Business Ambulance

<< Background >>The mission of Mercuria is to educate competent business professionals for needs of working life. The guiding values are: being responsible, together and innovating. Our vision is “customer experience which exceeds expectations”. In order to achieve the vision we have defined “Our way of doing”, where internationality is one of major focuses. With this project we wanted to influence also to other strategical focuses such as “we are forerunners in customer-oriented learning environments”, “we enhance competence and well-being”, “we cooperate closely with companies and other stakeholders”,“we manage with data and ensure effective processes”, “we secure sustainability”.VET providers need to educate future employees for the labor market needs. This project could give students the opportunity to learn VET skills in real-life environment and businesses. The project helped students learn social media marketing skills that are needed in labor markets after their graduation. In today’s world employers also appreciate or even require internationalexperience and understanding. Through this project our students have learnt skills that they need for a successful career.<< Objectives >>The main idea of the project was to create and pilot Business Ambulance learning module for all VET students to learn social media marketing in real company and get international skills by working as a member in an international group.In the project students used their business and social media marketing skills working as coaches for SME companies helping them by creating a social media marketing campaign for the companies. Students were doing this with the help of business experts and teacher coaches who supported them throughout the project. In the Business Ambulance project students learnt by coaching in real companies. This challenged the normal way of studying in a classroom and being taught by a teacher. Through this project students learnt valuable knowledge in real-life companies with a real marketing campaign. At the same time the pedagogical model made it possible for the students to do good for the companies and learn about being socially responsible.This project implemented a new learning approach where students teach and help real-life companies and learn VET skills needed in the future. At the same time this project transformed the way schools and companies engage with each other as company .<< Implementation >>5 SCHOOLS FROM 5 COUNTRIES- created together a new pedagogical model to learn new social media marketing and international skills in real business life- helped local SME businesses in their efforts to improve their business and get more satisfied customers125 STUDENTS FROM 5 COUNTRIES- with different backgrounds learnt VET degree studied in a real business life by coaching SME companies- studied individually customized part of VET degree in 3 learning environments (school, company, eKampus)- created for a real SME company a social media marketing campaign on social media, e.g. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok campaign- helped real SME company to find new target groups for sales25 SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED COMPANIES FROM 5 COUNTRIES- got a social media marketing campaign for their company created by the students- got help in improving their business and reaching 10 TEACHERS FROM 5 COUNTRIES- learnt pedagogical skills by learning and implementing new business ambulance model<< Results >>As a concrete output we created a Business Ambulance pedagogical model which is shown in the video attached to the final report. Students learnt by coaching, instead of being the only ones taught and coached. The teachers and students were first coached by business experts and after that they went to companies and planned, created and evaluated a social media marketing campaign for them. Students practiced their marketing skills in real environments and learnt also about different business cultures in an international environment.The model followed the structure:1. Business experts coach teachers about social media marketing2. Business experts coach students about social media marketing3. Students coach SME companies about social media marketing and create a campaign on the company’s social media4. Teachers coach and support student groupsTogether, the European and Thai partner schools planned and created a social media marketing campaign for total 25 SME companies in five countries to help their company develop, e.g. to reach new target groups and clients, and get new marketing channels. At the same time the project delivered new educational patterns for the students to enrich their understanding.