Since January, under the leadership of tourism student Minna McLean, business students Annemari Mäkinen, Nicole Huikko (Germany), Jana Smirnova (Estonia), Jonis Mahmutllari (Albania) and Minh Tran (Vietnam) undertook the marketing of the first stage of Nordic Orienteering Tour 2011 organised in Porvoo on 16th June 2011.

The new HAAGA-HELIA Porvoo Campus curriculum is based on inquiry learning, which in simple terms means ‘learning by doing’. Students are given real life projects commissioned by local businesses and organisations, which they have to plan and implement within time and budget constraints. “Real-life projects makes us more confident and gives us valuable experience. It also enhances our business networks and contacts”, says Minna McLean, student and team leader of the project.

The project team’s role has been to develop a marketing plan, project schedule and implement the project. The project team has had a distinct structure, a team leader, division of tasks and responsibilities, rules of conduct and has kept minutes on each of their meetings with the commissioners. “We have been very satisfied with the job the student project team has done. They have been professional and also brought us new and inspiring ideas how to make orienteering more attractive for the wider public. The whole project has been well-planned and implemented”, says Jari Johansson, OK Orient. The students came up with creative ideas in order to engage various stakeholders to the event.  For instance, children could participate in the Treasure Map Orienteering, citizens and international visitors of Porvoo get a chance to take part in the exciting Vartti Story Orienteering in the heart of the city, and everyone was welcome to HAAGA-HELIA Public Orienteering.

Projects vary in degree of difficulty depending on the learning objectives of students. “HAAGA-HELIA’s teachers are not spoonfeeding general information to the students; instead, they anchor their teaching to the project at hand based on the needs and inquiries of the students as well as supervise their work”, says programme director Kaija Lindroth.

HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences is a higher education institution that educates the next generation of business and tourism professionals. For decades now, HAAGA-HELIA UAS’s Porvoo unit has been providing high class education to thousands of people giving them the core competences needed in the worklife together with valuable hands-on experience. The Nordic Orienteering Tour 2011 was organised in Porvoo on 16th June 2011.

Text: Crysoula Skodra

Read more about the Nordic O-Tour 2011 event: http://okorient.fi/kilpailut/2010/fi/nort2011