Significant EU funding for renewing sales education at Indonesian and Thai universities
The sales education at higher education institutions in Indonesia and Thailand will be developed with the help of a joint European project. The project coordinated by Turku University of Applied Sciences received EUR 1M funding from the EU Erasmus+ programme for education development.
Text and photo: Martti Komulainen
The aim of the South-East Asian Sales Competition (SEASAC) project is to improve the quality of the sales education at higher education institutions in Indonesia and Thailand to correspond with the European level as well as to develop sales studies to be more student-centric and practically oriented. Cooperation with companies will also be emphasized. Later on, the intention is to expand the education to other parts of Southeast Asia.
Stronger business-to-business (B2B) experts will increase the competitive advantage and help target countries face the challenges of global trade.
The project sets about renewing sales curricula to respond to the competence needs arising from working life.
One method in sales education is a sales competition, which TUAS and Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences have utilized in their sales studies for years. In a sales competition, the skills of higher education students are evaluated in a buyer-salesperson roleplay. This kind of a contest originated in the USA where sales competitions have been used as a learning method for over a decade. The competition helps improve negotiation skills and the ability to listen to the needs of the customer.
The competition represents the practice oriented learning approach called innovation pedagogy, developed at TUAS and registered as Innopeda®. In addition to being practice oriented, its key feature is to highlight innovation and team working competences. This approach differs from the teacher-centred learning prevailing in Southeastern Asia by emphasizing the active role of students.
The South‐East Asian Sales Competition (SEASAC) project is implemented by, in addition to TUAS, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (Finland), other European and Asian higher education institutions as well as the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization’s Regional Learning Centre (SEAMOLEC). The 3-year project is funded by the EU Erasmus+ programme. Turku University of Applied Sciences has solid knowhow in projects for developing education and it is the most successful Finnish university in terms of Erasmus funding.