Translated from: BRIDGE-hanke sitoo yrityksiä ja opiskelijoita yhteen, Kemi-Tornio 2.9.2020
Employment of university graduates is not always easy. Lack of work experience makes new graduate specialists less competitive in the labor market. The BRIDGE project is trying to help the students to sort out this challenge.
Funded by the Kolarctic CBC-program the project will set up for SMEs and students a common educational platform, with which companies would be able to propose business tasks to students, in turn students would have an opportunity to present and develop their professional skills and meet potential employers
Natalia Pulakka, project worker from Lapland UAS
The project is led by UiT – Arctic University of Norway. Other partners are Lapland UAS, Murmansk Arctic State University, ITMO University (Saint-Petersburg) and Petrozavodsk State University. Each university is responsible for one session, for which local business representatives are invited to join in.
Such companies of Lapland region from different fields of businesses as Datadrivers Oy, Asv Arctic Smart Village Oy, Tmi Puuterä and Tornio Municipality participated in the session organized by Lapland UAS in the Spring 2019. The full list of participants and more information about the project can be found at kolarcticbridge.com.
Due to the prevailing situation with the COVID19 pandemic, the Murmansk session during spring 2020 was under threat of cancellation. It was not possible to hold a week-long contact workshop, because the borders of the countries were closed. The travel restrictions had been set up so suddenly that the project organizers had to make decision and changes just few days before the planned trips.
Despite all the doubts and difficulties, the workshop’s move to online went very smoothly, and after that student teams produced excellent results. In May the students presented their innovation ideas and solutions and received positive feedback from satisfied customers, Pulakka mentioned.
Now the project is preparing for the next workshop, which will be held again online. This time SMEs from Petrozavodks are seeking for development ideas.