Early childhood education and care, basic education and upper secondary education: Sharing the good about work during the Working Life Week

The Working Life Week is now celebrated for the fifth time in early childhood education and care and schools. This year, the theme of the week reminds adults that it matters what we say about and how we talk about work. A child does not necessarily recognise irony or satire, but often takes what we say literally. This can affect what kind of basic attitude children and young people develop towards work.

- We speak well of work, even if there are also unpleasant features related to work, workplace or work tasks. Along with celebrating weekends and holidays, it is also good to say that it is nice to have work and that Monday can be a good day too, reminds Ville Lähdesmäki of the Entrepreneurial Tampere network.

The event week is protected by Tampere's Mayor Kalervo Kummola.

- This week is a great opportunity for children and young people to explore and learn about entrepreneurship, find their own interests and develop their strengths. The knowledge and skills developed in childhood and adolescence can go a long way into the future. I wish everyone a rewarding and meaningful Working Life Week, says Kalervo Kummola, Mayor of Tampere.

Useful skills can be developed early on

Early childhood education and care and pre-primary education highlight important topics related to entrepreneurship and working life during the theme week. Early childhood lays the foundation for lifelong entrepreneurship, which is practiced through the means of perseverance education. Even young children practise perseverance every day, for example in dressing situations.

The children's ideas are used to develop, for example, projects in which they learn to finish things together. The topic is examined functionally: through research, play and experimentation. Through play, dreams are discussed and different professions become more familiar, among other things.

Schools and educational institutions have plenty of programmes

During the week, schools organise various competitions as a joint programme. This week's programme includes the Work! photography competition for elementary schools, the 8th grade Enterprising School video competition and the 9th grade Tampere Business Race competition, where students go around the city centre completing tasks related to entrepreneurship and working life.

Schools can also prepare their own programme for the theme week. For example, at Hatanpää school, students in the 4th and 7th grades play Working Life Bingo all week. The #unelmaduuni (#dreamjob) event for 8th graders organised by the city of Tampere is also returning after a break of a few years as part of the Working Life Week.

In upper secondary education, upper secondary schools and Tredu focus on entrepreneurship and working life skills during the theme week. In cooperation with an active network, diverse and versatile programme has been made possible. The programme can be followed at live events or online.

The joint programme offers, among other things, the “What about entrepreneurship?” event where students' stories about entrepreneurship are heard. In addition, entrepreneur Rajkumar Sabanadesan and Laura Tirkkonen-Rajasalo from Sulapac Oy are guest speakers during the week. 

The various locations organise their own events, workshops and visits to different locations. All second-year students in general upper secondary education in Tampere attend a corporate visit during the theme week.
 
In the future, career paths will become more diverse. Students need capabilities and information about entrepreneurship, self-employment and on how to design their own career path. The stories and experiences of entrepreneur guests in particular are valuable to students. The events of the theme week offer a versatile perspective on future working life and entrepreneurship.

Higher education institutions also participate in the theme week

Tampere University of Applied Sciences and the Tampere University offer their expertise for the Working Life Week programme. Proakatemia and HUBS, which offers sustainable entrepreneurship studies in Tampere's higher education community, organise information sessions about entrepreneurship studies for new students. In addition, the theme of the Working Life Week, “Share the good about work”, will be visible in HUBS's daily communications.

For those already in working life, the programme is offered by the Employment and Growth Services of the City of Tampere, which organises a webinar on starting part-time entrepreneurship. People can start looking for additional income by selling their skills alongside their main job. In addition to diverse and versatile services, the Working Life Week presents the support of the start-up building Platform6 to expert teams and encourages young people to familiarise themselves with entrepreneurship and start-up activities as one career option.

The theme week is organised by the Entrepreneurial Tampere network, which includes early childhood education and care, basic education, upper secondary education, higher education institutions and the city's Employment and Growth Services. The Working Life Week and its arrangements involve people from “from babies to doctors”, i.e. from early childhood education to the university level.