DNA – Digital Academy for Entrepreneurs
The Digital Academy for Entrepreneurs is a free online course offered by DNA and the Finnish Institute for Enterprise Management. Academy is open to all entrepreneurs and small businesses to acquire the digital skills needed to run their own business and enable the company’s digital leap.
Purpose
The Digital Academy for Entrepreneurs provides small businesses and entrepreneurs a way to grow through hands-on lessons that help them reach their customers and develop their business efficiently, securely, and profitably.
The main goal is to provide entrepreneurs with information and further learning about the basics of digital business that will be of concrete benefit to them in their own business. The Academy has the following courses, among others: Cyber Security Social Media, Devices, Cloud Services, Economics and Growth Marketing. These courses cover, among other things, the basics of GDPR regulations, creating an advertising campaign on Facebook, and the basics of cybersecurity.
Results
More than 2,700 participants, which is 1% of all Finnish entrepreneurs, have completed the Digital Academy courses by April 2021. There are many more participants who have taken only individual courses. The range of courses is expanding and evolving, and the courses are open to both entrepreneurs who have not participated before and to those who want to update their knowledge after the publication of new courses. The digital nature of the Academy makes it possible for practically everyone who is interested to take part in it and be able to carry out their own schedule flexibly just when it suites them best and learn exactly what is essential to them.
Implementation
DNA and the Finnish Institute for Enterprise Management jointly created an online course for small businesses and entrepreneurs, which allows participants to learn useful skills for running their business. The course includes lessons of about 6-8 hours and can be completed just when it suits participants best. Lessons can be viewed either as videos or read as text. All participants need to complete the course is their own computer, tablet or smartphone.
At DNA’s Entrepreneur Digital Academy, an entrepreneur receives important practical advice and information about their business. Courses are currently (4.5.2021) available on information security, social media, cloud tools, growth marketing, hardware and finance. Security lessons provide guidelines for improving the security of hardware, customer data, and software. In a social media-focused lesson, the participant becomes acquainted with the most important things for an entrepreneur, such as social media advertising and the basics of algorithms. Classes on cloud tools cover the use of cloud services in customer service, administration and project management, as well as examples of useful cloud tools and how to purchase them. Growth marketing lessons give the entrepreneur valuable tips on how to promote the company’s growth through marketing, and finance lessons explain where to get financing and what to consider when applying for financing. Device-focused lessons cover all the essentials about mobile devices and tools to support the entrepreneurs’ business, as well as, for example, mobile payment devices and how to buy devices for their business.
I believe this is a great way to contribute to the digitization process of all businesses, especially those SMEs, family owned, solopreneurs, who are not having a high budget to invest in quality digitization services. It is really commendable and if the company has all the resources to create interesting and useful online learning materials or to provide on-site support, then it is really on a path to success. Perhaps a bit clarity on what is the criteria to select its clients would help here.
Offering free, high quality and comprehensive, online training material to entrepreneurs and small businesses in order to develop new competences in the area of digital solutions and digital business helps the transformation towards new data and online driven business models and may offer totally new business opportunities and new ways to engage with customers. This planet act is scalable to all organizations that are able or want to offer online learning content, but requires specific competences in online learning material development and delivery as well as investment into the design and development of the learning solution.
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