The seventh edition of the Tandem Project by Andorra Business, whose aim is to implicate the Vocational Training educational community of Andorra in innovative projects to be developed in companies and potentiate student talent, was presented on Thursday, October 13th, by the Minister for Presidency, Economy and Enterprise and president of Andorra Business, Jordi Gallardo, and the Minister for Education and Higher Studies, Ester Vilarrubla.
93 students are participating in this edition, the highest number of all previous editions, along with 18 teachers from the Aixovall center. For the first time, joining the project are 39 students and 6 teachers from the socio-educational and health branch to be added to the 54 students and 12 teachers from the rest of branches. In addition, this year, they will have to work on challenges presented by a total of 5 companies (Previous editions only had 3).
The companies taking part in this edition are: Caldea, whose challenge is to think of what offers and innovative services should they consider for the new Caldea (Resort hotel and SPA) in order to attract couples; Ràdio i Televisió d’Andorra (RTVA), who want to grow spectator numbers of a younger age range; Tècniques d’Avantguarda (TdA), whose challenge is to resolve and manage the needs of a person from any professional service that comes to your house; Centre mèdic Valira, who want to provide tools and resources to families and the education sector in order to prevent eyesight pathologies in children under the age of 6; and HomeBox, who want to coordinate the country´s citizens with their clients so as to carry out a move through an exchange of professional services.
The Minister for Presidency, Economy and Enterprise and president of Andorra Business, Jordi Gallardo highlighted that “in each edition there are more students, teachers and companies and it is a project in which the students are very eager and motivated. The entrepreneurial and innovative aspects we are looking for from Andorra Business is fully accomplished as it is a simultaneous initial contact with this ecosystem”.
In addition, the minister for Education and Higher Studies, Ester Vilarrubla, pointed out that “the challenges are real needs that the companies have and this is of the utmost importance for students to feel the motivation in order to satisfy these needs. They are, therefore, both a great motivator and able to be resolved”.
The presentation also included representatives from Caldea, RTVA, Tècniques d’Avantguarda, Centre mèdic Valira and HomeBox.
The first edition of Tàndem ended in May 2017, with three proposals presented by the Vocational training students. They came up with various solutions to the challenge posed by Perfumeria Júlia, which consisted of analysing the customer’s behaviour to improve their experiences inside the shops. The winning project consisted of an application to capture the customers information thanks to a method that combines NFC, Wifi and Bluetooth technology. Eleven students and five teachers took part of the project, involving Perfumeries Julia as the only participant company.
In the Tàndem’s second edition, the Vocational training students had to face the challenges posed by the companies: Dermandtek, on how to raise awareness to prevent skin cancer; Hotels Plaza, on how to offer a personalised gift experience to its clients; and Inlingua, on creating an attractive language immersion project during the months of July and August aimed at teenagers. Among the five finalist projects, the winner was for an application and a loyalty points system that allows the client to enjoy exclusive advantages and activities in the hotel facilities. In this edition, all the students of the Vocational Training Centre (61) participated, supervised by 11 teachers, and worked on challenges set by the three companies.
In the third edition of the Tàndem project, the Vocational training students worked on the innovation challenges posed by Andorra Telecom, Gamma Management and VallmedicVision. The winning team presented a battery of proposals to improve the sales of Andorra Telecom’s prepaid cards. 72 students participated, supervised by 12 teachers, and the challenges were as follows: Andorra Telecom, on how to innovate in the offer of prepaid mobile telephony to reach more customers; VallmedicVision, on ideas to raise awareness among the Andorran population to avoid the abuse of digital screens and reducing myopia; and Gamma Management wanted to improve the relationship of this human resources company with its customers, which are both companies and applicants.
The Tàndem’s fourth edition was attended by 68 students and 12 teachers from the Aixovall centre who worked on the challenges posed by Morabanc Andorra (How to make basketball a priority leisure option for the population between 20 and 40 years of age); Unicef (How to strengthen the collaboration of young people and Unicef); and Vatel (How to make professions in the hotel and tourism sector more attractive to the country’s students).
In the fifth edition 80 students and 12 teachers took part, working on challenges presented by the Andorran Red Cross (How to expand the Red Cross´s presence on a social level in the Principality); Vallnord (How to reduce Vallnord Ski Resort´s ecological footprint); and Via Moda (How to reformulate Via Moda´s internal procedures to reduce their ecological footprint).
91 students from the Vocational training center took part in the sixth edition, the highest number up to then, tutored by 12 teachers, and they worked on challenges presented by the companies Abast Global, aimed at attracting, returning and retaining talent in Andorra, Daguisa Hotels, who wanted to eliminate all plastics from hotel management, and FEDA, the winning challenge, who wanted to promote healthy habits among the entities´ workers.