Nordic and Baltic Business Week challenged 30 international students to innovate!

Thirty students from Denmark, Norway, Lithuania and Finland participated in the Nordplus Intensive Course Business in the Nordic and Baltic Countries, which took place in Tampere on 19. - 25.9.2009.

The objective of the intensive course was to learn about business, innovation and Nordic and Baltic cooperation by working together. Students formed teams of 6-8 people, and found solutions to a real customer case during a 48-hour innovation task.

The intensive course was organized by Nordic and Baltic Business Innovation Network coordinated by PIRAMK. The Network members are currently TAMK and PIRAMK from Finland, University of Tromsø from Norway, University of Southern Denmark from Denmark, and Vytautas Magnus University from Lithuania. This was the third time that the Nordic Business Week took place at TAMK Proacademy, a special unit in entrepreneurship at TAMK.

Earlier the customer had been Nokia Innovation Center and the teams worked on business concepts and new products using future technologies. Nokia recently published a concept video which has some of the earlier teams' ideas.

This year the theme of the week was social entrepreneurship and the customer was the non-profit innovation agency Hermia Ltd. The teams' task was to develop a business concept of the social enterprise Hub Tampere in the context of Finlayson's innovation environment. The teams worked on the task at the wonderful Kauppila farm in the city of Ikaalinen.

Watch the documentary video about the innovation task on Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/6910350

Photos from the week are available on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jukkasiltanen/sets/72157622527213876

The Nordic and Baltic Business Innovation Network network has an open Ning community at:

http://nabbi-network.ning.com

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The Hub is an initiative to build a network of places around the world where entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers can meet and work together to tackle the world’s most pressing social, cultural and environmental challenges. A place is needed to inspire and support imaginative and enterprising initiatives for a radically better world.

Hockey hockey hockey!!

Last weekend the Finnish Way of Life Club went to Hakametsä ice hockey hall to see a thrilling game. The two main league teams of Tampere (Tappara and Ilves) kept us all on the edge of our seats!



This event was the most popular club event so far among the exchange students, since a total of 30 students came to root their favorite team on! For some of the students this ice hockey match was the first to see live (ever) and not on TV, so they were very excited and got lost in the heat of the game. Almost all of the students cheered Tappara (for some reason) and eventually they won 2-0. Everyone was very satisfied after the game about the result, the great atmosphere in the ice hockey hall and of course about the opportunity to see real Finnish ice hockey!

Text and photo: Miia Lehtinen

DETVET Had a Brilliant Start

The kick-off session of the DETVET project was rounded off late Thursday afternoon with a tour to Klaipeda's old brewery.

Earlier all the important decisions to make the project running efficiently over the next two years. The project plan was scrutinised in detail and many specifications made.

The main form of activities is partner meetings, to be arranged January 2010 in Malmö/Lund, Sweden, April in Sant'Angelo, Italy, October in Odense, Denmark, January 2011 in Olomouc, Czech Republic and May 2011 in Tampere, Finland.

The meeting also started the DETVET blog to be launced in November and the DETVET Google-group for communication and work between the meetings.

The steering committee members were chosen, dissemination plan made and the tools for investigations discussed.

The aim of the project is to form an international sustainable partnership in order to improve VET teachers’ competencies in education techniques.

The objectives of the project are:

• to make an inventory, exchange, evaluate and disseminate the best in-service training practice, methods which enable VET teachers to acquire and develop their competencies focused on education techniques,
• to compare educational competencies development needs of VET teachers in participating countries,
• to test a chosen method in the partner institution or silent partner,
• to produce a Common Methodology Framework for the teachers from various fields of VET system enabling to reach an optimal efficiency when assisting students in learning process, also helping them in choosing adequate material and tools for their knowledge practical implementation.

The project will run until end of July 2011. DETVET is a partnership project funded by the EU Leonardo da Vinci Programme.

The role of Tampere UAS (TAMK) in this project is to contribute to the expertice of using Social Media in education and training.

VET = Vocational education and training
DETVET = Development of Educational Techniques in Vocational Education and Training

Pictured: Most members in a DETVET family photo. Standing in the back row on right TAMK delegates Sisko Mällinen and Jarno Tolonen.

RetAiL meeting in Reykjavik

Marianna and Hanna visiting the Barnafossar waterfalls

For the past two years, TAMK has participated in project RetAiL – Retail Management for Adults in Lifelong Learning. Unfortunately all good things come to an end, and the project had its final meeting in Reykjavik in 6.-8.10.2009. The project is now almost complete and the next step is to start disseminating it and to offer the course created during the project for learners to use.

The product created during the project is a programme aimed at adults already working in the retailing sector, who need to improve their skills in retail management. The materials are meant for flexible, on-line studying and have been created especially by taking the adult learners’ learning strategies into account.

Barnafossar waterfalls

The partners in the project are Verzlunarskoli Islands (the coordinator, Iceland), Fræðslumiðstöð atvinnulífsins (Iceland) and North Highland College (Scotland).

http://leoretail.com/index.htm

Postcard from Klaipeda

Hello from Klaipeda, Lithuania! The TAMK delegation travelled here today via Riga, Latvia. Soon we will meet our partners representing educational institutions from Lithuania, Czech Republic, Italy, Denmark and Sweden.

Our meeting is the kick-off for the DETVET (Development of Educational Techniques in Vocational Education and Training) project. Educational institutions have to find new ways of addressing the needs of education in the networked globalized world. The main task of TAMK in this project is to research and demonstrate the possibilities social media has to give.

The project is funded by the EU Leonardo da Vinci Programme.

Members of TAMK delegation are Sisko Mällinen, TAMK Teacher's Education Centre, Jarno Tolonen, e-Edu learning technology centre and Cai Melakoski, TAMK School of Art and Media.

You will read more about DETVET soon!

Pictured: Cai, Sisko and Jarno in sunny Klaipeda today