Over the last few months, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what really interests me in Higher Education. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with our Degree Apprentices on their Project Units. What has really caught my attention is the process of how the themes for work-based projects are generated. My colleague Dr Vicky Nowak came up with the idea that there should be more of a focus on ‘intrapreneurship’, with the aim of our degree apprentices generating more creative and innovative ideas. Working with Vicky has really sparked my interest in this area, and inspired my journey of discovery into the world of innovation and creativity, particularly within organisations.
One of the highlights of this journey was Vicky’s session using a Design Sprint simulation, where students followed the steps identified by Google, in order to design a solution to a real-world problem. In this case, developing a workplace wellbeing solution.
Students had the opportunity to experience:
- teaming
- divergent and convergent thinking
- root cause analysis
- rapid prototyping
- pitching
Industry expertise was introduced to the session, with Marcia Fernandes from the Association for Accredited Learning providing the latest insights on the topic for our learners. You can read more about the session from Marcia here: https://www.associationforaccreditedlearning.co.uk/260124-2
Creative Futures Innovation Toolkit 
Leave a comment