Oh my, seeing how many years have passed in our collaboration is incredible. Once again, we are honored to be part of such an amazing journey. It was only possible with the help of our dear colleagues and professors. We greatly thank Antun Biloš, PhD, Full professor, and Bruno Budimir, mag.oec., Research and teaching assistant, for the given trust in all these years. Before discussing our side of the story and the things we cherish, here is what the professor said.
Antun Biloš: We want to express our gratitude to Inchoo for our long-lasting collaboration as a part of the collegium E-trgovina. Throughout the last six years of cooperation, Inchoo’s contribution was exceptional, putting in the time, effort, and sources to convey their experience to our students and awaken interest in this industry.
It is invaluable for our students to have the chance to integrate theory with examples from the real business environment, which experts in the field convey. Also, through this project, students fight for student internships in Inchoo as well as for financial awards, which in most students encourages additional interest in this course and this sector.
Inchoo’s practice allows students to apply their knowledge, gain experience, and expand the skills needed to work in that field. Except for the students, this collaboration brings enriching experiences to the teaching staff through lectures from experts in the field that allows us to follow the trends in the industry easier.
In the name of the Faculty of Economics in Osijek, we’d like to thank the Inchoo team for this collaboration. It demonstrates our dedication to connecting theory with practice and strengthens our reputation as a higher education institution that produces capable experts in the business world.
During this period, we had an opportunity to meet numerous great students, teach them, and also learn a thing or two about younger generations. In previous years, some of those students became our Interns and full-time employees thanks to their hard work and dedication. That’s why we’re always happy to return to the same faculty some of us graduated from. We caught a few words from a colleague who graduated from the same faculty.
Lucija Kovačević: As a former student of the college, it was my honor to teach students for the second year in a row. It was exciting but also challenging to be in that role. The students were outstanding. I was very glad to see the level of responsibility, dedication, and knowledge they showed us during the collegium.
Practice Makes Perfect
Judging by their results, we can safely say our plan to motivate students who attended this year’s lectures worked. In total, 75 of them decided to participate. It was a pleasure to read their answers and to understand their point of view better.
Altogether, we held five lectures after our introduction: How to Choose an eCommerce Platform, UX & UI Design, Google Analytics, Search Engine Optimization, and PPC Advertising. We want to thank this year’s lecturers as well: Zoran Vorkapić, Tomislav Bilić, Josip Miškić, Lucija Kovačević, and Lucija Majstrović for their effort to bring our work closer to students. They ensured students got a glimpse of our business practice while attending their lectures.
After each of our guest lectures, students had to showcase their knowledge on an online test. The best ones got the assignment to choose a platform, design, and marketing strategy and explain their choices. Altogether, they had to prepare a fictional webshop with the elements we learned about together and present it to their professors and us. We admit it was a challenging task, but no students were harmed in this action :).
After the presentations, we chose the winners and rewarded them. One of the rewards is the opportunity to join us for a summer internship. That is where they can learn how to use the knowledge they acquired at the university and our lectures in day-to-day business. We’ll explain some of our daily tasks, and afterward, they’ll get a series of assignments. At the end of their practice, students will prepare a presentation explaining what they have learned while spending time with us. And we’ll have a great time as well.
Partnering with Links for student’s prizes
As we previously said, we offered three of the best students a paid summer internship where they will deepen their knowledge of eCommerce by spending four weeks with us.
The top three students also received a gift card at Links, a retailer specializing in IT and home products, and our hardware partner. When presenting this idea to our partner, they joined this project with us and doubled the gift card amount. This way, we’d like to thank Links for their involvement in student rewards.
It’s not just students that walk through this experience and learn. It’s us, as well. Every year we get to hang out and work with some of the best students, some of whom work for us later. So it’s a win-win situation.
Last but not least
What an amazing project that we’re always excited to take part in. We already thanked professors and our partners; now is the right time to thank all participating students. We appreciate all the hard work you’ve put in in the last few months. Being a guest lecturer, reading your answers, and learning more about you was a pleasure.
Ultimately, we’d like to thank this year’s winners, Nives Klasan, Marija Dujmenović, and Valentina Batrac, who showed amazing potential and discipline while tackling all the given challenges. We hope you learned something new and are looking forward to our summer practice. See you soon!
