Over the years, I have worked in various positions within TAMK. Nowadays, I’m a Team Coach in TAMK Proakatemia, where I coach young entrepreneurs in their business experiments and leadership skills.
As I have experienced the change from a teacher to a team coach, I’m familiar with the different aspects of a team learning community and traditional teaching. I have fallen in love with teams and team learning. It just makes so much sense to me! Human beings need interaction, and the more creditable all interaction is, the better for us all.
As a member of TAMK teaching staff, I frequently have the opportunity to participate in global education export projects or present in big conferences like Tampere Smart City Week Conference.
Showcasing Proakatemia for an international audience
Tampere Smart City Week is an event that focuses on sustainable and innovative solutions for urban development. I believe that it’s a great opportunity for educators to explore how our education meets the needs of “real life”, and for students to gather experiences and hear of future-oriented cases. This was the first year I attended the conference, and it won’t be the last.
I had the pleasure to join the SCW Conference as a presenter, together with two TAMK Proakatemia teampreneurs. In our presentation, we emphasized that an organizations’ ability to learn is their greatest business advantage. The ability to build a shared vision and a team dialogue for growth can create successful learning organizations where people can experience meaningfulness and be a part of something bigger than themselves.
Those are also some fundamentals in the TAMK Proakatemia model. We want everyone to learn how to build and support organizations’ ability to learn, whether working as entrepreneurs and business owners or as employees.
Learning together for the future
Our presentation was in the ‘Learning Together for the Future’ category. That is what TAMK Proakatemia is all about, and we were so happy to see several exceptionally inspiring presentations in that same category. For example, Spotify shared their ideas about ‘How do we continue to learn in our organizations’. It just confirmed that TAMK Proakatemia is doing the right thing; this is what the world needs.
Attending the SCW Conference was remarkable for me because I had a chance to take two enthusiastic teampreneurs from Proakatemia with me to do our presentation. The students’ contribution brings credibility and interest, and of course this was a great opportunity for Antti Eloranta and Aaron Taivalsalmi to get more experience in public speaking and expand their network.
The annual Tampere Smart City Week, led by Business Tampere, has high quality content and presenters. In our coaching sessions at TAMK Proakatemia, we will continue discussing the future-oriented presentations from the conference that can inspire our student teams. I will certainly encourage educators and students to participate in the conference next year. Learning together can only lead to success!
Text: Hanna Saraketo, Senior Lecturer and Team Coach in TAMK Proakatemia
Images: Visit Tampere Ltd/Laura Vanzo and screenshot from video recording
