Current issues
It was a slightly different school day for the 90 students who participated in the first of this fall's innovation camps organized by Young Entrepreneurship and NCE Seafood.
– The seafood industry is one of Norway's most important industries. It provides us with many jobs and is an industry with a lot of knowledge, but we need help from you, who are the future, begins Fride Iversen, project coordinator for the program at NCE Seafood.
The students were given three issues to choose from: healthy food and increased seafood consumption, increased value creation and reduction of plastic consumption in the aquaculture industry. These are challenges that are important for the industry to work on, and the students took the task head on.
– We see that the students are motivated by working with real problems from working life, and they have many good solutions that also inspire the companies that participate, says Hege Solhaug, advisor for upper secondary school and higher education in Young Entrepreneurship.
Creative students
In addition to the organizers, representatives from Lerøy Seafood and NHH's Case Club participated with presentations and guidance of the students along the way. It was hard not to be impressed by the students' efforts.
– It is incredibly educational to see the students' creativity when they work with some of the same problems that we are working hard to solve in Lerøy, says Linda Susan Jensen, Key Account VAP Norden at Lerøy Seafood.
At the end of the day, the students pitched their ideas. There were many great projects, but this time it was the seafood app "Fishy" that came out on top. The group wanted to make seafood more accessible to students and young people, and they had a clear marketing strategy that made the jury choose them.
Important to include students early
This was the first of nine planned innovation camps that NCE Seafood will conduct in collaboration with Young Entrepreneurship Norway. The goal is for students to have the opportunity to build expertise in sustainability, innovation, entrepreneurship and seafood.
– Innovation Camp allows students to test their creativity on real-world problems. Both we at Ungt Entreprenørskap and the clients are constantly impressed by the knowledge the students possess and the solutions they propose. This shows that it is important to include the voices of young people in tomorrow's challenges, says Fridtjov Falch Sorø, Advisor at Ungt Entreprenørskap.
Young Entrepreneurship is a non-profit organization that works with innovation and entrepreneurship in schools. The organization works throughout the country and throughout the school year, and the work takes place in close collaboration with local businesses.
NCE Seafood works for sustainable growth and development in the seafood industry, and one of the most important focus areas to achieve this is competence and future talent development. Engaging young people in the challenges facing the seafood industry is a very important project for the entire industry. Several of the cluster's partners and members will therefore participate in the camps.
