Education | Finnish companies were startled by the skills of young people – “Concern arises”

Discourse productivity and talent shortages in Finland have been largely focused on immigration recently, but in the background many Finnish companies are worried about a completely different issue: the weak skills of young Finns in the so-called luma subjects, i.e. natural sciences and mathematics.

A worrisome development has been visible for a long time in the international Pisa study for 15-year-olds, of which Finland was still considered a model country in the early 2000s.

In the Pisa study published last December, the results of young Finns deteriorated in all measured subjects, i.e. mathematics, reading and natural sciences.

A particularly worrying development has been in mathematics, where the development of the Pisa results was called “very worrying” by the Ministry of Education and Culture in December.

Chemical Industry Association a leading expert in competence Anni Siltanen says that companies in the field of chemistry have also become very concerned about the knowledge of natural sciences and mathematics among young Finns.

The biggest concern is the future. For example, how will the competitiveness of Finnish companies in the chemical industry be maintained if the skills of young Finns in, say, chemistry and mathematics continue to deteriorate.

According to Siltanen, the worrying trend can be seen in the everyday life of companies in addition to the Pisa results.

“Concern arises when [yritykset] clearly see also in working life that [nuorten] the skills are different than before,” says Siltanen.

Director of research and product development at the pharmaceutical company Bayer Manja Ahola says that the company is worried about the deterioration of the Pisa results, but so far there has been no visible decline in the skills of the young employees who have worked for them.

“According to our experience, young people are really skilled and competent. Sometimes it feels like we experienced people have a lot to learn from them.”

According to Ahola, Finland must ensure that it continues to be a model country for education. At the same time, according to Ahola, investment in basic education should be ensured, so that high-quality knowledge of natural sciences and mathematics is included at an early stage.

“We need competent young people who will train for the future workplaces of companies.”

About competence and when talking about the development of the business world, eyes are increasingly focused on the southern neighbor Estonia. For example, in the Pisa results, Estonian youth have been ahead of Finnish youth for years.

According to Siltanen, the Chemical Industry also did a small-scale survey a couple of years ago on what is done differently in Estonia than in Finland.

“There are luma-focused afternoon clubs that parents are ready to invest in, maybe a little in the same way that parents in Finland are ready to invest in their child’s sports hobby.”

Another observed difference was that in Estonia students were also supported at the tail end of their skills, but especially support was given to top talents.

“We don’t necessarily have this in Finland. We might be able to equalize more. This can be seen in the fact that in Estonia those peaks seem to grow differently,” says Siltanen.

According to Siltanen, the school system in Estonia, or at least the way of teaching, is “more traditional” than in Finland.

“In traditional luma subjects, it seems to be the key to learning to study in the style that produces results.”

Worry of young people’s skills and contacts south of the Gulf of Finland gave birth to a new pilot project, with the help of which industrial interest organizations try to inspire young people to study natural sciences.

The Chemical Industry, the Food Industry and the Forestry Industry, together with their sister organizations in Estonia, plan to organize a competition for 13-14-year-old middle school students in the coming winter, where the students solve problems related to the development of production and operations made by real companies.

“Luma skills are definitely built there in basic education. The earlier the child gets excited about luma substances, the better ability he had time to develop, and above all to get excited about these substances. After all, the background of strong luma expertise is often an interest in these phenomena,” says Siltanen.

According to Bayer’s Ahola, the company hopes that the competition will inspire young people who come to visit Bayer’s factory in Turku.

“Hopefully it will inspire young people. That it would be pretty cool to be innovating new medicinal products or medicinal substances in the future.”

The first organized for the first time, the competition will still be small-scale, as nine schools from Finland and ten from Estonia will take part in it. The interest organizations hope that the competition could be expanded in the future.

“That’s why we also have the Ministry of Education and Culture involved. We hope that we could scale such opportunities as widely as possible for young people in Finland,” says Siltanen.

Companies operating in Finland include Atria, Bayer, Fazer, Metsä Wood, UPM and HK-Foods. The schools participating in the competition have been selected from the vicinity of the company’s premises. One goal is to create a clear connection for young people between the things learned at school and real life.

“When that link can be created, then [oppiaine] it’s not just math or chemistry. It is part of a bigger solution that has a bigger meaning. I think it’s an interesting thing for every young person.”