Within the international program Erasmus plus - strategic partnerships, the University of Primorska, Faculty of Management (UP FM) focused on achieving useful innovations for students and businesses (AISAB Project).
In the last period, the UP FM concentrated on the second Students' Consultancy Process in SMEs. A team of 11 undergraduate students supported by mentors, prof. dr. Borut Likar and assist. prof. Peter Štrukelj, enrolled additional 5 SMEs. Firstly, students were trained and equipped with necessary instructions and materials. They established contacts with SMEs and presented aims of the AISAB Project. In the next phase, SMEs and students together defined SMEs’ challenges and prioritized them. Together with SMEs’ management they chose the most relevant ones. For this challenge, students created ideas for possible solutions and prepared project proposals, which were presented to SMEs. Participating members are very proud, that some of the developed solutions were accepted by the companies and are already implemented in daily praxis (pls. see content box below).
To motivate students, a set of benefits was defined, which is also important for their further professional development and references:
- New knowledge, experience acquired
- References in international project
- Final exam for the module Creative Intelligence and Innovation approved/passed
- Faculty certificate
- AISAB Project Certificate
- Possibility to continue work – bachelor’s degree (some students have expressed their interest and will do this).
According to the evaluation of project results with students, they stressed that they were highly motivated for the work and reported high value added for their development.
Team of students: Marijo Moćič, Klavdija Tojnko, Lorena Šket, Sara Mahmutović
Nest Campers d.o.o. is a small rental company where customer can rent small pick-up camper or larger Camper in a size of a van. They were facing a problem with tracking all the potential bookings of already rented vehicles. We approached them at the perfect occasion when they started thinking about the problem and with a process of finding a solution. We first identified the problem so as to have a common understanding and continued with the Brainstorming technique approach. We then formed a group and performed the Brainstorming and came up with two best solutions, which were presented to the customer. The company was so enthusiastic about one of the solutions that they immediately implemented it into their booking process. The company now uses our solution in the booking process and thus gathers all the required information.
Other participants:
- students: Barbara Kokalj, Matej Vrečič, Marko Stanonik, Monika Kovačič, Julija Kampijut, Niko Kroflič, Dalija Čučko
- companies: Alpina Žiri d.o.o., Ljubljanske mlekarne D.O.O., PVC Nagode, d.o.o.
More informations about the project:
- Innovation cooperation of UP FM students with the real sector in the framework of aisab international project
- Project website