Entrepreneurial Education: Y-Campus and Proacademy (Tampere-FI)

Entrepreneurial Education: Y-Campus and Proacademy 

Visiting Y-Campus

The experience we had on Fe 18^th was really amazing. We had the chance to visit two campus of HAMK University of Applied Science, in Tampere. The first one was Y-Campus and the other one was Proacademy.

The most meaningful situation I had there was at Proacademy, when the VET Teachers had the change to interview some students of Business Administration. What caught my attention during the conversation were:

• In order to get their degree in Business Administration, students must have credits, which are achieved though the attendance or promotion of some workshop, lectures, projects (that they must get funded) etc. To help them manage their studies, they have to organize what they are doing in a “Study Plan”, in an Excel spreadsheet.

• Trust is solid. Students do not have to prove though certificates the courses and lectures they attended. They only register what they really have done.

• Students are given responsibility on their own learning and study management – they are giving opportunities to make choices, they lead workshops and solve their problems together during the learning process. That really makes the difference. Students are really entrepreneurs. 

• Teachers are called coaches and they guide, support, help students through the course, but they are not heading the process. Students organize themselves so that they select materials and deliver their workshops. Coaches may be present as well as other guests. 

Team office  - Every team has an office (Innovative classroom)

• Students are independent learners, autonomous, critical, engaged, and focused. 

Learning environment - learning can happen everywhere, classrooms can be then recreated.

https://vimeo.com/34897877 (ProAcademy video)