Finnish and Estonian schools and companies join in industry competition
Estonian and Finnish industry associations launched a competition for basic school students, which seeks future-oriented solutions to problems that have arisen in various industrial companies. The competition is supported by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and the Estonian Ministry of Economy and Communications.
“Tuleviku Loojad” / “Tulevaisuuden tekijät” is a project to create connection between the knowledge of real subjects (STEM) and the acquisition of entrepreneurial competence and future jobs for basic school students. The teams consist of 13–14-year-old students that together with their teachers and mentors from industry have to define the challenges, ideate and find solutions that can be implemented in the products or processes of the companies in the future.
The goal of the project, in which industrial companies, professional associations and basic schools from Finland and Estonia participate, is to find innovative and sustainable solutions for participating industrial companies. The teams from 9 basic schools in Finland and 10 schools in Estonia join forces with companies, such as Metsä Group, UPM, Tallink, Eesti Energia, Fazer, Atria, Orkla Eesti, Bayer, Akzo Nobel Baltics, Estanc and others to come up with solutions, which are competitive and climate friendly.
“I consider it very important for the youth to be able to contribute towards the future challenges by developing specific solutions. This competition is a fresh way to connect young people, schools and industry to create new ways in mutual co-operation,” says Sandra Bergqvist, Minister of Youth and Sports.
“Young people are very concerned about climate change, and it is thus important for them to be involved in developing sustainable solutions. The interest towards STEM subjects in Finland is declining, but I believe that initiatives as this will help to turn the direction and increase the interest towards STEM subjects.”
According to the Minister of Economy and Industry of Estonia, Erkki Keldo, it is important to introduce engineering studies already in basic school to ensure labour force offspring.
“In Estonia and in the neighbouring countries we have an acute shortage of engineers. Studies show that Estonian labour market has room for at least 2,500 new talents in industry a year. Engineers are the ones, whose work enables companies to create higher added value, which in turn drives economic growth and social well-being,” comments Keldo.
“The current competition is a good opportunity for young people to get acquainted with the exciting industrial world that is otherwise hidden from the public.”
The schools in the project represent different local municipalities across both countries, which have close ties with industries in the region. The problems are introduced by the companies and during the autumn semester students get to know better respective companies and offer novel solutions from their perspective. The local finals will be held in both countries in November and the international final will be held in Tallinn University of Technology on January 16, 2025. The five best teams from both countries will participate in the finals.
The CEO and owner of K-Print Estonia Rait Rebane tells that his printing company has joined the competition to offer valuable experience and new opportunities to students.
“Even if we act in a traditional industrial sector, it is important to be innovator every day, to make our work processes more effective and to offer the best solutions to our clients,” says Rebane.
“We believe that a fresh look and enthusiasm of young students together with the expertise of our specialists offers new ideas and solutions that help to answer to the challenges of the future even better.”
“As industry representatives we think it is really important to offer an insight into real working life in an early stage,” say Anni Siltanen from Chemical Industry Federation of Finland and Maiju Korhonen from Finnish Food and Drink Industries’ Federation.
“All the industrial sectors have interesting jobs to offer for future talents. We admire Estonia in many aspects and want to learn how to spark the interest in real STEM-challenges linked to industries by this competition.”
The ministries and industrial associations from both Finland and Estonia have asked the Technology School of Tallinn University of Technology to work out the format of the competition and organize the final event, since they have previous experiences of organizing STEM-based contests for school students.
The project is supported by The Foundation of the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers (TT-säätiö) and Estonian Research Council (Eesti Teadusagentuur). You can access the project’s website here.
Contacts:
Anni Siltanen, Chief Advisor, Chemical Industry Federation of Finland, +358 44 562 5991
Maiju Korhonen, Chief Advisor, Finnish Food and Drink Industries’ Federation, +358 50 359 6766
