Increasing innovation by dual study courses in business management

Abstract

One of the biggest hindrances for companies to exploit their full potential for innovation is the right qualification of young entrepreneurs. Few countries, like Germany or Finland, implement so called “dual study courses”, where students follow an academic career and vocational training at the same time. The graduates are highly qualified and have excellent job perspectives. Recent studies reveal, that in Germany 120 students are competing for 1 place in a dual study course for business management. Since 2011 the number of students of these programmes has increased by 20%. The successful model is copied to other European countries, recently in Spain to decrease youth employment. These courses allow for a deep cooperation between businesses and R&D institutions resulting in a high degree of innovations for the businesses participating. The paper presents the background, latest developments and possible transfer of these courses to other regions in the Baltic Sea Region.