Career Week brings together companies from Valkeakoski area and International Business students from HAMK to help find new opportunities. European Social Fund (ESF) was funding the project to support students for employment. Event was for four days from Jan 28 to Jan 31 and there was an own theme for every day from alumni stories to celebrity speeches. Their aim is to encourage International Business students to get a job and stay in Finland after graduation and to encourage companies to hire a foreigner.
The story of entrepreneur alumni
Week started with a speech by Jukka Huilla from Ensimetri and he talked about entrepreneurship and what to do when thinking about starting an own business. He courage students to come to talk about ideas at any point when starting an own business so that they can help as much as possible. The morning continued with Mike Muriuki’s alumni speech: The story of entrepreneur alumni. He told how and why he started his own business and what struggles he has faced. How it can be challenging to cope without speaking any Finnish and how sometimes there can be many restrictions what needs to be dealt with. His career story were fascinating and it’s always interesting to hear inspiring stories about creating business from a scratch.
Event continued with panel conversation about entrepreneurship where students could ask questions about entrepreneurship and working life in Finland. Panel members had very different point of views so the conversation got intense in some points but in a very interesting way. The atmosphere of the event was warm and welcoming. Everyone were having fun and students listened carefully about what the visitors had to say. Questions about entrepreneurship were flying in the air and the visitors had great tips and wise words about entrepreneurship and working life for the students
How to stand out in the job markets
On Tuesday students had a chance to hear alumni speeches and Riikka Annika Keskitalo from employment service gave valuable tips when searching for a job. On Wednesday students went to company visits to see local companies and how they work there. It’s important to see real working life during the studies to understand what skill you need to have for the future.
Thursday was the main day for the week and it started with a breakfast and was followed by a speech of a Member of Parliament Arto Satonen: How Finnish job market will evolve in the future. Very interesting and current topic about how Finnish job market is now and where it is going. International Business alumni Andreas Müller from Finn-Korkki Oy presented a great speech about employing a foreigner and internationalization. He told his own story how he graduated from International Business studies and got a job from the same place in Finnish company where he did his training. It was all about how important it is to be open and brave when doing something new and unfamiliar. To be brave to learn new things and not to be afraid to fail.
Henkka Hyppönen: ”Learn to work with different people”
Finnish entrepreneur and author Henkka Hyppönen spoke about internationalization and artificial intelligence. He suggested to always question things that can’t be done and to always look things from a various perspectives. Hyppönen told where he sees that artificial intelligence is developing in the future and how he is using AI in his own company when creating bots. Learning even basics from AI is definitely something to keep in mind. One important thing he said was that surround yourself with different kind of people, not just with those who see everything in the same way that you do. Challenge people and always be prepared to validate your arguments. He was very fascinating and inspiring speaker and he is really well in touch with everything that is going on in the world.
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Interest in entrepreneurship and internationalization? Go look our International Business programme!
