Entre­pre­neur­ship and studies 

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