The 5th Assembly of the Advisory Board of EBS Alumni

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The 5th Assembly of the Advisory Board of EBS Alumni was summoned on 3rd May. The main topic of the informal discussion was the involvement of experts in the study process and offering students practical outcomes of their studies.

The study programme of Management in Digital Society MBA that was developed last year, received a positive feedback in discussions, as it will fill the space in the Estonian education system by training managers for the digital society.

A member of the Board of Directors of Elisa Eesti Jüri Teemant said that it is an extremely important field: „Estonia is known for being a digital country, but the Estonian companies are on the 25th place (3rd place form the end of the list) according to a recent survey“, and added that the role of digital transformers is becoming more and more important in companies. 

The Head of Eesti Haigekassa (Estonian Health Insurance Fund) Rain Laane added that there is great lack of specialists with digital skills (data analysts and innovation officers) in the labour market and raised the issue of their training. „We could put our five-six heads together and discuss the issue and perhaps lecture some subject together“.

The Head of Master´s Programme Toomas Danneberg also raised the issue of involving students in the projects of digital transformation: „For instance, working in the digital team at your company would bring new knowledge and skills, and enable to jointly create new value. This would also be an opportunity for you to seek for talents“.

Rector professor Arno Almann encouraged alumni to take a joint position role and think of lecturing part-time as a professor at the university: „What could be the value to a company? We could guarantee that with regard to our partner networks, seminars and courses the person would be on the frontline of science and create a connection to their company while conducting research projects“.

The crucial issue of the Bachelor´s Programme was the organisation of internship in the manner that it would meet the expectations of the employers and students. The Head of EBS Bachelor´s Programme Anto Liivat provided an example of how the internship system has been set up in one top university: „Every academic year students have to do a part of their internship programme. In the first year the internship programme foresees work on a relatively simple routine workplace, in order to see how things work in reality. The second year involves work in sales, to understand where the money comes from and what needs to be done for that. The third year focuses on management by shadowing a manager in some company”.

A member of the Boards of Directors of Agencies Wink Inspired and Levipro Ants Liivat said that internship had been a problematic issue. „Internship must not necessarily mean that I work in some other company for some time. It could be a project aimed to offer value, which would give the student an outcome and opportunity to study a specific problem of a company“, said Liivat.

The alumni also discussed issues related to the celebration of the 30th Anniversary of EBS. The first bigger joint party of EBS students and alumni EBStival will take place on 16th May in the parking lot of EBS. The main celebrations will take place on 8th December 2018 in the Concert Hall of Estonia.

The Advisory Board of EBS Alumni has been called by the Rector professor Arno Almann and acts as an advisory body of the alumni to him. The aim of the Advisory Board of EBS Alumni is to enforce collaboration between the alumni and the university, and increase the level of participation of alumni in the management of the university. The next assembly of the Advisory Board of the EBS in will summon in autumn 2018.