CORKSCREW
& EDUCATORS
DID YOU KNOW?
On average, employees will need 101 days a year of training and upskilling in the period up to 2022.
75 million of current jobs may be displaced by the shift in the division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms. 133 million new job roles may emerge at the same time.
Human skills such as creativity, initiative, critical thinking, resilience, flexibility and complex problem-solving will retain or increase their value in 2022.
FUTURE PROOFING STUDENTS THROUGH CORKSCREW THINKING
It is proven that the 4th industrial revolution has created a skills gap of 1 million positions not getting filled on the American job market in the past year. Help your students become more employable by implementing corkscrew thinking in your institution. With a total of 7 years of experience connecting students and educational institutions with startups, Corkscrew has the confidence to say that we can help your students make a smooth transition from the classroom into the professional working environment.
Our team is daily working alongside the international startup community. Constantly taking the pulse on trends, markets and the global economy. We provide ready made programs, easy to implement and tweak depending on the needs of your students. And the best part is that we are disrupting the traditional internship approach by having your students develop critical skills to prepare them for the future of work. Corkscrew is making your students do real work for real companies. Free from digital dirty work and coffee runs. We provide the projects, the tools, the coaching and the safe spaces for them to make mistakes. Nothing more, nothing less.
OUR PROGRAMS
Over the years we have developed different ways of incorporating Corkscrew Thinking in learning environments across the globe. Today your students can own their future while doing a Corkscrew program on campus, in one of our partnered co-work spaces abroad, or through their computer – working remotely. We have programs both for groups and for individuals. Read more about our bespoke partnerships below and decide what works best for your institution and your students.
EXPERIENCESHIP
4 weeks – Micro Internship Abroad – Business Startup – Critical Transferable Skills
45% of students today don’t know what they want to do after graduation, mainly because they have never set foot in a workplace. And frankly, how are they supposed to know what’s out there if they’ve never experienced it?
We created the Experienceship for students to get a taste of different industries, gain real work experience and start owning their future.
What is an Experienceship?
The Experienceship is a 4 week program run from co-working spaces across the globe. Anywhere from the creative startup capital of Barcelona to sunny California. Students can enter both as a group or as unique individuals.
The program provides students with work experience through real client projects, self brand development and the opportunity to create their very own startup in the growing gig-economy. All this is done through the process of corkscrew thinking where the participants deconstruct the traditional solutions to a problem, reconfigure and bring their mind outside of the box to come up with new solutions and then implement those solutions in the real world. All this with support from our Corkscrew coaches.
The Experinceship gives students an insight into remote working, the gig economy and an opportunity to put everything they’ve learned at school into real context while working with real startups.
INDUSTRY IMMERSIONS
3 weeks – Industry Specific – Micro Internship Abroad – Thought Leaders – Self Brand
Are you looking for a traditional internship for your students? Then this program is not for you.
We took the traditional internship and gave it a twist. No more coffee runs or digital dirty work. We will provide your students with what an internship is supposed to be – which is learning critical thinking skills and developing creative problem solving all while working on projects that benefit a real client in industry
What is an Industry Immersion?
The corkscrew immersion program introduces students to a specific industry to gain an insight into a particular sector, from marketing to engineering, project management and beyond. They’ll learn critical skills through live micro-internships and meet experienced professionals that will allow them to ensure they’re prepared to take their first steps into their chosen career.
Depending on your students specialty, Corkscrew will take them to a relevant and innovative location across the world in order to be fully immersed in the industry. All this with the support of our Corkscrew coaches.
(Pictured above: Student site visit to BuzzFeed New York offices)
What locations and immersions do we provide?
New York, Marketing
Are your students looking to start a career in marketing? Then we send them to the business capital of New York and enroll them in our Marketing Immersion Program to let them collect valuable marketing experience.
Barcelona, Startup
Do they have an entrepreneurial mindset and want to kick start their own business? Then the Startup Immersion in the creative city of Barcelona is where they should go.
Cape Town, Social Enterprise
Is Social Enterprise their passion? Go make a difference in Cape Town.
London, Engineering
Are they tech savy or maybe on the STEM side of their studies? Then Corkscrew offers them an Engineering Immersion in London.
INTERNSHIP GUIDE
Self Brand – Networking – Remote Corkscrew Coaching – Digital And Physical Guide
Are your students sure what they want to do next for their career path, but don’t know how to get there due to tough competition, lack of confidence or maybe they just don’t know where to start?
Instead of having your students turning to a third party internship provider – get your students the Corkscrew Guide to Internships so that they do not miss out on taking ownership of their future.
What is the Corkscrew Thinkers Guide to Internships?
We believe that the lessons and experience of a student sourcing their own internship is critical for future success and thriving in the 4th Industrial Revolution. Therefore we have developed a guide with activities, examples, case studies and alternatives to get students approach internships with a corkscrew thinking mindset. This means having the creativity and courage to challenge the status quo.
Why do things the way they have always been done, when you can do them differently?
