Learning Beyond the Classroom: 39 Students from Bilbao Explored Estonia’s Business Ecosystem
Last week, EBS welcomed 39 bachelor’s students and three faculty members from Deusto Business School in Bilbao. The week-long Study Tour brought the Spanish students to Estonia to experience first-hand how digitalisation, entrepreneurship and innovation come together in practice.
Deusto students study Business Administration and Digital Business Intelligence, combining business, management, finance, marketing, strategy and digital transformation in their studies. In Estonia, their programme focused on what cannot be learned through lectures or video calls alone – meeting entrepreneurs, executives, investors and other people shaping Estonia’s business ecosystem.
During the week, the students visited e-Estonia, Pipedrive, Lightyear and ÄIO. The company visits gave them an opportunity to see how digital solutions, technology and business models work in practice, and to explore the challenges companies face as they grow and expand internationally.
The programme also included meetings with TooEarly and Startup Wise Guys, who introduced the students to Estonia’s startup and investment ecosystem. In addition, Annika Ljash-Eilat spoke about startup marketing, Henri Lindal about why startups fail, EBS faculty member Ester Eomois about contemporary leadership and organisational culture, and Marge Täks about impactful entrepreneurship. Meelis Kitsing led a workshop on future scenarios, while Tiit Aleksejev explored Estonian history, helping the students understand today’s Estonia through the lens of its past.
One of the aims of the programme was to connect technology with the business side – how business models emerge, how companies grow, what role leadership and marketing play, and how to build a company that can scale internationally.
EBS’s international network also makes it possible to bring experts and entrepreneurs from participants’ home countries into Study Tours. This time, the students met José Ernesto Suarez Font, an entrepreneur from Valencia who has lived in Estonia for many years and founded seven companies here, including as an e-resident. Such encounters help students compare the Estonian experience with the business environment in their home country and see the opportunities that international entrepreneurship can offer.
Learning Beyond the Classroom
EBS Study Tours are designed to connect academic learning with meetings with companies and experts, as well as first-hand experience of Estonia as a digital and entrepreneurial society. Programmes are tailored to the goals of each group and are organised for university students and faculty as well as groups from organisations. Last year alone, we hosted Study Tours from countries including Germany, France, the United States, Switzerland and Brazil.
The visit from Deusto Business School is one example of how international cooperation can become a practical learning experience. Rather than simply observing Estonia’s business ecosystem from the outside, students meet the people shaping it, ask questions and see how the topics covered in their studies work in practice.
EBS Study Tours and short immersion programmes offer international universities an opportunity to create a practical and meaningful learning experience in Estonia, tailored to their students’ field of study.