Courses are available in six different subject areas: general business development, productisation and growth, company resources, well-being at work, work community skills, and communications and marketing. The entity comprises a total of 27 micro-courses. Each micro-course takes about two hours to complete. The courses are available online on the Moodle platform for the companies involved in the project.
The aim is not to complete the micro-courses in a specific order from A to Z, but each participant can pick the parts that are suitable for them. For example, under the theme of Communications and Marketing, you can select a micro-course about branding, in Work Community Skills a section about the role of creativity in the development of the work community, and in Well-being at Work, a course that discusses and promotes your own well-being at work. This will give you plenty to do for half a day.
Three business development companies, the Nivala-Haapajärven Seutu NIHAK ry, North-East Finland
Development Company Naturpolis Oy and the business services of the City of Kalajoki, act as co-implementers of the project. If desired, the participating entrepreneurs or companies can go over the micro courses and their own responses with professionals in the field, such as the employees of the above-mentioned business service operators. This way, the micro-courses are more than mere digital brain teasers, as you will receive insightful feedback on your own reflections from a representative of a familiar business service company. Expert knowledge and practical business development go hand in hand.
The courses are designed to be practical and meet the existing needs in the field of micro-entrepreneurship. The courses are not just mere infomercials (although information is certainly available). Instead, you will be able to immediately apply the clear and concise content to your own activities. A good example is the Strategic Business Management micro-course in the Business Development section. First, the participant will watch a one-minute video that describes the basics of company strategy in a nutshell. After this, the participant may choose to watch a longer video that delves into strategy work and its concepts and meanings in more detail. If there is not much time, the participant can skip the longer video and directly apply the basic framework presented in the first video to their own activities. What are your values, mission, business idea and vision? Where do you want to be in ten years? What do you need to do to achieve your goals? The business service advisers help you find a fruitful answer.
In autumn 2023, the micro-courses will become live. Following feedback, the project will organise micro-workshops based on the most popular micro-courses, in which entrepreneurs can further develop their competence related to different topics. Using the digital material, the participants have learned the basics and applied it to their own activities together with the business professionals, and now the workshops will advance their capacity to change in different areas to an even greater extent. Under the guidance of professionals, the workshops deal with issues such as well-being at work and communications.
This diverse set of micro-courses will certainly increase companies’ capacity to change quickly and efficiently in many different areas of operation. As the world is changing faster and faster, it is a good idea to know whether your or your company’s capacity to change is at the right level. KeMu’s micro-courses will give you the answer.
Writer: Markus Rytinki, PhD, Project Researcher
Micro-Entrepreneurship Centre MicroENTRE, University of Oulu Kerttu Saalasti Institute
In Kerttu Saalasti Institute's blog we write about the topics of the Institute's research groups, micro entrepreneurship education and the Institute's general topics. The authors are researchers, experts and members of networks.
Our topics are: micro entrenepreneurship, future manufacturing technologies, regional excellence, micro entrepreneurship education