International project work builds valuable skills – “This felt like a small internship”

Laurea has a unique concept of offering business administration studies solely based on real-life projects. Students learn project management in projects that develop solutions for real working-life needs. This spring, projects were carried out together with higher education institutions in the PIONEER alliance, giving students even more opportunities to learn international, multidisciplinary teamwork.

Laurea’s project-based model praised by corporate partner Peikko

Students were given a sustainability-related business challenge by the Finnish company Peikko Group, an international business that develops and manufactures construction products and connection solutions, such as beams for building projects. Peikko has taken part in many student projects internationally, and the company has gained many useful ideas and insights for further development.

“We find new talent, get to know students, and gain fresh ways of thinking,” says Communications Manager Anu Unelius, listing the benefits of working with students.

Product Manager Diego Ferrer gives the students’ solutions praise for taking into account the whole production process and business model.

“The students’ ideas were really good. I was actually surprised by how much effort they had put into the assignment,” Ferrer says.

Laurea’s international, work-life-oriented project model has earned recognition from Peikko. Working in an international team is seen as an important professional skill.

“If a student gains international experience during their studies, it becomes much easier for them to step into working life and adapt to it,” says Ferrer.

International teams finalized their spring projects during the PIONEER intensive week at Laurea.

International teams working on their projects during the PIONEER intensive week at Laurea.

Multidisciplinary teamwork enriches the learning experience

Throughout the spring, students worked in international teams on challenges based on Peikko’s needs. The collaboration culminated in an intensive week organized by Laurea under the theme Future of Sustainable Buildings and Cities. Students from PIONEER alliance institutions in Slovakia, Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands came to Laurea for the event.

Jani Heiskanen, who studies project management at Laurea’s Hyvinkää campus, is enthusiastic about working in a multidisciplinary international team. For him, the best part of project work is learning together and co-creating solutions.

“I don’t need to be a specialist or know everything. What matters more is learning how to apply other people’s knowledge. The international students had engineering and construction expertise that complemented Laurea students’ business knowledge,” Heiskanen says, summarizing the nature of multidisciplinary project work.

Sep Luttikholt, an architecture student from the Netherlands, says that Laurea’s project-based approach was an important learning experience because it required him to apply his skills in a new way. At his home institution, Avans University of Applied Sciences, studies are more theory-focused and do not involve company-based project work in the same way as at Laurea. Luttikholt says he learned more about business through the project.

“This was like a small internship. At first, we had to understand what we knew and what we didn’t know in order to develop new solutions,” says Luttikholt.

Student projects from the PIONEER intensive week were presented on April 21, 2026, at Laurea’s Hyvinkää campus as part of the traditional project seminar held at the end of each semester.

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