Design is increasingly embraced as an important resource for the growth and development of business. With the Finnish Design Push initiative, we seek new ways for education to take a more active role in this by strengthening the ties between students, faculty and technology companies.
Bringing academia-industry collaboration to the core of design education
Design is pivotal for companies to stay competitive and innovative across many industries – being an integral part when developing offerings, deepening engagements with customers, and expanding into new markets. With the Finnish Design Push initiative, we strive to enhance the readiness of design students to take on such challenges in entering work-life while simultaneously boosting the design awareness and capabilities within Finnish Industry, especially small- and medium-sized technology companies.
Taking a curriculum perspective for organizing academia-industry collaboration, we provide Finnish companies an opportunity to deepen their expertise about design while exploring real-world business challenges together with design students in study projects and internships. We also perform benchmark studies to better understand how the benefits of academia-industry collaboration be harnessed for learning within design education.
We focus on
Through the Finnish Design Push initiative – we are partnering with Finnish technology companies and SMEs to better understand how to harness the learning opportunities that emerge when working on real-world business challenges in design education and how industry collaborations can be more effectively embedded into the mandatory curriculum of design programs.
The main vehicle for learning for the initiative sits in exploring news ways for companies to collaborate with students in courses. In acting as project partner in courses, we provide SMEs an opportunity to explore their real-world business challenges with our students while simultaneously learning more about how design and designers potentially could enhance their business.
In the Autumn of 2024, we kicked off the first set of projects in the Digital Service Design Project course where students in smaller groups currently are taking a customer-centric view on service development and prototype new digital solutions to enhance the offering of a group of technology companies.
Through the initiative, we also support companies in hosting internship for design students as a vehicle to deepen the learning about design and forge stronger work-life connections between students and companies. Following the study projects, the participating companies are invited to further explore the results – and/or explore new opportunities for design within their organization – with the participating students and facilitate support for the internship periods with the assistance of leading design agencies who provide professional support during the internship period.
The annual partnering call for companies and project run between January and April each year with the course collaborations taking place during upcoming Autumn semester (September – October).
For the course collaborations, we are searching for companies that are interested to explore a real-world business challenge with our students while simultaneously deepening their expertise about design. Given the possibilities for design to support growth and development, we are particularly interested in working with small- and medium-sized companies who has not worked with design before but are curious about what it could bring their organization.
In support for the companies and students in learning more about design and forging relationships with the Finnish design industry, we are looking for partner agencies that would be willing to coach the students during internship periods as well as provide the partner companies with more long-term design support.
The internships are organized at the partner companies during the summer after the course collaborations based on the interest of the partner companies – giving them an opportunity to develop things further and/or explore new opportunities through design.
The Finnish Design Push initiative builds on the success of the Aalto Summer Design Studios project which ran at the School of Arts, Design & Architecture at between 2019 and 2021 in which design students were given an opportunity to work on the real-world design project for companies during the summer with support from design professionals and Finnish Design agencies.
The learning gained from these projects for both students and companies encouraged us to pursue a more ambitious mode for academia-industry collaboration and prototype a new structure to better embed real-world challenges within in our design programs for the benefits of learning. We are grateful for the generous support and funding from the Centennial Foundation of the Technology Industries of Finland, Von Julin Foundation, and Metex Foundation in giving us an opportunity to pursue these ambitious efforts.
Companies around the world use design to grow their business. The three-year research project looks for ways to speed up the transformation of small businesses to become more design-driven. The first year has already given great results.
Aalto University wants to work with employers to integrate the international talent that Finland clearly needs.
Research collaboration strengthens expertise and future business development. New product and service ideas are created in study projects. Our campus offers an inspiring operating and networking environment. At Aalto's recruitment events, companies meet the top talents of the future.
Design is not linked purely to physical objects but digital experiences and abstract concepts as well, enhancing its power to shape the world. Embracing these opportunities, the Bachelor’s Programme in Design prepares students for designing future products, services and systems in a creative and critical manner.
Aalto Design Research is a leading centre of excellence of enquiry in and through design.
One of the most prestigious universities in its fields. We educate our students to create imaginative, collaborative, compassionate and unconventional approaches to the most pressing challenges of today.