“It’s only logical that an international jury evaluates the results.”
3ID LABS
THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION www.arteveldehogeschool.be/3IDLABS
Lieven Desomviele, Creativity coach
ARTEVELDE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE FORGES RELATIONSHIPS DURING STATE VISIT
WITH THE KING TO CANADA “The 3ID Labs participants come from all over the world, so it is only logical that an international jury evaluates their results,” says creativity coach Lieven Desomviele. “For this, we collaborate with experts from Ryerson University in Toronto, among others. We established contact with this partner in March 2018.” Together with eight colleagues from Artevelde University College Ghent, Desomviele went to Canada for a week in the wake of King Philippe. “Such a state visit certainly opens doors,” says rector Tomas Legrand, who also travelled along. “The fact that we were part of the academic delegation with the royal visit was very much noticed by the universities and university colleges we visited. The trip offered a unique opportunity to meet our partners in person. Very inspiring and stimulating to further develop collaborations.”
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A group of international students—young and old—from a variety of study programmes spend one semester working on a solution to a concrete social challenge. This is 3ID Labs, a new educational experience in Flanders, launched by Artevelde University College Ghent in 2018.
each other.” And this is the essence of the programme. “It’s not so much about the developed end result—a service or a product—but about how they get there: acquiring professional competencies and 21st-century skills. And about learning how to set and achieve their own goals as well, of course.”
“The students work on real cases submitted by external organisations,” says ‘lab master’ Isabelle Vandevyvere (photo). “They get to work in small teams using a design-thinking approach. The students themselves need to take the initiative to acquire the missing knowledge. They can do so by consulting existing literature, but they can also organise workshops for
PIONEERS In September 2018, eighteen pioneers participated in the first edition of 3ID Labs. “The group was an eclectic mix of seven nationalities—from a Brazilian to a Russian—between the ages of 19 and 53, from ‘regular’ students to jobseekers in a VDAB track, professionals and a few non-Dutch speaking newcomers. Each student
approaches a case from his own point of view and with his own luggage. The diversity of the group is therefore also its strength.” INNOVATIVE AND RELEVANT The results of the first 3ID Labs perfectly illustrate that the approach works: a tool that matches highly skilled migrants with Belgian companies, an app that helps vulnerable people find pro bono lawyers, and an online platform that helps young people in detention to obtain their diploma via the central examining board. Each of these is innovative and socially relevant. The second edition of 3ID Labs was launched in February 2019. We’re very much interested in the results!
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