Finland - Jyvaskyla Region - Final Self-Evaluation Report.pdf

longer. 2.5% of the Jyväskylä Polytechnic’s students graduating in 2000 were entrepreneurs three years later,whereas the share of students starting a business immediately after their graduation was one percent less. Theentrepreneurship of graduates from the Jyväskylä Polytechnic is almost at the national average level of allpolytechnics, as nearly 2% of graduates from 1999-2003 were entrepreneurs at the end of the year 2003.According to the representatives of the HEIs, the importance of spin-off -firms generated from students’ orresearchers’ initiatives is not notable in the Jyväskylä region and exact statistics on spin-off firms are notavailable.A recent Ministry of Education study (2005c) shows that there are no specific entrepreneurship strategies inFinnish universities, but it is considered to be an important strategic issue. Business know-how is an essentialpart of entrepreneurship regardless of the substance on which the entrepreneurship builds on. The aim is toincrease academics’ understanding of entrepreneurship and business life. In five universities in Finland it ispossible to study entrepreneurship as a major subject, the University of Jyväskylä being one of them. This isone way to promote entrepreneurship in universities. According to the study, the universities recognizedseveral future challenges concerning entrepreneurship. These challenges take place mainly in finance, theinteraction between universities and their interest groups, as well as in the ongoing curriculum reform. Onthe whole, entrepreneurship and its promotion mostly appear in Finnish universities either in the form ofteaching entrepreneurship or as social and regional influencing. The Finnish government has devised anentrepreneurship program and one part of it is to improve the capacity of universities and polytechnic topromote entrepreneurship.The School of Business and Economics at the University of Jyväskylä and the School of Business at theJyväskylä Polytechnic provide teaching in business studies that includes coverage for entrepreneurship.Additionally, the students from other fields can profit from this knowledge base in both institutions and, forexample, at the University the customized learning programmes that cover the basis of business thinking areorganized for students of other faculties. In the Polytechnic, the activation of students and the exploitation oftheir know-how in the R&D projects, also contribute to entrepreneurial thinking and increase the students’willingness to become entrepreneurs. The Jyväskylä Polytechnic defined internal entrepreneurship policyguidelines in the spring of 2005. As a part of that, a group of teachers is developing an operation model thataims to form an entrepreneurship path for each school (see Appendix 13).Box 5.1 Team Academy promotes entrepreneurshipThe Team Academy, founded in 1993, is a unit at the Jyväskylä Polytechnic specialized in marketing,management and entrepreneurship. The unit operates in Jyväskylä (217 students) and Jämsänkoski (163students). During the last ten years, the Team Academy has provided various forms of entrepreneurialeducation, serving the needs of the business world. Every student takes over three years of intensivetraining in leadership and marketing as a member of a team. Team Academy is a learning laboratory,where new learning methods and models for business life are continuously being developed (e.g.building effective teams, learning organizations and modern marketing). The establishing of one’s ownbusiness is not the only aim of the education, as an increasingly stronger focus is on mentalentrepreneurship. The aim is to increase the entrepreneurial spirit of those working in their owncompanies as well as of those employed by others.Entrepreneurial thinking has been promoted at the University of Jyväskylä and Jyväskylä Polytechnic but,due to the increasing importance of knowledge-based high-technology business, a low rate ofentrepreneurship, the age structure of existing entrepreneurs, and the resulting threat of the disappearance offirms in the Jyväskylä region, there is a clear need to continue and strengthen those efforts. An important aimof HEIs should be to create a favourable atmosphere for entrepreneurship and emphasize it as a relevantalternative to the wage work. These activities should be directed to all students regardless of their studyfields.In addition to the above mentioned factors, the regional intermediate organizations support thecommercialization of innovations and entrepreneurship. Jyväskylä Science Park promotes knowledgeintensive entrepreneurship through the Centre of Expertise Programme and incubator process for technologyenterprises. Their active role and visibility in connection with the HEIs could be further promoted.70