You had me at Human. First batch of Human Accelerator was a success

In the world of entrepreneurship, there are multiple different accelerators and incubators. Who are they for? Ideas, teams, companies. But what about the people? That’s why we created the Human Accelerator.

Eight weeks, eight topics, eight speakers and eight workshops. Human Accelerator is program for the curious individuals who want to learn new and relevant work-life skills and do something meaningful.

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There is a lot of talk about the skills needed in the working life and education’s role in that. What should we get from school and what does the working life actually require from us? We wanted to help people to learn those skills and eventually had these eight topics for the first batch of Human Accelerator:

  • Dream & Goal Setting

  • Skills Recognition

  • Public Speaking

  • Graphic Design

  • Personal Branding

  • Physical Wellbeing and Productivity

  • Innovation & Entrepreneurship

  • Growth Mindset & Motivation

We thought that the tools of entrepreneurship can be applied to these topics and used that as the foundation for the entire program. All sessions had an introduction from a speaker from the industry and then an actual working part, where the participants got to actually apply the just learnt information.

I learned a lot of useful things that I had not considered very important in seeking job and in your career. I recommend this workshop to everyone, not only university students, but also people who are already working and people who hasn't yet realized what they want to do in life. - Human Accelerator participant

We got 33 applications to the program from people with various backgrounds, students as well as people from the working life. Eventually around 20 people completed the program (+5 workshops). It was great to see the progress that the participants made through the eight weeks. From a shy presenter to an active speaker can be applied to everyone who was in the program. In our final workshop we gathered some words from the participants into a word cloud:

Even the “damn this is one is to long” actually meant: “invest in yourself, nobody else will”

Even the “damn this is one is to long” actually meant: “invest in yourself, nobody else will”

Where do we go from here? Human Accelerator will be back in the spring 2019 with the second batch and with some new topics as well. The first edition was a great success and a pilot and next year we want to see it grow. We think that all students should have practical experiences in learning the relevant working life skills during their studies. Through Human Accelerator, it really is possible.

We also want to of course thank all the speakers who came to host the workshops, Tellus Innovation Arena for offering the facilities and OYY Student Union and their Universitas Fund for the support. Thanks also to the Oulu Business School who joined the program in providing credits for students who completed the program.

Stay tuned in January 2019 for the next application period for Human Accelerator!

It was good to have time to think of myself and I got a chance to take a first step for my brighter future! - Human Accelerator participant

Written by: Eemeli Alanne

Oulu Entrepreneurship Society