Explorer will help you experiment entrepreneurship as a career option. During 12 weeks you will be working on your idea and turning it into a solution that contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. With a practical focus and based on social learning dynamics, Explorer is designed so that participants become actors of change through the building of economically sustainable projects in different industries, sectors and types of organisations. You can participate on your own or as part of a team.
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Explorer
DATES
Jan 25 to April 25, 2021
LENGHT
12 weeks (8-10 hours/week)
PRICE
Free. Financed by Santander Universidades
LANGUAGE
Spanish/English
FORMAT
Semi-online or 100% online -depending on what the Explorer Space you choose establishes-.
PROGRAMME OUTLINE
Get Ready
Week 1
In the first week of the programme, you will learn how to organise yourself as part of a team and/or community, to examine the ethics that should surround any project, and you will get ready to explore the potential of your idea through a framework where shared knowledge and peer-to-peer learning will play an essential role. All this guided by your Coordinator, who will connect you with your Xcout (mentor), and will be with you every step of the way along the 12 weeks, helping you in difficult times and celebrating your achievements with you.
Research
Weeks 2 & 3
In these two weeks, through different research processes, you will identify your potential customer and will build your value proposition, placing the people you want to help in the middle.
Fix & Build
Weeks 4-9
In these 6 weeks, you will learn how to build a minimum viable product and to prototype your solution, while you work towards putting your proposal before your audience through the latest marketing and communication techniques.
Monetize
Weeks 10-11
At this point of the programme you will be able to choose between two learning itineraries. The first one focused on projects that want to keep an organic growth, controlled by the founders, the so-called “bootstrapping” in the entrepreneurial world. The second one focused on projects that need outside investment in order to grow and keep going. In both cases you will learn about business models and investment options, as well as to develop your project budgets.
Storytelling
Week 12
You will learn how to communicate your solution. To your customers, to your potential partners, investors, and, above all, to the people who are going to decide whether you (and your team if you have one) are taking part of the Explorer fellows cohort who will enjoy a week of immersion training at a European entrepreneurial hub in the summer of 2021 to continue the Explorer experience intensively. You will choose final destination collaboratively with the rest of Explorers throughout the 12 weeks.
GOALS
By the end of the 12 weeks, and if all planned activities are carried out, you will be able to launch a prototype or simple version of your project. Besides:
You will understand the changing context where we are as a society with COVID-19 and will develop your creative thinking focused on finding solutions for the “new normal”.
You will display your purpose and values, you will explore your boundaries and understand your potential.
You will learn to understand the needs of your potential customers and empathise with them.
You will identify and learn the latest techniques and tools to communicate with your audience.
You will get a range of skills (the so-called ‘soft skills’) that will always go with you and will help you thrive in any professional environment.
You will connect with young people like you, who want to do things to improve their society.
You will practice and improve your English skills in an actual environment.
And, above all, you are going to try. Be fearless. Because here you have the chance to make mistakes.
1. Age
Young people aged 18-31, eager to make a positive impact in the world.
2. Students
Any student who wants to understand the benefits and opportunities the entrepreneurial world offers in a safe environment where mistakes are allowed and no previous knowledge about business is required in order to keep going.
3. Techies
Techies who want to experiment with their solution and explorer the possibilities of turning it into a global project.
4. Humanities
Humanities students who want to transform their passion into their livelihood building a sustainable project.
5. Digital Nomads
Digital nomads who want to explore the world taking their business with them and enjoying remote work.
6. Researchers
Researchers and academics who want to make sustainable businesses out of their findings.
7. Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs who want to validate if their solutions can have an impact on society.
METHODOLOGY AND ACTIVITIES
Explorer is designed in a way it can be adapted to the uncertain context created by the COVID-19. Although it is mainly an online programme, there are some activities happening on site at the Explorer Space. These are adjustable to a virtual scenario should lockdown happen or small gatherings and seating capacity reduced.
What is learning like in Explorer?
- On site or virtual sessions with the Coordinator at your Explorer Space. Your Coordinator will be with you at every moment to guide you and help you advance.
- Sessions with your Xcout (mentor). Your Coordinator will get you in touch with him/her at the beginning of the programme.
- Digital contents aimed at completing challenges and working templates you will shape your project with.
- Video call sessions with training experts who will help you complete your assigned weekly tasks.
- Online sessions with top entrepreneurs who will inspire you with their success and failure stories.
- Online working space where you will find every participant from your edition and Alumni from previous editions, where social, cooperative, peer-to-peer learning is key.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A Certificate of Completion for the projects that successfully complete all activities in the programme.
Explorer Trip: Intensive, immersive experience and training for the group of projects selected at each Explorer Space. One-week trip in the summer of 2021 to a European innovation hub for the cohort of Fellow Explorers: all the members of the selected team at each Explorer Space.
● Community: Access to a global community of young innovators that will grow edition after edition with the incorporation of American and European Explorer Spaces.
IS EXPLORER FOR YOU?
Definitely. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Explorer is. Emprender no es para todo el mundo, Explorer sí. Give yourself 12 weeks to try, to make mistakes, to learn, to get inspired, but, above all, to transform your idea into something tangible, find out if it could be a potential livelihood and to do it accompanied by people like you, who do not settle for the current state of things. Nobody knows what the future will bring. In an uncertain world, everything is possible. Allow yourself to do things, come to Explorer.
HOW TO ENROLL
Fill out the application form with your project information and your details. Remember to fully explain your motivation to participate in the programme. If you apply as part of a team, each member of the team should fill out their own forms, and only the leader of the team will have to indicate that he/she is the leader in the application. This is very important for us to be able to properly process the selection of your project. If a project has more than one leader in the application process, it will be automatically discarded.
Choose the Explorer Space you want to carry out the programme at.
If you are shortlisted, the Coordinator at your Explorer Space might get in touch with you to invite you to a personal interview, if he/she deems it so.
Your seat and your team’s (if you have one) will be confirmed when the person leading the project shows as “Admitted” on his/her Santander X profile.
¡You are an Explorer! As of now, your Coordinator will give you instructions to begin the programme and you will also get access to the online working space where the rest of Explorers are.
Promueve
Dirige y coordina
