Companies urged to provide young people with summer jobs

Large retail chains significant employer of young people; industry still contemplating how many summer jobs to put on offer

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An extensive campaign is underway in an attempt to encourage companies to provide Finland’s youth with summer jobs. The Confederation of Finnish Industries EK and the Economic Information Office (TAT) have hired a group of students to make calls throughout the month of February to EK member companies.
      The idea is to remind the companies how important it is for young people to receive work experience.
      The goal is for the EM member businesses to provide 120,000 young adults with summer jobs this year.
      A similar campaign was experimented with about ten years ago with good results.
      “Encouraged by the previous experience and knowing our present economic situation, we decided that it was time to repeat the campaign”, explains TAT school service manager Markku Tenkamaa.
      TAT has also produced a leaflet on the subject that has useful information for the companies, the young jobseekers, their parents, and school career counsellors alike.
     
Among Finland’s businesses large retail chains like the S Group and Kesko have traditionally been among the most significant providers of summer jobs.
      The weakening employment situation is not reflected in the summer vacancy situation.
      The S Group will hire no fewer than 6,000 summer helpers in the group's numerous Alepa, Prisma, and Terra outlets, as well as in the ABC filling stations.
      In addition between 3,500 and 4,000 14 to 18-year-old comprehensive school and upper secondary school students will get a chance to take part in the two-week-long working life experience called “Tutustu työelämään ja tienaa” (“Get acquainted with working life and earn money”).
      The K Group, in turn, will hire around 2,000 youths this coming summer. The period of application will continue until summer.
      Though the applications are mostly filled in online, the K Group encourages the young people to get in touch directly with the K shopkeepers and heads of department stores.
     
For industrial enterprises last year was somewhat cheerless to say the least.
      Nokia, for one, provided summer jobs only for a handful of people.
      So far this year the mobile phone giant has merely made an announcement that it would hire “several dozen” summer jobbers.
      Wärtsilä, a manufacturer of large diesel and gas engines for use in powering ships and electricity generation, does not yet know exactly how many summer jobs it will provide for the country’s young people, even though the application period will close already on Monday of next week.
      In previous years, Wärtsilä has hired in excess of 500 summer trainees especially in the city of Vaasa, where the company’s headquarters are situated.
      The energy company Fortum hired around 50 summer auxiliaries last year in its Loviisa power plant, but this year nearly 200 young people will receive a summer trainee position within the group.
     
The food industry is traditionally looking for plenty of summer workers.
      HK Ruokatalo, for one, will hire around 800 summer jobbers, just like it did last year.
      Last year many firms resorted to laying off or at least temporarily dismissing some of their workers. “Hence summer work also has to be offered to those whose employment contracts were terminated because of the difficult economic situation”, points out resourcing and development manager Elina Salo from the power and automation technology company ABB.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Recession blights young Finns´ chances for summer jobs in USA (7.4.2009)
  PM´s proposal for youth employment voucher criticised (26.1.2010)
  Efforts planned to fight youth unemployment (29.5.2009)
  Record number of students apply for practical training in China (20.4.2009)

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