The Arcada Entrepreneurship Hub – a safe place for development and enterprise
The aim of the Arcada Entrepreneurship Hub was to create an environment where students feel confident to present their ideas for enterprises, where they feel free to think outside the box and to meet across branch boundaries. The first pre-incubator program of the autumn brought out several business ideas, three start-ups and, above all, a boost to the self-confidence of the students.
Easy chairs and a relaxing environment make the Arcada Entrepreneurship Hub different from other classrooms at Arcada. What started as a student project in 2019, with suggestions for innovative learning environments, has evolved into this place, designed to draw out creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial ambition in the students. Fredrik Sirén, Entrepreneurship Hub coach, is someone who also draws out entrepreneurial ambition in the students. He routinely meets with and coaches students, alumni, and others who visit the hub with new ideas.
– When I began working at the hub in September 2022, I imagined my job was to help students develop their ideas. To a certain extent that is the case, but a much greater and more important task has been to give a boost to the self-confidence of students, to encourage them to believe in what they are attempting and to build up a tolerance for new things, says Sirén.
Fredrik was primarily responsible for the pre-incubator program at Arcada last autumn, when the hub was established. Over a period of eight weeks, a total of ten student groups from all branches of Arcada congregated to develop business ideas, with the help of practical tools and guidance provided by experts, alumni, and guest speakers.
– The program is for you who have a vision of being an entrepreneur and an idea you want to develop and need help with. The course focus is on teaching an entrepreneurial mindset and looking at practical tools that help you move on with your idea, Sirén says.
A pre-incubator program with the city of Helsinki
The Arcada Entrepreneurship Hub is a cross-campus project, initiated and financed by the city of Helsinki together with the Lindstedt foundation. All higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Helsinki region take part in the campus incubator program in order to support entrepreneurship at the HEIs.One of the positive outcomes is that the project allows cross-boundary cooperation, between various branches at Arcada as well as with other HEIs.
Pictured from left: Carl-Johan Rosenbröijer, Linn Hongell, Fredrik Sirén and Mervi Hernberg.
– When the city of Helsinki enquired about a pre-incubator program, we viewed this as a unique opportunity, as we had nothing like it at Arcada. For a long time, we have seen great potential in our students, in how they present new solutions, fantastic ideas and display a considerable aptitude to think outside the box. We saw a unique opportunity to help them, says Mervi Hernberg, another entrepreneurship coach, who teaches both intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial thinking at Arcada.
Mervi worked for close to two years with colleagues Linn Hongell and Carl-Johan Rosenbröijer to establish the hub at Arcada in the autumn of 2022. The hub environment was constructed with external financing. It is the result of Arcada’s anniversary campaign to raise funds for new learning and research environments that are conducive to innovations. The Tre Smeder foundation supported the Arcada Entrepreneurship Hub with a donation in the autumn.
– Without outside support we would not have been able to create this unique environment. We are very grateful for the support we have received, Hernbergs says.
Students are pleased
Joakim Berger is one of the students who participated in the first pre-incubator program. A first-year business administration student at Arcada, he is very pleased with the program and its contents.
– This is the best course I have taken so far. I appreciated the fact that it was practice-oriented and relaxed and that we sat together dreaming up new things. The course gave me a more entrepreneurial mindset and got me thinking about what it means being an entrepreneur and to think outside the box, Berger says.
The program meant that Joakim became an actual entrepreneur. Together with his friend Bener Senel, another participant in the program, he set up the Mini Events company after the course.
– We had an idea when we signed up for the course and thought, “why not, let’s do this”. It was a great way for me to work out how business administration play out in real life, by doing it, Berger says.
The project promotors hope additional businesses will be established. The aim of the project, which currently is set to continue at least to the spring of 2024, is 10 new enterprises per year. In February 2023 the pre-incubator program will be organised for the second time at the Entrepreneurship Hub, and the students have shown great interest in the event.
– It has been a privilege to see how our students have developed and how they support and help one another. When this project is completed, we really hope the pre-incubator program is something we could implement in our activities. We need more new businesses and cross-boundary cooperation, both at Arcada and in our society generally, Mervi Hernberg says.