The aim of this case study is to bring high school students and local entrepreneurs together, and thus make it easier for high school students to ask for a summer job, internship or job in a local company later on. Nivala-Haapajärvi Region NIHAK and Nivalan Teollisuuskylä Oy developed the ‘Summer jobs for high school students survey’, which was piloted at Nivalan high school in spring 2021.

Case study description. The high school students were divided into groups of 2 or 3 students, according to their interests, and given the name of a company to contact. This prevented the students from focusing on the most popular companies. The students contacted the entrepreneur and inquired about whether the company had a need for summer employees, their level of interest in working with the school and the skills they would need for the future. The students entered the information into the high school’s online environment and provided feedback upon the completion of the assignment. Twenty-two companies participated in the pilot, four of which offered summer jobs to high school students and one of which considered the possibility of providing summer work. Almost half of the companies were interested in cooperative projects with the students. High school students found it easy, exciting, fun and interesting to contact entrepreneurs/businesses and were comfortable with doing so. Two or three of the students who took part in the exercise could undertake a similar exercise in the future. In addition, the future-skills needs information provided by the companies will be used to develop the content of the business cooperation project and to update its orientation.

Authors: UuLops ESF project; Jenni Helander, Nivala-Haapajärvi Region NIHAK ry, Heidi Kiistala, Nivala upper secondary school, Kari Kutuniva, Nivalan Teollisuuskylä Oy and Leila Rahkonen-Navia, UuLops ESF project