New Micro-certificate in Applied Innovation helps UM students build practical skills to successfully solve real-world challenges
The Micro-certificate in Applied Innovation: From Ideas to Impact is a new three-course program offered by Extended Education in partnership with IDEA START and with support from Dr. Gerry Price. Open to UM students alongside their current studies, the program helps learners build practical skills in innovation, collaboration, communication and project execution at no cost to the learner.
Every student brings a different way of seeing challenges—and these perspectives can spark innovations that strengthen communities, improve workplaces, launch new initiatives or grow into entrepreneurial ventures. This micro-certificate gives students the practical tools and interdisciplinary experience to move from noticing a problem to testing and refining ideas, building effective solutions through feedback, and creating impact in any field.
“What you notice about the world from your world view doesn’t occur to others. This puts you in the perfect position to be an innovator,” says Lindsay Poggemiller, Content Provider, Micro-certificate in Applied Innovation: From Ideas to Impact. This new program will be offered this Fall at no cost to the learner, and UM students of all levels and disciplines are invited to apply.
Everyone can be an innovator, looking at a problem or challenge from their unique perspective, experience and education, and developing a solution. The program shows you how to succeed in optimizing and implementing a new initiative, process, or product.
“We need all the education we can get, and this is the spark, to set us on fire to use it. The program is a way to feel the energy of making the world a better place,” says Poggemiller.
Innovation can be the invention of something new, but it can also be about taking a new approach or building on traditional wisdom and knowledge to move forward in a new way. There is an innovation mindset with tools to use in the implementation process, and the program will bring together learners from a variety of disciplines and levels of education from undergrad to postgrad to learn them and work together to solve problems.
“We will provide the tools and encourage the imagination to apply innovation. It is really for everybody, and we need everybody for inclusive design,” says the UM alum and a former Bisons volleyball player with a BA (Adv) in Global Political Economy from UM as well as an MBA. She worked in Niger, Ghana, Ethiopia and with Winnipeg’s inner city before becoming a post-secondary instructor.
“I always wanted to make change. With this program, all of the power of innovation is here for you. Students can show up, learn tools, and practice to get them there. They will learn to walk into any situation comfortable to make it better. This is a lifelong learning process that will serve them well.”
Heaven Kaur, UMSU President encourages students to take the program, to complement their studies.
“I highly recommend it to students across the institution. They will get a lot of real-life experience that will help them in the long run. They will get practical skills and confidence,” says the Science student studying Biological Sciences.
“For me, a degree offers depth in a field. This micro-certificate is an opportunity to work across a range of fields, to take knowledge, identify an opportunity, and take an idea to real impact. It’s working outside of your normal circles, to see how others from various disciplines like engineering, arts, or law might tackle a problem. Our approaches will be different.”
The Micro-Certificate in Applied Innovation is designed to develop skills in idea generation, problem-solving, critical thinking, innovation, execution and adaptability, in addition to communication and collaboration when launching a project, product, service or program. Thereby, learners will be empowered to develop concrete strategies for realizing ideas like starting a new volunteering initiative in their future workplace, or in launching a successful enterprise.
The Applied Innovation program has a lot of potential, Kaur says.
“It’s such an amazing opportunity. Students may have an idea, know what the problem is, but wonder what to do next. This is how to take their idea, test it out, identify barriers, and work with others to build those skills that are really important in the real world.”
It offers what students are looking for, Kaur says.
“At UMSU, we often hear students want real-world skills to complement the theoretical knowledge of their degrees. There is a gap. Here they can take their knowledge and idea and experiment with it. It’s much broader than entrepreneurship. The emphasis on ideas, innovation and impact is very important.”
“There are many programs on entrepreneurship but to create a program around Applied Innovation fills a huge gap, “ says Rajeev Koyal, Program Manager of IDEA START, the UM’s innovation and entrepreneurship hub that partnered with Extended Education to provide this micro-certificate.
“It’s a flexible program that allows students to take it in addition to their other studies. And it is available at no cost, thanks to a generous donation so it is accessible. Extended Education is an exceptional partner, creating a program that will be appreciated by students and innovators at UM,” says Koyal.
IDEA START director, Moe Levy agrees. “For us, it’s a win-win. We hope to do more of this in the future, to work with Extended Education to develop more initiatives. We are so proud to be able to offer this.”
The micro-certificate is valuable, Levy says.
“It will show on the resume. It provides a lot of street cred. Students will get a true understanding of what to do to be successful. Benefactor Gerry Price is someone who puts his money where his mouth is. He wants his many years of knowledge and experience to benefit the next generation. In this program, they will get the skills to be successful.”
