The Circular Lab, an initiative of the Circular Design Group, brings together students, teachers and professionals from the North Limburg manufacturing industry. Its core mission is to strengthen the synergy between business and educational and knowledge institutions within the circular economy. We spoke in the lab with Jelle Kerstjens, quartermaster at Circular Design Group Foundation and Etienne Engelhart, Crosslab Coach and Lecturer in International Finance & Control at Fontys University of Applied Sciences about how businesses and education strengthen each other through long-term projects. Amina Redžematović and Mario Bruder, both International Finance & Control students took us through their latest project. About how a company's involvement can make a difference and what that can bring to both parties.
Venlo's biggest challenge
According to Jelle, this is to keep students, once they finish their studies, in the region. 'Former fellow students think I'm crazy that I moved here (again), but if you include Germany, Venlo is very central and you can pick your work,' says Jelle. Most students can't wait to move more towards the West, but that is also due to a certain image of it. North Limburg is very attractive on many levels, but you have to know that. For local companies, it is important that they move with the times and appeal to the young target group. Etienne: "It happens regularly that a company comes knocking on the door asking how they can better reach Gen Z (Generation Z). And then it turns out that the company is still only on Facebook, while Gen Z cannot be found there.' By starting the collaboration with students in the Circular Lab at an early stage, companies get a lot of valuable information from the point of view of new generations, such as what they are looking for in a job and where to find them.
What role do businesses and education play together in the movement toward circularity and broad prosperity? 'We educate business students and sustainability cannot be avoided in their working life later on. We teach students what the climate goals are, what the concept of circular economy means and most importantly, how companies towards the future can implement those sustainability goals in their business model so that the company remains profitable in the future. 'Students are taught new business models and that's where things often chafe,' Etienne said. 'Many companies are not there yet and don't really know how to get there, simply because they are not trained to do so. Jelle: 'The current administrators, directors and policy makers have mostly been trained within the linear system and also operate that way. Breaking this is logically exciting.' In that sensitive area, Fontys University of Applied Sciences and CDG are jointly taking up the gauntlet under the leadership of Jelle and Etienne.
A long-term investment with the Circular Lab
The Circular Lab unburdens the business community and provides support in formulating the right question, connecting it with the right educational products (teachers and students) and guiding the students from both a business perspective (CDG) and educational perspective (Fontys). The ambition of the Circular Lab is to develop and implement knowledge through close cooperation between selected innovative companies. Education plays a crucial role here in which it embraces long-term issues from the business community.
One of the educational products now being worked with within the Circular Lab is Fontys' Crosslab setup. At Fontys University of Applied Sciences' Crosslab, second-year students get to work with real questions from the business world and act as consultants. For an entire academic year, students work in teams of six on an assignment. They visit the client company, conduct research and provide advice. The teams are deliberately mixed in composition so that the research question is considered from different perspectives. Students from international business, marketing management and international finance & control work together.
Currently, the Crosslab is thinking about "professional products. With a professional product, the final product is central. Etienne: "Suppose a company wants a new dashboard or wants to make an improvement in it, let students work on that issue internally. Involve them in practice and leave out unnecessary theory. Give them access and, after a certain period of time, have them present their findings in some form. The chances are then much greater that companies will really benefit and that HBO students will immediately learn to apply their acquired knowledge.
What makes and breaks a good collaboration?
According to Etienne, time and confidence is everything. 'Students can really amaze you. If you invest enough time, they surprise you with the (most amazing) good ideas and high-quality presentations. They ask unexpected questions and come up with very innovative perspectives.' Expectation management is also key to success. The brief must be very clear and easy to understand. 'Sometimes it takes eight weeks to get the right question, then it takes another eight weeks to get the research right and then the internship period is almost over,' Jelle said. A crosslab takes two semesters so roughly 4 periods of 8 -10 weeks. An internship or graduate internship takes roughly six months. Asking the right questions, taking your time and seeing students as adding value is a must.
Students who are not before, but with work for a company
So students can be of great value. 'To that end, it is important that students not before, but with collaborate with a company," said Amina, an International Finance & Control student. She, along with a group of students, did a project for German and widely known Miele. The assignment was clear and concrete: which digital touchpoints (online contact points) are important for Chinese customers? For this, she worked with international students from China and regularly visited Miele. Through a survey, she investigated which digital touchpoints are important, resulting in a good market research. In the background, other students worked on the internal research at Miele; who they are, what are the most important values, etc. Amina: "The people at Miele trusted us as a team, gave a lot of information, showed the field well and really helped us along. We presented the final ideas at Miele's headquarters in Gütersloh, Germany. These were so well received that Miele will be implementing the ideas next semester. With that, we as students played a really active role and that feels good! Says Amina.
That things can be very different tells Mario. 'I did my project at a start-up. The first phase had been completed successfully and they wanted to expand. They came to us with that issue. From the beginning, however, they were barely involved. They posed the question, but gave us very little information. The communication was not good, so we could not move forward. In the end, the company went bankrupt and our project remained unfinished. Mario and Amina's projects show well the importance of companies putting time and effort into cooperation.
This article is part of the Regioportret Limburg (article 1/3). With it we visualize how education and business in the Limburg region are working together on 'Sustainability skills': the skills needed in the circular economy of the future. We hope to inspire other regions to accelerate the transition to the circular economy.
