The UOC to repeat its free entrepreneurial programme to promote technology in education

Once again, the UOC is kick-starting entrepreneurial projects in education through its free programme entitled EduTECH Emprèn, which has gained the support of the Government of Catalonia's Ministry of Business and Knowledge and the European Social Fund. Participating in the event is a network of 25 members, ranging from experts to mentors, who work together to achieve the programme's main objective: promote entrepreneurial projects that revolve around technology in education.

The programme accompanies participating entrepreneurs in the development of prototypes or services, in the definition of their business model and in the transformation of their projects into real businesses. Projects that wish to apply must do so by 15 July and must deal with innovation and new technologies in any facet of education. This includes anything from teaching and motivation to administration and management, and projects may make use of a diverse array of technologies.

EduTECH Emprèn is one of the main kick-starters focusing solely on entrepreneurial projects through e-learning, allowing participants to carry out the programme both face-to-face and online (blended) or exclusively online (streaming). This means that entrepreneurial projects from around the world can apply. To name a few, last year, for instance, applications were received from Colombia, China and Vietnam and from other cities in Spain, such as Madrid and Valencia.

The programme, which consists of two phases lasting a total of four months, is part of the UOC's innovation platform, Hubbik. Phase one (from 17 September to 15 November) includes 125 hours of training from professors, researchers and external collaborators. In the second phase, tutorials are held from November to December. During this time, specialists from the sector will offer 10 hours of personalized mentoring and guidance, per project, to participating entrepreneurs.

“EduTECH Emprèn allows for all the knowledge generated at the UOC to be used to promote innovative projects that will continue to make learning more accessible, thereby boosting the establishment of businesses that can focus on global markets", points out UOC Knowledge Transfer and Research Support Office director, Mireia Riera.

Between June and July, 20 candidates, who are not necessarily part of the UOC community, will be selected to participate this year. Participants who attend at least 70% of the programme sessions will receive a certificate of completion emitted by the UOC.

Second year round

This year will mark EduTECH Emprèn's second instalment. In the first, participants included start-ups like Filmclub, a project lead by Miquel Cerdà that aims to increase the use of film as an educational tool and which won the audience award at Spin UOC 2018 (the UOC's annual entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer event), and Potmath, an initiative spearheaded by Frederic Cedrón, which seeks to overcome learning difficulties through the use of virtual reality.