By following the Internship Guide and developing a corkscrew thinking approach, students will learn how to understand their work values and to find organisations that share these values. They will learn about their self brand and how to develop networking skills to secure not just their internship, but future jobs in a competitive market.
The Internship Guide is for any student who is looking to take on an internship. Remote Corkscrew coaching is at the students disposal if they need some support in the process.
STARTUP DESIGN CHALLENGE
Team Learning – Problem Solving – Creative Confidence – Startup Design – Career Exploration
Are you looking for a student startup event that includes all participants equally and that focuses on every step of the startup process instead of the final product aka “the shiny pitch deck”? Then keep on reading.
Unlike traditional startup events whereby the focus is often on accelerated growth of pre-made business ideas and investor ready pitch decks, Corkscrew’s Startup Design Challenge start at the very beginning of the startup process with problem-first ideation. Through divergent and convergent thinking and reframing perspective, participants are guided through an ideation process which takes them from a seemingly overwhelming problem, through to micro-solutions which take the form of business ideas. Once the teams have collaboratively ideated and have the seed of a business idea, they can then work to validate as many assumptions about their idea as possible to determine whether it is feasible.
Want to know more about Startup Design Challenge? Click here to read a case study.
TAILORED INNOVATION PLUG-IN
Built In Curriculum Internship – Remote Consultancy Projects – Business Innovation – Abroad
Do you feel like your cohort is lacking work experience incorporated in their curriculum? That a traditional internship does not guarantee students to come out with the critical skills and mindsets required in the world of work today?
Then this Tailored Innovation Plug-In is for your cohort. This program allows students to use and develop critical skills by working remotely and in person with two industry projects throughout the academic year. Both on campus and abroad.
What’s it all about?
The Innovation Plug-In is currently run from the innovative startup capital Barcelona, Spain. The program has two main elements. The first part is based on remote client work for a startup in Barcelona – true freelancer style to gain remote working skills crucial to thrive in the future of work.
The students have to approach their project with a Corkscrew thinking mindset. Look at how their client has been doing things so far, deconstruct it, challenge it and create innovative solutions that are relevant for the industry of the client.
The program runs the full length of a semester and culminates with a trip to Barcelona where students present the results and the implementation plan to the local startup in Barcelona, the client.
While in Barcelona, students are introduced to a second challenge proposed from a local organisation in order to develop innovative solutions to tackle pressing issues for the organisation.
BESPOKE PROGRAMS
Shared Materials – Need Specific – On Campus – Remotely – In Person – Custom Made
Corkscrew Thinking is an approach to a problem, it requires creativity and courage to challenge the status quo. We believe being a corkscrew thinker and a lifelong learner is key to thriving in the 4th Industrial Revolution.
We are always looking to inspire new corkscrew thinkers across the globe and partnering with universities allows us to help students gain these critical skills. All our programs have been created with this in mind and we are always looking to create more.
Is the corkscrew thinking approach something that you’d like to introduce to your students?
Then we are happy to give you an introduction by sharing our materials. Or if you want to go the extra mile, why not build a custom program together with us to fit the needs of your students or faculty?
Reach out to Cece at university@corkscrew.io to talk to her more about how Corkscrew can help you prepare your students for the modern world of work.
CURRENT PARTNERS
Throughout the years, Corkscrew have built strong connections with educational institutions all over the world. We never would have made it this far without them. Click on the logos below to find out how we partnered with the institutes and how working with Corkscrew benefited their students.
CARTHAGE COLLEGE
(Pictured above: Carthage College Students in Barcelona 2019)
Jennifer Madden
Director, Master of Business & Innovation Program at Carthage College, Wisconsin USA
Carthage is sending their third cohort to Barcelona in May 2020 to do a capstone on their Master of Business & Innovation program.
The program director, Jennifer Madden has together with Corkscrew developed a program where students get to practise critical skills for the modern job market. Skills such as project management, team learning, creativity, critical thinking and remote working skills.
Over 6 months the students will work in teams on client projects alongside their master studies, the whole program culminates in a 7 day Capstone in Barcelona where the students will pitch back to the clients in a live setting.
What value is added to the MBI by having a Corkscrew experience built into it?
The Corkscrew experience allows the students to apply the skills that they have learnt throughout the year into a real world scenario. The students get to use their new skill sets, apply them on a business that then can take that information and use it to develop their organization. There is something super powerful about being immersed and super engaged in this work that you can’t get from just reading case studies, listening to stories about other people’s similar experiences. To learn you need to be there and do the work, hands on!
Corkscrew and myself have also created a competitive advantage for the students going into the future workplace, where they can reach back to a real life experience and demonstrate how they have made an impact for real businesses.
Why did you choose to work with Corkscrew?
The power of working with Corkscrew was that they realised the newness of our masters program and the potential impact that the program could achieve. Corkscrew were able to give us a platform to rapidly apply our skill sets but also awaken the knowledge that all of it was possible.
What did Corkscrew bring to the table for your cohort?
