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| A day of activities: building a camp fire and cooking pancakes |
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International Coordinator
Pirkko Varis
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DIGISOMEMAR is an Intensive Programme
(IP) funded by the EU’s Erasmus initiative. The IP took place in Finland and
was put together by Pirkko Varis, International Coordinator and Senior Lecturer
in Marketing from Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK).
The participants were around 70
students and 15 staff members representing 16 universities from 14 countries
with diverse degree backgrounds such as business administration, marketing,
media and computing.
Myself and Dominic Di Talamo were selected to represent
Southampton Solent Business School and we were accompanied by Roger Byatt,
Senior Lecturer in Marketing. The event took place over 11 days in April 2012,
and is a real mix of the serious and the fun.
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First day of the programme
at TAMK main campus.
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The programme has a number of aims.
Firstly, it enables students and staff from a wide range of cultures to meet
and share experiences. Secondly, it gets us working with people from different
fields to see how, for example, marketing and computer programme developers can
work together and understand each others’ perspectives. The theme of the IP is
focussed on digital, mobile and social media in marketing and the trends in
mobile and e-business. I do not want it to sound dry and dull because it is
not.
The programme started off in Tampere
which is the second biggest city in Finland. It is also where the location of
the main campus for TAMK is, and this is where we spent our first night. We
were mainly based at the TAMK Virrat campus which is about one and a half hours
coach drive from Tampere. We stayed in a small holiday village called Lomasaari, which was by a lake.
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| Students rowing on the lake by the cabins |
The accommodation was in small wooden
cabins which eight students shared. In true Finnish style, every cabin included
a sauna. Lomasaari
was an amazing place with a great natural ambiance. When we arrived the lake
was still frozen, but by the end we could take rowing boats out on it.
During the day, we would commute to
TAMK Virrat, where the morning was filled with presentations followed by
practical workshops in the afternoon. Every lecturer gave at least one
presentation in their area of expertise relevant to the theme and then worked
with colleagues to run the workshops.
The students also presented work that they had been doing, as well as making
a sales pitch for their universities!
Each student had a choice of four
workshops to sign up to. One of the workshops included the design of a
web-based survey tool. I took part in this workshop and found it to be a great
and an exciting experience. The workshop consisted of 11 students and two
senior lecturers. The group contained students studying IT and students
studying business and marketing. The group had eight sessions to design the
survey tool and construct a business model to market the product, which was
then presented to the whole IP.
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| Students brainstorming and working together in the workshop |
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| Karaoke at Pub 66 |
One of the
highlights of the programme was the opportunity to socialise with all the
different students from around Europe. We had plenty of social time: the
programme had several social events such as karaoke at Virrat’s Pub 66; a day walking over a frozen lake
and building a camp; a rock concert arranged by TAMK students, and other
activities. The braver students also liked pursuing the traditional Finnish
past time of taking a sauna and then jumping through a hole into the frozen
lake!
The programme
is open to all Southampton Solent Business School level 5 & 6 students to
apply and cost need not be a bar because 75% of the travel costs were covered
by Erasmus, which was great as it meant it did not cost a lot of money.
Breakfasts, dinners and trips were included in the fee so I only had to pay for
lunches and entertainment.
In summary, the DIGISOMEMAR IP has
been a brilliant experience. I have gained throughout the journey and I was
able to develop myself socially and academically. I have been able to utilise
this opportunity within my CV and interviews and it has
been a great unique selling point when applying for internships. I would
definitely recommend the programme to all students especially if you are
looking for some global experience and want to broaden your CV.
Additionally I would like to add that
this experience has been one of the best, I have met a lot of awesome people,
some of which I have become good friends with and still keep in touch.
Text and photos: Serhat Yildirim,
Student of BA Business Management, Level 5, Southampton Solent Business School
