YTK supports young people in learning about working life

Topics

• Job seeking
• Studies

From a young person’s perspective, working life can seem surprising and even strange. In working life, as in all areas of life, practice gives you skills and increases your experience. In Finland, the majority of upper secondary school children and an increasing number of high school and vocational school students are introduced to working life every year. YTK is involved in the TET.fi service of the Children and Youth Foundation to strengthen young people’s working life skills.

The TET.fi service is aimed at young people and employers, and is also used by school counselors. Young people can use the online service to find a suitable work experience placement, and employers can use the content available on the service to support those entering the world of work in many ways, including during the work experience period.

“Many people may remember making coffee or cleaning corners during their work experience placements, but at its best, work experience gives young people the opportunity to really try out different jobs or even identify a field that suits them. Experiences like these are extremely valuable for young people, especially nowadays when even finding a summer job can be difficult,” says Ilona Kangas, Customer Relations and Communications Director at YTK.

YTK supports the TET.fi service specifically through YTK Worklife.

YTK’s Loimaa offices are also happy to welcome their own trainees. They are actively guided and often tasked with matters related to office comfort, mailing projects, or other suitable tasks.

“The TET.fi service has created a lot of content that supports young people in learning about working life, which they can also study during their work experience period. This also helps employers to engage young people in the right way,” Kangas adds.

Using its own content, YTK explains on the service that working life today is no longer a continuous, unchanging process, but can involve many revolutionary changes.

“We remind people about the basics of working life: signing a written employment contract, preparing for unemployment as soon as you find a job, and topics related to job hunting.”

“Periods of unemployment are common nowadays, and it is essential to know how to prepare for them. That is why we have produced content for the tet.fi website on topics such as unemployment security and membership of an unemployment fund,” says Kangas.

The materials on the Tet.fi website are freely available and are used, for example, in schools as part of teaching. Do you have young people in your circle of acquaintances? Ask them if they have come across the content – or use it yourself when helping young people prepare for their future working life!

Matilda got to learn about working life at YTK

YTK also regularly welcomes trainees. In September, Matilda joined us. During the week, she learned about the many different tasks we do. She was introduced to the work of a benefits processor, as well as the tasks of a lawyer, service developer, communications and information security professionals.

Matilda also familiarized herself with the Tet.fi materials and found them clear and easy to understand.