Corkscrew provided connections to a group of startup businesses to work with my cohort, individual team coaching, communication facilitation, helping students overcome any language barriers and cultivate remote working skills.
Watch the video interview below to hear how Corkscrew partnered with Carthage College through a tailored capstone program.
EXETER UNIVERSITY
(Students pitching at HATCH Startup Design Challenge 2019)
Emily Davies, SETsquared Student Startup Manager
Exeter, United Kingdom
University of Exeter is located in Exeter, Devon, South West of England in the United Kingdom and is ranked among the 150 best universities in the world for 2020. Corkscrew was once founded in Exeter so it became natural for us to make a local impact and partner up with the University of Exeter and the SETsquared department of the university in 2016.
How are you working with Corkscrew today?
Corkscrew have come in to give guest talks as part of our core Startup Toolkit workshop series; to offer insight and training on areas such as Ideation and Market Validation. We recently collaborated with Corkscrew to create a new Startup Design Challenge called HATCH. This is an intensive 2.5 day event designed to ignite new startup ideas from a problem-first perspective and to teach participants how to test and validate their ideas to ensure they are creating viable, sustainable new enterprises.
Why did you decide to partner with Corkscrew?
The Corkscrew team have a great energy and connect really well with our students and recent graduates. They also share the values that we strive to promote through our Startup programmes at the University of Exeter: to challenge the status quo, to develop new startup ideas from a problem-first perspective, to put purpose front and centre, to stimulate and encourage creativity and to nurture new business ideas.
What value have your students gained from the Corkscrew experiences so far?
Our students have gained new connections. They have developed their creativity and confidence. The students have also received support in exploring, testing and validating their ideas.
UCI
Ian Gibson
Associate Dean at UC Irvine Division of Continuing Education, California, USA
UCI has been partnering with Corkscrew for the past 2 years, offering the Experienceship on campus. The program is offered to domestic and international learners from UCI and our global network of partnered Universities. The Experienceship runs for 4 weeks during the summer break and is the perfect transition from education to work.
Why did UCI decide to partner with Corkscrew?
As the continuing education division of UC Irvine we are constantly looking for the best programs to boost our students employability. The Corkscrew approach gave us the opportunity to do so, as well as to differentiate our offering from competitors.
What value has Corkscrew contributed with to your campus?
Corkscrew has contributed to our campus by introducing a new methodology in the field of internships, very hands on and experiential and focused on the skills needed for the 4th Industrial Revolution. Corkscrew’s approach to help students develop their professional experience is more scalable and allows us to have another revenue source for the division.
Who would you recommend to partner with Corkscrew?
I would recommend Corkscrew to any institution that is forward thinking and wants to boost their student’s employability in the modern world of work.
Corkscrew contributed with a great program to our campus and they also shared their expertise with us, which we did not have the time or resources to gain on our own.
IHM BUSINESS SCHOOL
(Pictured above: Neil Finnie, Corkscrew founder & IHM Business School students during pitch day)
Lena Flodin
Former Program Director, IHM Business School, Stockholm, Sweden
I have been working with Corkscrew for 5 years; offering the Experienceship program to students studying higher vocational programs on a college level from Stockholm and Gothenburg in Sweden. Students have been traveling from Sweden to Exeter to work from several co-working spaces and gain valuable work experience to help them take their first steps on a new career path.
Why did you choose to work with Corkscrew?
Corkscrew was the obvious choice for me because of their unique approach of doing things. If you are used to doing something one way, Corkscrew makes you do it differently – or at least add a twist to it. Corkscrew empowers people to step away from the linear way of thinking and step outside of the box. Students get to build the courage to implement innovative ideas in the modern world, which is a priceless experience for students today.
What value have your students gained from the Corkscrew experiences so far?
The value I have seen my students gain from going on an Experienceship with Corkscrew is; international consulting experience within different industries, improving their creative problem solving skills and learning how to work well with people they don’t know. Another thing I see as great value is that several graduates have gone on to launch their own businesses after the experienceship with Corkscrew, this makes me so proud to see. Corkscrew added that extra value that the traditional educational system could not provide – and that’s priceless.
Below are some more institutes that we have partnered with or coached students from. We’ve worked with educational institutions to offer their students an alternative to traditional internships, coaching to help develop critical skills and created bespoke programs that fit flexibly around students fixed learnings.
MEET YOUR CORKSCREW CONTACT
CECILICA NILSSON
Meet Cece! She is the head of relationships and business development at Corkscrew. Her Corkscrew journey started 2 years ago when she flew from Sweden to the UK to take part in a Corkscrew Experienceship. A year later her spanish skills, in combination with her passion to make a change, brought her to work with Corkscrew in Barcelona and she hasn’t looked back since.
Cece is constantly immersed in the ever changing educational world. She reguarly keeps digital and in person conversations with educators and career advisors to stay on top of how together we can help students own their future.
Are you passionate about the future of education? Want to chat about our programs on offer? Get in touch with Cece below, she’s is always up for a chat!
WHAT NEXT?
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