One of the core values at Boost is that you learn most by doing. We also believe, that by providing instantly applicable hands-on skills through workshops is the way to go in building a community that can build. Whether you become a startup entrepreneur or not, there are a lot of essential skills needed in the current work life. In the spring we piloted our Boost Dropout Academy concept with 8 workshops and from the lessons learned there, we improved it for this fall’s semester.

In the 8 workshops, 71 people learned about topics such as building websites with zero code, email and facebook marketing, project management and crowdfunding. Most of the workshop hosts come from within the community. We believe peer-to-peer learning is effective, it builds relationships with the newer and older generations of the community and it allows the hosts to put their skills and expertise into a good use by educating others.

But what is even more important than just learning new skills is learning them together with other people. Especially with people from different backgrounds. When you build paper planes under pressure (like we did in a Lean workshop by Aschwin and Ville), you learn how people react to situations and what are their strengths and weaknesses. That’s how you find the future co-founders and people to join your team.

We encourage all students regardless of their university or field of study to actively participate and work on workshops, hackathons and projects. They give out double the amount of what you put in. And most of the benefits are long-term. It might be years before you end up starting a business with someone you met while doing a workshop or working on a small project. But it also takes years to build a strong relationship so we recommend you to start early.

To further improve the Dropout Academy, we are partnering up with Creve next spring to co-host a series of 12 workshop as part of a Y2 project we both are part of. This means more topics, more opportunities to learn and meet people and a spring full of exciting moments. Keep your eye on our Facebook page for upcoming events and come say hi next time you are at SparkUp!

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