Students developing a gamified learning solution – Flipped Mentorship programme engaged students in real-life development projects in Finnish SMEs

The main objective of the pilot was to provide international students with an opportunity to understand Finnish business operations, their principles, current state, development needs, and the challenges faced by entrepreneurs through practical mentoring sessions. 

– It's giving us an example or a real-life scenario of what to expect after graduation in this Finnish environment. It's getting us prepared for that challenge, says one of the students who participated in the programme. 

Two SMEs from Ostrobothnia, AveoAI and TK Engineering participated in the pilot, presenting their operations and one development need to the students. The students worked in groups to propose solutions to the company’s development need, and the company provided comments and feedback on the students’ proposed solutions. The meetings included a business mentor with strong practical experience in entrepreneurship and the chosen theme, who facilitated the mentoring sessions and supported the flow of discussion. 

Combing technical and business expertise 

Ataur, Surekha, Farid, Trang, Ashma and Binita were working with AveoAI. They got to develop a gamified learning solution that would make complex learning content more accessible and engaging for clients. 

– We helped AveoAI to spread their learning materials in a gamified way. The challenge was how to present the most complex structured learning materials in a simpler, fun way, so that the clients can understand it.  

Students are happy the programme was multidisciplinary: it helped them get to know students outside their own field and understand the value of interdisciplinary collaboration which will be important to them in their future career.  

Those with technical backgrounds gained insights into business perspectives, while non-technical participants were introduced to new technical concepts. 

– Coming from an engineering background, this was a fun project for me because we had to incorporate a game concept into something more serious. Until now I have been always doing serious stuff, but this made me open up myself. I became good friends with the students I worked with and they taught me many things I didn't know before, so it opened a horizon to explore myself.  

– For me, coming from management, the students with a technical background could help me understand things which I wasn’t aware about. So that has upskilled me as a business person. 

– Even though I’m not a coder, I learned to understand technical solutions. Now I understand how a user interface should look like, for example. And they introduced me with something called offline chatGPT, which I had never heard before, one student shared. 

– For me the most important part was learning the concept of gamification. I have a background of industrial engineering, so I have knowledge on both technical and business side, but when I used to work with different clients, it was challenging for them to grasp technical terms and concepts. The concept of gamification is quite brilliant because this shows you how the technical complicated things can be learned in a fun way. 

Finnish work culture: flat hierarchy and constructive feedback 

Many of the students were surprised by the openness and flat hierarchy of Finnish work culture. They were not expecting the positive and welcoming environment they received.   

– We visited AveoAI’s office, and they were very welcoming. They showed us how they work, and how they treat their colleagues. I was stunned how much they care for their workers.  

During the project, students felt that their ideas were heard, they received validation and constructive feedback – something that they see is often lacking in their home countries.  

– If you came up with challenge or anything that you were stuck with, they were very helpful. 

– In my home country, we face a lot of criticism if something goes wrong, but don’t receive much positive feedback like compliments or validation, if we do something good. Here the perspective is completely opposite. It’s very encouraging and it helps us to be more creative and express all of our thoughts and ideas more openly.   

All in all, the students are very grateful for Finnish companies opening their doors and giving them the opportunity to showcase their skills. 

– The entire concept of Finnish organisations collaborating with universities, to take students’ ideas, and accept their innovation, was quite surprising. And we have seen examples where such innovations and ideas have been taken ahead as business opportunities.