Erasmus+ and Smart Practice Collaboration Meeting in Rovaniemi

SMART practice is a project funded by Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, which aims to strengthen the cooperation between institutes and companies and to encourage youth to develop their personal skills. The overall objective is to increase higher education quality so that the graduates acquired the right skills for employability and were more prepared for labor market.

The official partners are Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), G.G. Eurosuccess Consulting Ltd (Cyprus), Lapin ammattikorkeakoulu Oy (Finland), European University Cyprus (Cyprus) and Universita Degli Studi di Verona (Italy) and Kaunas Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts (Lithuania), which is also the coordinator of the project.

The kick-off meeting was held in Cyprus on 16^th-17^th of November 2015. During that first meeting the guidelines for the analysis of the best world practices on innovative approaches were developed.

Second partners´ meeting took place already in Rovaniemi, Finland from 31t March-1^st April 2016.

SMART project seminar at InnoBarentsLab

InnoBarentsLab – student union aiming at innovative entrepreneurship, operating in Lapin AMK – hosted the guests of the SMART project on 31^st of March and 1^st of April. The main purpose of the visit was to organize a collaborative workshop for analyzing good practices on innovative approaches to internship in higher education and to begin with the development of new innovative methodology for internship practice.

The first day started with a presentation about the agenda and aims of the transnational meeting, where also expected outcomes of the seminar were discussed. Next, by the Learning Café-method the participants innovated future entrepreneurship and working life skills and competences, and the results were presented by student members from each team.

During the closing day of the seminar participants discussed on continuation of the project, by organizing workshop seminars in each country involved within next six months. The main experts involved in the project - Anzelika Krastina (Lapland UAS) and Seija Jäminki (School of Business and Culture) together with InnoBarentsLab students are actively involved in the co-creating process of new innovative internship practices by sharing their experiences and ideas. SMART Practice project will hold an informative seminar at Lapland UAS for all the stakeholders in late September 2016 with the aim to share the ideas of new innovative internship methodology developed in cooperation between international project partners and students.

Written by Nina Niskala and Anzelika Krastina

Photos – Sofia Kurikova