Nurturing leaders of social entrepreneurship: The impact of 3ID LABS
Curious about how innovative educational programmes are shaping the future leaders of social entrepreneurship? 3ID LABS is a multidisciplinary Living Lab at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), Ghent, fostering sustainable and social entrepreneurship. This ground-breaking initiative is more than a course – it’s a hub of creativity, collaboration, and real-world impact, transforming students into self-directed professionals who are well-equipped to tackle complex societal issues. It has been recognised for its efforts and stands as a beacon of inspiration.
3ID LABS at a glance
The programme focuses on addressing complex societal issues using Human Centred Design and a lifelong learning approach, where super-diverse teams from all over the world, with different professions and ages create solutions, whilst individuals within these teams, learn how to become self-directive professionals. The 3ID LABS approach to learning is rooted in Kolb’s experiential learning framework, the lab studio model (Heikkinen K.-P. , 2018; Heikkinen, Sëppänen, & Isokangas, 2016) and entrepreneurial learning model (Rae, 2005) and emphasises hands-on education.
With their transdisciplinary and comprehensive approach, 3ID LABS fosters professional competency development, practical applicability, and user and stakeholder engagement, leading to benefits for individuals, communities, and society. The 3ID LABS programme is built into the formal curriculum of the university and offers participants 30 ECTS credits. The lab has a strong support system consisting of lab coaches who act as learning facilitators, and experts in intercultural communication.
At the close of the programme students demonstrate their proficiency through the EntreComp portfolio exam, where they present evidence of their skills and knowledge. Students also retain ownership over their final concepts and own the IP for anything created within the programme.
The inspiration to launch this initiative stemmed from educators at AUAS’s frustration at seeing students graduate without feeling confident to enter the workforce. This frustration was further fuelled by feedback from companies indicating that students need to be more proactive and better trained in interpersonal skills. Additionally, the concept was propelled by the desire of educators to see the top 10 skills needed in the workplace by 2030, as outlined by the World Economic Forum, reflected in their teaching practices.
Local impact
In addition to its diversity and global reach, the programme focusses on creating tangible impacts for society, with a particular local focus on the city of Ghent; all the cases that students work with are real life challenges from the surrounding region. For instance, students have created a repair café in collaboration with elderly people who are experiencing loneliness and collaborated with the city of Ghent to organise a winter food festival, promoting the consumption of plant-based and locally sourced food. As well as, establishing a creative hub to support socially disadvantaged youth in one of Ghent’s neighbourhoods.
Partnerships are key to the success of 3ID LABS. Close ties with the city of Ghent, the university’s research department, and various public and private organisations enrich the initiatives. Furthermore, 3ID LABS partner with the Flemish labour association VDAB, offering their program as a standard option for highly trained newcomers in Belgium, facilitating professional networking opportunities and integration into their new country.
Inspiring others
3ID LABS serves as a best practice for education innovation within their institution. They provide train-the-trainer courses to empower other educators at the university to integrate entrepreneurial and innovative approaches into their teaching practices. Furthermore, 3ID LABS’ expertise in learning within a living lab setting has been documented in the book “Learning in a Living Lab: Learning What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do” by Mirthe van den Hee, Lieven Desomviele, Zac Woolfitt, and Isabelle Vandevyvere.
3ID LABS exemplifies a pioneering approach to education that merges sustainability and social entrepreneurship with real-world impact and lifelong learning. Regardless of their age or professional background, 3ID LABS equips students with the skills and confidence needed to navigate changing job markets and address complex societal issues, both individually and collaboratively.
Ready for more?
Find out more about the initiative from Lieven DeSomeviele, Lab Master and Daria Kisina, current labber at 3ID LABS in our podcast Empowering innovators and discovering their potential at 3ID LABS. Or find out more about living labs for the local ecosystem in our article The power of transdisciplinary approaches to urban challenges
Lieven Desomviele is a Labmaster at 3ID LABS at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences.
Tasha Day (author) is a Project officer at UIIN, where she undertakes research activities and creates content on a wide variety of topics including entrepreneurship education, sustainability and research valorisation.
