Involve parents

When approaching young people/students through company visits, technical school visits or at trade fairs, it is useful to involve the parents as they have a strong impact on the decision making of young people and often lack knowledge about job opportunities ion the paper industry

Diversity and inclusion

Company values must include commitment to diversity and inclusion – by taking care of often commonly under-represented categories, such as women and minorities

Work-life balance

Salary is important, but for the new generation that is not enough: youngsters also look for a meaningful work-life balance that could allow them to preserve their wellbeing. Make sure your company is committed to wellbeing and balancing work and private life

A modern working environment

Attracting youngsters also means restructuring the working environment by creating a modern, flexible and friendly space with an “open-door” policy

Employees working conditions

Sectoral social partners shall be committed to promoting continuous and fruitful social dialogue, in order to always safeguard good working conditions for employees

Lifelong learning

Focus on lifelong learning programmes for up and reskilling employees at all levels

Sectoral image

To make the sector more attractive, it is essential to rework and restructure its image and identity with a view to young people

FINLAND | Grants for students for manufacturing plant, sawmill and logging site visits

Finnish Forest Industries Federation has an annual budget for supporting student group visits to pulp, paper and board manufacturing plants, sawmills and logging site visits. This proved to be a great form of supporting schools and student groups who usually do not have extra money for excursions. The process is simple: (1) The class teacher or representatives of student groups fill out an application form for their planned trip.; (2) FFIF decides whether to support the transportation (usually private bus rides) for the trip; and (3) if the trip is granted, the applying party is obliged to provide a brief commentary on the trip (what was learned, how did the receiving company perform etc)

Key stakeholders:
– Finnish Forest Industries Federation + schools
– Student groups
– Teachers
– Student counsellors

Specific Benefits:
Great form of supporting schools and student groups who usually do not have extra money for excursions.

FINLAND | Forest of Opportunities: Biggest workplace school campaign

This is a school campaign for Finnish 8th graders (14-15) and high school students (16-18) representing forest industry’s study and working opportunities, circular economy, basics of forest management, role of forests in mitigating climate change and products made from wood. “School ambassadors”, meaning forest industry experts from different occupations and companies, visit schools either physically or virtually. There is a wood product portfolio involved in the campaign. Each attending school gets a case full of products made from wood. The case is designed to be a part of teaching different subjects: chemistry, mathematics, arts, student counselling etc.
The campaign has been going on since 2013. 25 000 students each year are reached, which is half of the age group in Finland.

Key stakeholders:
– Finnish Forest Industries Federation
– Forest Product Engineers
– Finnish Forest Association
– Metsä Group
– Stora Enso UPM
– Versowood
– DS Smith Sappi Kirkniemi
– Koskisen Oy
– Pölkky Oy
– Tornator
– Corex
– Delfort

Specific Benefits:
Excellent way to reach big groups of young people and share knowledge with both students and teachers/councillors. During the visit, the students get a clearer idea of what today’s forest industry is really like: its diverse study and job opportunities, how sustainability is related to everything the industry does, and all the products that can be manufactured from wood.

Conditions for success:
Someone to coordinate the campaign (in this case we have a coordinator from FFIF’s comms team).

Campaign web page:
https://www.mahdollisuuksienmetsa.fi/en_us/index.html