What is the Enterprise Challenge promoted by the BEST Foundation?

One of the objectives of the BEST Foundation is to get closer training and business. One of the formulas that most achieves this approach is the Enterprise Challenge. Its beginning is parallel to the start of the Degree in Industrial Technologies and Economic Analysis (GTIAE). It is an interuniversity degree, with teaching at the Pompeu Fabra University and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

A need that must be met

The vocation of the degrees promoted by the BEST Foundation is to adjust training to the needs of the company. For this reason, the involvement of the company in the training process is necessary. Therefore, different formulas have been deployed, such as Focus Days, company internships or the Enterprise Challenge.

Naturally, contact and proximity with the company is key to getting to know its day-to-day life. Firstly, to experience what responsibility is for a well-done job. Secondly, to train technically in the specific tasks of a given position. Therefore, the more mature the young person arrives at the company, the better.

Consequently, BEST Foundation and academic management designed a method of approaching and solving challenges that would achieve the results. Specifically, the structure of an Enterprise Challenge is as follows:

• Students are distributed on their own initiative in teams of 3 or 4 and sign up to participate voluntarily.
• Each participating company receives between 1 and 3 teams in their facilities and makes a summary of 2 or 3 challenges that are a real need.
• Students have approximately 3 weeks to develop a <<minimum viable prototype >> of a solution to the chosen challenge.
• The teams make brief presentations of their solutions on the final, in front of a panel made up of one person from each company and the universities. The company jury assesses the solutions provided and decides, based on different criteria, which are the three most outstanding solutions.

The students are tasked with solving the Issue-Idea-Prototype cycle, so that they turn the challenge into a solution proposal. Logically, the work involved in participating in an Enterprise Challenge is excluded from ordinary academic activity.

A consolidated trajectory

The Enterprise Challenge is carried out with first-year students, at a time when the academic load is lower (January and February). Thus, it is valued that students already have a high-intensity and committed contact with the company, and this experience will accompany them for the rest of the degree.

At the time of writing this post, May 2025, seven editions of the Enterprise Challenge have already been held (from 2019 to 2025). Thus, the development of the different editions has had different companies that act as owners of the challenge (challenge owners). In addition, entities such as FemCAT and Barcelona Global are also involved, which act as promoters and in some editions have also provided challenges. In addition, the company Mur & Partners offers workshops on face-to-face communication. The objective is to optimize the presentation of the work done. In addition, CIM UPC usually sponsors the prizes to the winning teams.

As an example, we present the list of companies participating in the editions of the Enterprise Challenge (2019 – 2025):

• 2019 edition: DOGA, COMEXI, CELLNEX and HP.
• 2020 edition: AGBAR, APPLUS+, HP, NESTLÉ, NOEL, CELLNEX, DOGA and COMEXI
• 2021 edition: HP, APPLUS+, NESTLÉ, DOGA, COMEXI, NOEL, CELLNEX, AGBAR, FEMCat and CIM.
• 2022 edition: AGBAR, APPLUS+, NESTLÉ, DOGA, NOEL, HP, FEMCat and CIM.
• 2023 edition: AGBAR, APPLUS+, DOGA, HP, LA FARGA GROUP, NESTLÉ and NOEL.
• 2024 edition: AGBAR, APPLUS+, DOGA, HP, LA FARGA GROUP, COMEXI, CELLNEX and NOEL.
• 2025 edition: NOEL, HP, COMEXI, APPLUS+, CELLNEX, AGBAR and DOGA.

Excellent ratings

Logically, the evaluations of the Enterprise Challenge must come from both the company and the students themselves. All of them are clearly positive.

Thus, from the students it is cited as an experience that marks the character of the GTIAE. It takes place in the middle of the first year and is a first contact, powerful and real, with the company. And this is something that will no longer be abandoned throughout the degree. In addition, students value that the experience of teamwork is also very beneficial. The effort that must be made when imagining and working on solutions makes us understand what is expected of them as leading professionals in companies. The students who have been asked to assess the GTIAE mention the Enterprise Challenge as a positive learning opportunity, one of the strengths of the degree.

On the part of the company, the opinions collected have also been very favourable. An effort is needed to dedicate time and resources to the Enterprise Challenge, which is still a training action. However, there are clearly two advantages. Firstly, the solutions provided to the challenges by the teams of students can be applied to the company. In short, the students’ work shortens the path of the innovation process that an idea must take to be applied. Secondly, leading and innovative companies have a capital and strategic need to attract talent, motivated and qualified. In this sense, the Enterprise Challenge is a unique opportunity to make the business project known to talented and motivated young people. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the possibility GTIAE graduates will join the company.

Enterprise Challenge: what future?

Of course, the future of the Enterprise Challenge is a decision that is considered by the academic management of the GTIAE. However, according to the coordinator of the degree, Professor Joaquim Minguella, one might think that the level and its quality could stagnate. Or even decline after seven editions. However, his view is that the level of solutions provided by the teams of students is, the more it goes, of higher quality. In addition, companies maintain their involvement and make quite positive assessments.

Therefore, the Enterprise Challenge has its future assured as a fundamental piece of the GTIAE, which gives a differential character to talent training.

And, finally, by way of conclusion, the following ideas can be provided –among others– to make the Enterprise Challenge grow:

• To expand the number and variety of participating companies.
• To disseminate it as a good learning practice.
• To assess the possibility of extending the time that students have to solve the challenges.
• To replicate the Enterprise Challenge formula in the new degrees promoted by the BEST Foundation.

Finally, we would like to thank companies and students for their participation in making the Enterprise Challenge possible.