At Karelia UAS, you can combine your studies with your own business idea or with the development of your own business. The member of staff in charge of entrepreneurship in your field of education will help you in reconciling your studies and entrepreneurship.
Business Academy®
Business Academy (Y-Akatemia) is a learning environment for entrepreneurship and cooperative learning at Karelia UAS. You can only apply for Business Academy during your second year of studies, after which you complete your degree at the Academy. In Business Academy, you study in multidisciplinary teams and each team sets up a cooperative company. The cooperative implements different types of projects for customers, and it is for the teams to decide when, how and what kind of projects they want to implement.
The teams are multidisciplinary, including students from the fields of tourism, media, business economics, physiotherapy, and nursing. It is also possible for students from the fields of social services, applied gerontology, and public health nursing to study at Business Academy.
While the main point of Business Academy is to work in teams, each student can build their own individual path towards their own dreams. Team coaches at Business Academy encourage and guide the cooperatives towards their common dream.
Read more at: www.y-akatemia.fi
Practical training, thesis and studification of work
Practical training periods included in degrees are one of our most important practices implemented in collaboration with Karelia UAS and local businesses. During the practical training, our students are able to apply their theoretical knowledge to practical duties and to show their competence in practice. The duties included in the practical training are agreed on together with the student and a representative from the workplace so that they serve the employer’s needs and, at the same time, meet the objectives required by the education and set by the student.
Students may also have the opportunity to complete their practical training in their own company. In the field of social services and health care, however, practical training is strictly regulated, which limits the opportunities for combining entrepreneurship and practical training. Consult your student counsellor and/or practical training supervisor first. The person in charge of entrepreneurship studies in your degree programme can provide you with additional support.
Studification of work means that students work or participate in such activities during their studies that develop their competence in accordance with the individual study plan, including the development of their own business idea or business operations. When completing such studies, students document their learning process according to a previously compiled studification plan and give a proof of competence. Students draw up their plans together with the teacher responsible for studification of work.
When you see the possibility for studification of work, please contact your student counsellor or teacher tutor.
How to proceed:
Plan: Draw up a plan for developing your competence at work, based on curriculum-based competence and personal goals. Sign an agreement (teacher, student and employer).
Recognition of competence: Define the knowledge, skills and attitudes to be acquired through on-the-job learning. Describe the work and the skills needed in the job. Describe the skills you have acquired at work or in e.g. personnel training.
Proof of competence: Compare the skills you have acquired at work with the objectives of the education, demonstrate your competence, and self-evaluate it in relation to the competence objectives of the degree, assessment criteria and the competence requirements of the work. The proof of competence combines theoretical base, practical experience and reflection on one’s own competence.
Evaluation: The student, a representative of the world of work, and the teacher assess the student’s competence in relation to the competence objectives and assessment criteria of the degree. It may also include feedback from a colleague, peer, or student group.
RPL procedure: The recognition of competence is carried out in accordance with the principles agreed at Karelia University of Applied Sciences.
Entrepreneurship studies
Innovation Month (LB10050), 5 op
After successfully completing the course, you can demonstrate an understanding of the process of innovation, entrepreneurial thinking, design thinking and critical thinking. You are able to collect the needed information and identified innovation potential. Moreover, you will use creativity techniques for product innovation and critical thinking to compare and evaluate different business ideas. experiments to clear these uncertainties.
Highly intensive series of workshops. Different innovative techniques to understand your target customer needs and criteria. New product concepts. Simple business experiments based on uncertainty analysis. Presentations and discussions.
Brand Management (LTP7154), 3 op
After the course the student is able to: 1. Understand and assess the change of marketing communication style in the recommendation based markets. 2. Identify and construct the main factors that build the company image and brands. 3. Recognize and relate the formation tools and research methods for basic visual communication and can apply them for interpretation and construction purposes. 4. Interpret and analyze from existing company material the building of brand identity and how well it is succeeding. 5. Apply brand building factors and visual communication tools in collaborative, new brand image construction task. 6. Operate collaboratively in managing a holistic brand creation process and inventing and debating the factors and visual communication involved in it.
The course focuses on the brand management and visual communication as essential business factors for creating company and brand images. Core issues are: branding, brand analysis, design management of international business, visual communication research and advertising, recommendation-based markets, product-service-information-environment factors in branding. Contemporary study material will be delivered from professional journals (for example www.dmi.org).
Lean Six Sigma in Business Processes (LB10002), 5 op
After completing this course, you know the basics of lean six sigma and the use of these in business processes. You recognise the potential to enhance workflows and processes in your own environment. You learn to use basic tools and techniques of lean six sigma by using simulation games. You can analyse and solve problems with Lean Six Sigma methods and tools. You also can do systematic development work in business process via six sigma DMAIC-method.
Lean and Six Sigma principles. Methods and tools in practice by playing different LEAN simulation games. Development work and problem solving in business processes and the use of different methods. Basics of standards ISO 13053-1 and –2.
Members of staff in charge of entrepreneurship studies
Members of staff in charge of entrepreneurship studies in your field of study will help you combine your studies with entrepreneurship or with the development of your business idea. They can also give you guidance on finding suitable business services.
Business economics and toursim
Daniel Bågeberg
[email protected] +358503240290
Media, business information technology, English-mediated education
Riikka Räsänen
[email protected] +358503395357
Social services and health care
Tarja Pesonen-Sivonen
[email protected] +358504210513
Engineering (Finnish-mediated education)
Markku Havu
[email protected] +358509197513
Master’s degree studies
Heikki Immonen
[email protected] +358503109657