Innovation and Entrepreneurship ProgrammeCOMBINE IT WITH YOUR DEGREE AT THE SAN SEBASTIÁN CAMPUS!

The programme understands the definition of the entrepreneurial profile as one who:
"identifies opportunities where others see chaos, contradiction, confusion or virtually nothing and is able to initiate, do, achieve and build something" (Timmons 2000).

The entrepreneurial profile we advocate is that of the 'opportunity entrepreneur', not one who undertakes out of necessity but one who does so out of perseverance in his or her commitment to the search for opportunities.

Person-centred to encourage students to undertake, to be and perceive themselves as capable of doing so

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme is firmly convinced that the person is at the centre of the entrepreneurial process. There is no entrepreneurial behaviour without entrepreneurial people. We are committed to accompanying people in order to strengthen their entrepreneurial profile and we believe that the generation of new ideas will be the consequence of this. Not the other way around.

Therefore, the programme trains people to:

• Develop their own criteria and challenge conventional approaches. - Disagreement
• Seek new opportunities in innovative ways - A focus on innovation
• Taking responsibility with pro-active willingness and commitment - Pro-active willingness
• Making it happen - Self-efficiency
• And bring about change - Need for achievement

"All this with a great deal of  patience, persistence and perseverance to respond innovatively to the challenges, tasks, needs and obstacles that arise along the way.

This training helps students to gain further insight into innovation and entrepreneurship (perceived desirability) and feel more empowered (perceived feasibility) to behave as entrepreneurs.

To have an impact on behaviour, the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme focuses not only on cognitive learning (concepts, tools, models) but also on affective development (emotions, feelings, moods) and behavioural development (motivation, commitment, drive, effort) following the trend of emotional intelligence.

Therefore, the working methodology (CAVE model developed by the iNNoVaNDiS team as a result of their long experience with hundreds of students) is focused on working on knowledge and skills, values, attitudes and emotions.

During the course, a series of competences (knowledge and skills, attitudes and values) complementary to the Bachelor's degree programme are worked on. Moreover, this CAVE model shows how emotions surround and permeate everything, as entrepreneurship is a particularly emotional activity (Goss, 2008). Emotions are impulses that lead us to act (Goleman, 1995), they are the basis of human behaviour. Therefore, stimulating positive emotions prior to performing a task produces positive outcomes among task performers (Seligman, 2002).

The programme seeks to foster emotions that produce pleasurable behaviours and memories, identified with the entrepreneurial character through a series of specific stimuli such as rituals, symbols and the language itself . The aim is to trigger an emotional energy to motivate and stimulate participants towards entrepreneurial ventures as something exciting.

All these elements help to create an enjoyable, surprising and exciting environment to ensure that the memory of the experience is pleasurable and therefore likely to be repeated. The aim is to move from being an event (anecdote) to becoming established as a process, a habitual behaviour (habit).

It is a methodology aimed at being more innovative and entrepreneurial and not just at knowing more about these topics. It is about being (behaving) and not so much about knowing (knowing). 

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme aims to accompany people through a training process to change attitudes and generate entrepreneurial and innovative behaviour. Student support requires individual guidance both by the course lecturers and the programme’s coordinating team. The assessment system also requires providing each student with continuous and coordinated monitoring both by the course lecturers and coordinators.

In addition, the programme's workload and range of activities in which students participate (projects, internships in companies, trips to events, etc.) provide lecturers and coordinators an opportunity for in-depth discussion with students.

Mixing different ages and profiles as an enriching complement to their undergraduate studies

The group of participants in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme combines students from different generations (students from different years) and  different profiles (students from all the degrees and double degrees of the San Sebastian campus are mixed), as well as promoting encounters within the Innovandis Network with former generations who have studied the degree and are even working in different fields.

We have also launched the 'Innovander to Innovander' mentoring programme in which veteran iNNoVaNDeRs are in contact to help and be a support and reference for the new members of the programme.

• Different study profiles: the degree each student takes, in addition to the knowledge specific to the chosen study profile, provides students with a characteristic way of understanding and approaching problems and projects. By combining students from different degrees we manage to enrich the way of approaching the problems/projects that arise with different points of view and experiences.
• Different ages: by combining students of different ages, and enhancing the effect explained above achieved by multidisciplinarity, we manage to promote intergenerational collaboration and the possibility of new contacts arising that may be of interest to them in the future on a personal and professional level.
• As a complement to undergraduate studies: we believe it is an ideal complement for students of different undergraduate studies who are interested in the world of entrepreneurship and innovation. The University of Deusto is committed to a transversal approach to the development of innovation and entrepreneurial skills. Therefore, the development of these competences builds on the solid foundation of the competences of each degree in a complementary way.

On the other hand, the professionals who participate in the different activities of the subjects as well as the internships in companies during the summer, help the students on the programme to mix with people of other ages and professional profiles.

Finally, the programme of activities coordinated within the iNNoVaNDiS Network includes, both for participants and the rest of the students from the San Sebastian campus at the University of Deusto, a series of events that also promote the possibility for students of different profiles and ages to get to know each other and come into contact with professionals and companies of interest.