Peikko and Salpaus Show How Effective Cooperation Works: “First an internship, then a job”
A study commissioned by Technology Industries of Finland shows that people who graduate from vocational education in technical fields find it difficult to enter employment. Companies are suffering from a shortage of labour, while new graduates are jobless. Cooperation between companies and educational institutions is key to solving this problem.
Peikko Group in Lahti, which offers innovative solutions for construction, and the Salpaus Further Education Centre have long worked together in an exemplary way: the company gains skilled workers and provides internships and apprenticeships for students.
Mechanical engineering and production technology students can graduate as plater-welders, machinists, production technology experts, CNC machinists, or welding professionals, among other fields.
Peikko Group, which has expanded into more than 30 countries, has a production plant in Lahti. The plant employs approximately 200 people who focus on manufacturing concrete connections and steel structures. The company has a shortage of skilled workers, forcing it to recruit staff from overseas on short-term contracts.
Minna Lähteenmäki, Peikko’s HR Manager, and Ari Mansikkaniemi, a teacher of mechanical engineering and production technology at Salpaus, are more than satisfied with their cooperation.
Why does Peikko Group collaborate with educational institutions?
Minna Lähteenmäki: “Working with educational institutions has long been important to us because Peikko aims to be a desirable employer in the Päijät-Häme region. We provide students with internships, final projects and summer jobs for different purposes. It is also an avenue for recruiting permanent employees.”
How is your collaboration going? Is there anything that could be improved?
Minna Lähteenmäki: “Our interactions go really well. I don’t know if I could demand more than that. New students and teachers come to visit us at the beginning of each academic year, which helps us build trust. In the past, we have had students who have not excelled in the classroom but have proven their skills in the workplace. At times, there are surprises: first an internship, then a job.”
Ari Mansikkaniemi: “Our collaboration and communication are easy and seamless. It would be good if students could learn about more than one area of work, but this is obviously difficult to arrange. The fact that students receive guidance from a dedicated workplace instructor is already a great help.”
Are there enough resources for student guidance?
Minna Lähteenmäki: “Resourcing can sometimes be difficult. In today’s business world, we cannot maintain a surplus reserve in training. However, we continually strive to ensure that our permanent employees provide students with orientation, guidance, and information on the ground rules in the workplace. Guidance is a part of Peikko’s corporate culture: you can always ask a colleague for help and advice.”
Ari Mansikkaniemi: “Of course, resources are always in short supply, but Peikko looks after the students who go there. One important task for our educators is to prepare students for their first internships. I have accompanied students on their first day at Peikko to help them get started.”
How do you collaborate with Peikko? How many students go there?
Minna Lähteenmäki: “We regularly host one to three students each month. We cannot really take any more than that because we cannot have too many students at one workstation at a time. In recent years, we have increasingly favoured apprenticeships and recruited new personnel that way. Students have been especially keen on this practice because they receive a salary throughout the apprenticeship.”
What kind of feedback do you get? How do the students benefit from training in a company?
Ari Mansikkaniemi: “The feedback has been broadly positive throughout—both from students and the employer. Vocational learning, internalising the ground rules of the workplace, and interactions between students and employers are highly valuable. When a student succeeds during on-the-job learning, it positively affects their education and may lead to an apprenticeship or at least a summer job. It is a great feeling when I meet a professional in a company or workplace, and they are a former student of mine.”
How well prepared are graduates when they come to work at Peikko?
Minna Lähteenmäki: “They are off to a good start. They have skills if they have done a training contract and summer jobs, spent some time in the classroom and then come for an internship. But if we think about a professional welder, for example, it can take a year or perhaps much longer than that before you can call yourself a professional welder.”
“It would be good to keep people active. We are wasting a lot of money and motivation if graduates cannot find a job.”
Ari Mansikkaniemi
What would you like to see from decision-makers and educational institutions?
Minna Lähteenmäki: “We need more vocational education. Vocational subjects have been cut, and businesses are increasingly called upon to provide training. However, people need to know the basics. People do not have time to study theory while working or doing an internship. More of it needs to come from colleges, in addition to professional Finnish vocabulary for people from other countries.”
Ari Mansikkaniemi: “We should invest in further education, perhaps with a narrower focus. It would be good to listen to companies and learn what kinds of experts they will need in the future. We should then train students for these specific needs. Companies will need many experts if and when the economy starts to improve, so we have to train them now. We could consider a better offering for companies than the current training compensation—something that would encourage them to make more use of this industry collaboration model.”
Unemployment among technical professionals one year after graduation is currently around 21%. In your opinion, what are the reasons for this? How should the problems be tackled?
Minna Lähteenmäki: “This is an incredibly high number. Is it really because recent graduates have realised they would rather not work in their fields? I would encourage the authorities to take more active measures to encourage people to enter employment. Work trials and internships could be introduced for recent graduates in return for a small compensation. This would help nudge people into employment so they can accrue professional experience. We are constantly struggling with a shortage of workers in Päijät-Häme.”
Ari Mansikkaniemi: “The number really is astonishing. The labour administration should be active and provide young unemployed people with various opportunities, such as workplace trials, or allow them to complete individual educational modules. This will help them avoid long unemployment periods, which make it even harder to find a job. It would be good to keep people active. We are wasting a lot of money and motivation if graduates cannot find a job.”
Text: Mikko Viljanen
Photos: Liisa Takala