A real-life business project for Wittenborg students

In January 2012, WUAS business students worked on a real-life project for TCN, a multinational project development organization. The project was based on the re-development of the remarkable Central Beheer Achmea (insurance) building, designed by the acclaimed Dutch architect Herman Hertzenberger. TCN currently has plans to redevelop this large building into what is being called the ‘Apeldoorn Business Campus’.

“It’s not only good business practice for students, its real-life project design.”  Willem van der Ven from TCN was very pleased to be involved. “It’s not what TCN normally does, but it was very interesting. Students come up with new ideas; they came up with outside the box ideas, and working with different cultures and nationalities gives you a complete different prospective as well.”

The City Municipality (Gemeente) Apeldoorn was part of the jury for the final results of this project week, especially interested because this remarkable building is right in the heart of the centre of the town. Henk Wijnsma of the Apeldoorn Municipality was glad to see how the students participated in the project and how they promoted Apeldoorn. "The concept ties in with the aims of Apeldoorn, as part of its drive to expand of Higher Education in the area. My colleague will be in the jury of the next project which is all about marketing the City of Apeldoorn. We’re looking forward to it.” 

The winning group of the TCN Real Estate Project was the group calling themselves ‘Novarum’. Marketing and Communication student Débora Heiderich was the project leader. “It was an amazing project - real-life, which made it very interesting. We came up with a business incubator that could stimulate people to come up with new ideas themselves in a creative environment. I believe it’s a good concept for Apeldoorn, where many people start their own business. It is a great experience to work with external parties and I’ve learned a lot. Real-life projects are more than welcome.” 

According to director Maggie Feng, “The project was instigated by Wittenborg director with TCN as part of a drive to promote more independent learning and experience development in it business students. We aim to run projects with many more local and national companies and organisations, and Wittenborg plans to continue organising this kind of project in the future, with an increasing emphasis on leadership, teamwork and excellent achievement.”

WUP 14/02/2012