By providing an inter-disciplinary opportunity for UM students at all levels to learn innovation skills, IDEA START, Extended Education and Dr. Gerry Price envision students will be empowered to successfully act on their ideas and make a lasting difference to the economic, political, and societal benefit of Manitoba and Canada. The micro-certificate provides broadly applicable skills for learners who can also engage with IDEA START to refine and execute their entrepreneurial ideas. The purpose of IDEA START is to provide wrap-around support for UM learners, helping them to be successful when commercializing a good idea. Through IDEA START, budding entrepreneurs learn from experts in innovation to develop a plan for their start-up journey based on proven practices.
The Micro-certificate in Applied Innovation: From Ideas to Impact was inspired by a quote from UM President, Michael Benarroch who said that entrepreneurship is about taking an idea and exploring ways to use it that have an impact.
“It’s very important to know how to convert ideas to impact,” says Koyal. “This program provides the mindset and incredible skills to enhance employability. Employers are looking for people who can think outside of the box.”
The program was designed to plant the seeds of entrepreneurship across campus, Poggemiller says. “Entrepreneurs are not always self-employed. Employers are also always looking for folks who can work under pressure in diverse teams to solve problems. That’s what they learn here. It’s a great way to round out your employment readiness portfolio.”
The innovation process is about more than just addressing a challenge and fixing it. It is also about understanding how to best solve issues and how to take effective action when implementing a solution. To do that, you have to understand the end users as well as other stakeholders and their point of view.
“It is not just dispelling your wisdom and knowing what to do. You must be curious, listen and observe. It is humbling.”
With Applied Innovation, students will consider what it means to be curious, to practice curiosity. “Everyone is born creative, but it gets squeezed out of us along the way. We lose that creative confidence. We want to build that muscle to create again. It’s in all of us.”
Learners will practice innovation. “This is a low-stakes way to get out there, make mistakes, see what you can come up with, and promote it.”
They’ll identify a challenge or a pain point, and consider what it could look like, and how to create that and implement it for the common good. They will look at desirability, feasibility and viability of their ideas and approach them within a provided framework to increase the chances of designing a successful solution.
“They will solve real-world challenges on interdisciplinary teams. This is experiential learning. Just do it.”
The program includes three 24-hour courses. Learners earn a digital badge for each of the first two courses, and a micro-certificate upon completion of all three courses. They will also be prepared to share how they addressed a challenge with innovation.
The first course called Foundations in Applied Innovation requires no prior experience. It will look at innovation attitudes on Turtle Island (North America in the Indigenous Creation Story). “The matriarchs who have lived in relation with this land were and are exceptional innovators,” says Poggemiller.
Students will explore tools, design thinking and case studies.
In the second course, Methods and Practices in Innovation, students solve real-world problems on an interdisciplinary team. “They are given the process and tools, and they apply them to the gritty work, with an emphasis on the end user, to meet the challenge.”
In the third course, Applied Project in Innovation, they will apply what they have learned to something they really care about in an applied project, and pitch the idea to the class, from problem to solution.
“It’s really for everybody willing to invest in learning the tools for innovation” says Poggemiller. “We hope to see a variety of students from various disciplines.”
To create this program, Extended Education spoke with many deans and other representatives from across the university to identify who might be interested and what they would be looking for. It was important to determine a unique purpose for a new non-degree program on campus.
“The program’s objectives, intended to benefit learners, and course structure was informed by consultation. We started a conversation and many great ideas helped to shape it,” says Kari Kumar, Associate Dean (Academic), Extended Education.
It was inspired by the University’s Competency Framework and designed to support growth in many areas valuable to success in future studies, employment, and entrepreneurial thinking.
“There’s also a valuable networking component, as participants will build connections with others across campus while completing the courses. And it encourages self-reflection so learners can make intentional decisions about the impact they want to have as innovators,” Kumar says.
The opportunity to develop and offer this program in partnership with IDEA START was an exciting one, says Ute Kothe, Dean, Extended Education. “We decided to think big. We created a micro-certificate- a university-approved credential that would have lasting benefit for the learner, helping them to kick off the next step in their career and to create a lasting impact in Manitoba and Canada.”
The Micro-certificate in Applied Innovation: From Ideas to Impact will benefit many students, Kothe says.
“It’s about how to do something new, to bring new ideas to reality. The Applied Innovation program provides the opportunity for students to get more out of their university education, transcending their own discipline to think broader and bigger. Here, they will learn how to make a great idea even better and how to effectively implement it. I hope our students will feel confident to create new enterprises, to organize new not-for-profit organizations, and to facilitate meaningful change in existing organizations.”
The first course in this new program starts in October.
At UM, we encourage life-long curiosity while providing tools – inside and outside the classroom – to succeed in a rapidly changing world. Empowering learners is one of the strategic themes you’ll find in MomentUM: Leading change together, the University of Manitoba’s 2024–2029 strategic plan.
It’s the best way to determine what you need
From June 29 to July 27, UM students, staff and faculty can apply at no cost
Course offers strategies to change behaviours, and change hearts and minds
