TVO joins an educational project for schools

​Experts and companies that are registered in the project present during the academic year the versatile nature of the world of employment and work by means of practical examples, and provide information about future jobs and about interfaces between jobs and schools.

The project can be joined by individual experts, or by organisations that through a contact person provide access to several top experts in their own fields. Subject areas may include introductions of companies or industries, a career story or topics linked to a more precise substance area in e.g. studies of physics or geometry.

- For many people, nuclear power is something mystical and complex. This project provides an easy way to introduce these matters to the young people, with an expert from TVO explaining how electricity is produced at a nuclear power plant and what nuclear power is, explains Mika Tanhuanpää, TVO's Visitor Centre Manager.

- We also go through facts related to nuclear safety, and describe how the fuel that we use is created and what its manufacturing process is like. TVO employs experts from many fields, and we also tell the students about their tasks and the required educational qualifications. Our industry will need employees also in the future. We try for our part to encourage young people to consider careers in technical fields.

Mika Tanhuanpää has joined the Expert Network of the Economic Information office TAT.

Cooperation over the net

Cooperation between experts and schools is a fast and ecological route to cooperation between education and the world of employment and work. The educational institutes contact the experts and provide them with the required remote access rights, which make it possible for the experts to visit the schools sitting at their own desk. Modern technology is utilised in the cooperation. A web camera and a combination of a microphone and a speaker open up an interactive connection between the school and the expert over the Internet. It is a two-way connection for transferring sound and image.

- The teacher is still in charge of the lesson and only uses the expert as a kind of a demonstration tool, Mika tells. – For example, the expert can give a brief presentation of a given topic or just answer the students' questions. There is a lot of variation depending on the teacher's plans.

Service has been received well

- The Expert Network has been received really well, both in schools and in companies. Virtual visits provide a low threshold for cooperation, making visits to lessons easy to execute. On the other hand, web cameras make it possible to introduce also facilities, which the students could not visit in reality due to reasons of e.g. hygiene or safety regulations, explains Auri Kohola, a virtual coach for TAT.

- Companies can utilise remote access visits to gain visibility and an opportunity to tell the students about their future needs for competences. Participation in the Network also sends a message about the company's wish to contribute to such socially significant work in increasing the capabilities of young people for the world of employment and work.

Participation in the service is completely free of charge for both the companies and the schools. The only costs are in the form of working time when the experts make their visits to the schools, as well as purchasing costs of any required new equipment. Companies and experts who join the project commit to at least five virtual visits during the academic year.