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From October 9 to November 30, the Blended Intensive Program BIP Bootcamp 2023 in Circular Economy  took place, organized by the Kempten University of Applied Sciences (Germany), which acts as coordinator, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands) and the University of La Laguna.

Last week, in-person activities organized by the ULL were carried out, together with the Humboldt Cosmos Multiversity Foundation (HCM) led by Prof. Honor. Günter Koch, who has been the link between Kempten University and ULL for 7 years now.

Originally organized as a student visit from this German university (more than seven years ago), for the last three years has been consolidated as a multi-university activity, together with the Amsterdam University, and also with Belgian universities. Since last year, the program acquired the current BIP format, which the Erasmus+ program has launched with force to flood the entire EU with hybrid courses and small mobility projects.

After four weeks of online training around the basic concepts of the Circular Economy, the ULL and the HCM selected three companies that presented the participating students with challenges linked to sustainability, with a view oriented towards the Circular and Regenerative Economy that are of great importance for isolated territories like the Canary Islands. This year’s companies were Fundación Loro Parque, EAVE and Wooptix.

In this face-to-face working week from November 6 to 10, thirteen students from the three universities organized into three groups and the displaced teaching staff, carried out visits and work sessions with leading managers of the three companies, to conclude on Friday, November 10th with final presentations of the proposals of the three groups in the presence of representatives of each of the three companies. Now, until the end of the program (November 30^th, 2023), the groups will work on the final drafting of their proposals for improvement in terms of sustainability for each company, also having effects beyond for Tenerife’s economy.

At the beginning of the week, a workshop on the Canarian Agenda 2030 was managed by Alberto Santana, CEO of the PlanB Group and responsible for the design and dissemination program of the specific Canary Islands Sustainability Agenda. (It should be mentioned that the Cultural Dimension of the Canarian Agenda 2030 has received special mention from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) as a good international practice, reinforcing the idea that there is no sustainable human development without express consideration of culture).

The students’ experience ha eminent practical consequences because of its model for consulting, and with great interest in immediately turning the theoretically content learned into practice. It should also be noted that the hybrid modality of such kind of BIPs is highly participatory on the part of the students, with continuous group activities, search for information and presentation on their part,  under some a teacher guide that  opens insights by the application of creativity and thereby the acquisition of critical transversal skills for the future labor market for the students.