Pathways to Business
Funders
Project information
Project duration
-
Funded by
European Structural and Investment Funds - European Social Fund (ESF)
Project funder
Project coordinator
University of Oulu
Contact information
Project leader
- Project managerMalla Örn
Other persons
- Project Researcher
- ProjektisuunnittelijaMaria Lehtimäki
Researchers
Project description
The main objective of the project is to develop a new operating model to meet the need for the development and support of highly unemployed jobseekers and early stage entrepreneurship and working life skills in higher education. Development work on the project is carried out extensively in partnership with universities, employment services, micro-entrepreneurs, business organizations and stakeholders. The project will develop through experimentation how the University of Oulu, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, BusinessOulu/BusinessAsema, micro-entrepreneurs in the region, business organizations and other stakeholders could make a meaningful contribution to the smooth transition of already graduated unemployed job seekers and students to working life and the transition to entrepreneurship.
The project is implemented in Finnish.
The project will therefore develop new forms and methods of cooperation to support the earliest stages of entrepreneurship. The aim is to develop customer-oriented early-stage entrepreneurship support through educational means and to increase the provision of tailor-made local business services to the target group. The training emphasizes community (exploiting the group's potential in the early stages of entrepreneurship) and interdisciplinarity. The project thus promotes entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurial readiness, the identification of entrepreneurial potential among newly graduated unemployed and other target groups, and a variety of educational activities. One of the key objectives of the project is to increase cooperation between actors at the interface between universities and employment services.
Key actions of the project are: 1) Build and pilot new types of coaching and other training, both long and short, to support early target groups in entrepreneurship. 2) Create a new approach to support early-stage entrepreneurship for unemployed highly educated job seekers based on project experience and research evidence. 3) Develop new forms of early-stage entrepreneurship cooperation and service delivery through collaboration between universities, the City of Oulu's Employment Services, micro-entrepreneurs, business organizations and stakeholders. 4) Strengthen and create lasting structures for cooperation between early stage entrepreneurs.
Project actions
The main measures of the project are 1) To build and pilot new types of both long-term and short-term coaching to support the early stages of entrepreneurship for key target groups. 2) To create a new operating model to support the early stage of entrepreneurship in the project based on the experience gained and the research evidence. 3) To develop new forms of co-operation in early-stage entrepreneurship and ways of providing services in co-operation between universities, the City of Oulu's employment services, micro-entrepreneurs, business organizations and stakeholders. 4) Strengthen and create structures for cooperation between early stage entrepreneurship actors.
Project results
A key outcome of the project will be a new approach to supporting highly educated unemployed jobseekers and early-stage entrepreneurship skills. Another key outcome is new educational models to support early stage entrepreneurship. The results of the project will help to develop new types of services located at the interface between universities and employment services. The project will increase the co-operation of the partner network and enable the production of new ideas for the development of entrepreneurial skills in co-operation between actors in the higher education sector and employment services. One of the results is also an increase in the entrepreneurial abilities and skills of key target groups, which results in new business ideas and blanks. In particular, the project promotes the transition to working life and the strengthening of agency. The special feature of the project is that entrepreneurial skills are strengthened from the perspective of learning psychology, which focuses on identifying and productizing one's own competence, strengthening the participant's ability and capacity, and working purposefully alongside business development. The project promotes a smooth transition from higher education to entrepreneurship and working life.