Abstract:

While creativity is a competence developed in every syllabus in ordinary courses of higher Education through the knowledge, skills and achievements, the non-structured paths for innovation and entrepreneurship should be fostered across out-of-the-classroom activities. Informal, non-formal, and curricular learning are all part of the lifelong learning journey in higher education, hence the possibilities of improving learning in those matters go beyond the formal disciplines and requires real contact with innovation and entrepreneurship in productive sectors.

In this context, the E.T.S. Ingeniería y Diseño Industrial (ETSIDI)-Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) is implementing a group of coordinated actions to increase the training opportunities to support students’ vocational initiatives of innovation and entrepreneurship in different complementary directions: in formal curriculum with a matter of professional development, participation in entrepreneurs’ competition, and periodical networking events to promote feasibility to the emerging student’s ideas towards new products development.

As the professor's team promoting those action plans at different levels, we present the experience, introducing its context, fundamentals, motivation, and the constraints found along the process. Learning experiences in a wide range of scopes (informal, non-formal, and curricular) that complement in a flexible way the more rigid ordinary courses of a school of engineering.

In this presentation, we will present Learning Service Approach as a methodology that emphasizes professional development and innovation in Engineering studies (Moon, 1999; Eyler & Seifer, 1999). In addition, the implementation of the first concrete actions and collaboration events with the participation of the entire educational and local community to enhance STEAM vocations and that of women in engineering will develop concrete actions of joint interest with socio-economic and cultural agents for collaboration. Sustainable Development Objectives and the implementation of intercultural competences in relation to citizen science will be our theoretical approach (Vargas, 2017; Durán-Fernández, Monterroso & Larson, 2018; Carro, 2019). The analysis of the results of the actions through the experience of the participating agents will allow us to draw some conclusions to develop Learning Service Approach in our environment with a perspective of sustainability.

Keywords:

Product innovation, co-creation, networking, collaborative learning, professional development.