The Innovation Staircase
Purpose
The purpose of the Innovation Staircase was to promote knowledge and interest for entrepreneurship and innovation in the Swedish equestrian community, which has a large proportion of female participants. By providing both female and male high school students with coaching as to starting their own company, we aimed to spread the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Listen to a presentation about the Innovation Staircase (In Swedish)
With the Innovation Staircase, we gave young athletes guidance in how to use their expertise in their sport by building companies around their passion for sports. This did not only present a different career path for the young athletes, but also helped to push the development of sports.
The idea behind the Innovation Staircase was created in the Vinnova organised competition “Innovate Passion” in 2017. The model was tested in 2018 at the three national centres for equestrian, trotting and Icelandic riding - Wången, Strömsholm and Flyinge - with funding from Vinnova. In 2019, the project was further developed and one more school became affiliated. In the new version of the Innovation Staircase, scalability and digitalisation were key. To reach more students and to enhance the students' learning experience, videos with practical and inspirational content were released on our web page and combined with three physical full-day workshops organized at the affiliated schools.