Kajaani University of Applied Sciences (KAMK) hosted 36 foreign students and teachers from four countries between 22.4 to 28.4. The visiting students joint eight KAMK students to form multi-national groups to work on various learning activities and exploration challenges. Some of the activities include gamified learning tasks, company visits, networking with local SMEs, working intensively in diverse teams through discussions and presentations.

The visitors also participated in a business seminar and workshop during their stay in KAMK where they have the opportunities to meet representatives from important local institutions such as Kainuun-etu, Kainuu Entrepreneurs Association, Kajaani city etc. They were also given the opportunity to visit few local companies from different industries to help them understand the Kainuu SMEs environment better.

A few words about SHARPEN project. It is:

* A 3-year project from 2016 to 2019 that helps students to understand HRM in SMEs challenges and find solutions for them    
* There are five European countries in this project (Finland, Germany, Czech Republic, Lithuania and U.K.)
* Students learned about HRM topics focusing on SMEs environment, work in multi-cultural teams for a week, and attached to at least one SMEs in the region to help them with people management issues.
* The output from the attachments will be included as case studies to the eHandbook along with some simple practical tools for SMEs at the end of August 2019    
* The project is co-funded by Erasmus +

Further information about the project: https://efis.tul.cz/sharpen/ and from Ms Ruey Komulainen, ruey.komulainen(at)kamk.fi.