Students included on the Lohi shopping centre management team

Laurea University of Applied Sciences and the Suur-Seutu Cooperative Society (SSO), which operates in western Uusimaa and the Salo region, have worked together for a long time. In 2018, SSO contributed to a Laurea fundraising campaign with a donation of EUR 10,000, which SSO wanted put towards the development of education and creating the conditions for business success in the region.

The cooperation between SSO and Laurea took concrete form when Laurea’s new campus was opened in the summer of 2019 in the Lohi shopping centre, which is located in the city centre of Lohja. This type of shopping centre campus is unique in Finland. Cooperation was further intensified in the autumn of 2020, when Laurea and SSO signed a key partnership agreement.

Because the UAS campus is located in a shopping centre, it is natural to have students participate in developing the shopping centre's activities. For this reason, the Lohi shopping centre allowed students to serve on its management team, and eight enthusiastic business students were selected to participate in the management team's work based on applications and interviews.

The Lohi shopping centre management team monitors the attractiveness, profitability and development trends of the shopping centre, such as information obtained from meetings with tenants. Based on this data, the management team will consider development measures for the shopping centre and continue to report SSO management.

Students attend the shopping centre management team meetings approximately once a month. In the autumn, students also examine, for example, the profiles and purchasing habits of shoppers at Lohi as well as develop marketing and event planning.

- Involving students in the management team is one example of how we want to better understand the needs of young customers. The students, on the other hand, gain valuable experience in the field of business, which is win-win situation, says SSO Business Location Manager, Mika Tolppola, who heads the management team.

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