at Solenovo.

Do companies and educational institutions cooperate enough?
Juuso explained that cooperation with educational institutions happens at levels 4 to 8, where level 4 is the lowest (vocational schools) and level 8 is the highest (doctoral students). He mentioned the amount of cooperation varies within these levels. In vocational education it is probably more, due to Solenovo's 'Studenta' product. Juuso also considers the cooperation with universities of applied sciences to be a 'healthy' one.

What kind of cooperation entrepreneurs could / would do with the educational institution?
Solenovo products are aimed at educational institutions, so the cooperation is quite natural for them. Juuso, mentioned he was also inspired by what he witnessed in Jordania: a significant number of hackathons. He has a dream to develop such event(s), claiming they are relatively few in Finland.

What kind of experiences the entrepreneur has had with the students learning at workplace / on the job training?
Good. Juuso recalls only positive experiences with students they hired. He wishes more students apply to their job openings.

REFERENCES

1. Guidelines for entrepreneurship education
   https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/78871/opm09.pdf?sequence=1
2. Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences
   https://www.seamk.fi/en/
3. Statistics Finland
   https://www.stat.fi/index_en.html
4. Qualities of a good employee
   https://blog.vantagecircle.com/qualities-of-a-good-employee
5. Oulu Business School
   https://www.oulu.fi/en/university/faculties-and-units/oulu-business-school