University and business: how to bridge the gap through entrepreneurship
In an increasingly interconnected and challenging environment, the link between university and business is revealed as an essential bridge. Not only to energize the labor market, but also to enhance the capacity for innovation from the start. Universities and corporations share the challenge of training talent adapted to real contexts, capable of promoting projects with impact. The question is: How do we close that gap that many students complain about? The answer, increasingly tested, is through collaborative entrepreneurship.
Programs such as Santalucía Promotes Universities create that space where ideas can be deployed, combine academic rigor with business dynamism and apply methodologies such as Design Thinking. These initiatives allow students to work on case studies, to participate in Hackathons, receive corporate mentoring and, in some cases, they even present their solutions to the company's management.
This approach Learning by Doing, takes the venture out of the textbook and lowers it to the ground, where there are customers, limitations and opportunities to discover. At the same time, companies are accessing fresh talent, with energy and a desire to explore, enriching their own corporate culture.
Why entrepreneurship together with the university transforms everyone
For the company, collaborating with universities means anticipating. It allows us to observe trends, new technologies and profiles in training. It is a way of activating open innovation, enriched with academic vision, student drive and emphasis on agile methodologies.
For the university, it means giving its students the opportunity to validate ideas in real scenarios, learn to collaborate with professionals and access direct mentoring. The result: more prepared graduates, projects that can scale and a more tangible connection between what is taught and what is needed in the market.
For the student, to experience a process of Intrapurrecy in a corporate environment, but with a startup spirit, it represents a irreplaceable learning experience: live with business realities, learn to iterate solutions with mentors and feel the impact of their contribution.
The key ingredients for bridging the gap
- Agile methodologies and real practices. Use Design Thinking, rapid prototyping and validation with users allow us to generate more relevant solutions. Initiatives such as the Santalucía Impulsa program teach these practices to students and employees alike.
- Corporate mentoring and strategic connection Involve company mentors to guide, challenge and accompany. Santalucía facilitates this connection through its innovation ecosystem, linking internal, external and university talent.
- Formal collaboration structures. All previous editions of Santalucía Impulsa Universities demonstrate that the structured link, with deadlines, deliverables, evaluators and Demodays, generates tangible and sustainable results.
- Physical spaces for innovation. The LAB and the company's Campus host sessions, workshops, Hackathons and meetings between university students and professionals, activating real synergies.
- Continuity and monitoring. Specific moments are not enough. The monitoring, visibility of projects and their possible transition to incubation or acceleration are key to consolidating the impact — as is already the case in our entrepeneurship programs.
The future lies in real connection
University and business do not occupy separate platforms, but rather complementary spaces where the battle for future talent is being waged. Those who generate platforms that allow real practices, ongoing mentoring and scaling of ideas achieved at an early stage will be taking a strategic step towards meaningful and sustainable innovation.
Santalucía Impulsa Universities is an example of this connection: it offers students and universities the opportunity to transform knowledge into tangible solutions for the insurance sector, allowing them to combine academic and business, from a humanistic and pragmatic perspective.
Because, in the end, the universe-business divide is not closed with speeches: is closed by creating real bridges, with entrepreneurship, practical action and constant collaboration.
