Career Guidance and Networking
The impacts of the covid pandemic led to an increase in unemployment in the hotel, restaurant, and tourism industry in Satakunta and throughout Finland. Therefore, the labor shortage in the industry provides young people with a good opportunity for employment. Education should focus on enhancing students' job-hunting skills, so they can better market themselves for jobs in the field. Employers should also invest in improving the industry's image to increase its attractiveness.
Looking further into the future, young people are the leaders of tomorrow, not just temporary assistants. When bringing an intern into a company, they should be treated as if they could be the company's future CEO and guided accordingly. A committed employer invests more in thorough introduction of duties, rather than expecting to have fully trained staff immediately. To acquire skilled and committed employees, employers should invest in a careful and comprehensive orientation program.
Guidance on self-awareness, job hunting skills, and working life
The Uraboost Workbook guide, released in September 2023, can be used for career guidance, coaching, and training for future professionals in HoReCa industries. Job seekers can look for internships, part-time work, gig work, summer jobs, or full-time positions. In the industry, a strong emphasis is placed on service orientation, social skills, teamwork, and flexibility, which may not have been practiced extensively due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic. New forms of job hunting include video resumes, which can be attached to applications. LinkedIn has also gained popularity as a networking tool and job search platform. The guide and its exercises can be utilized in the desired order and extent. The guide is suitable for both young job seekers and their stakeholders, as well as learning material for various educational institutions in the Satakunta region, and it is distributed in educational institutions, fairs, and events in the area.
The exercises of the guide have been piloted at Sataedu for students in the first and second years of the HoReCa field in Kankaanpää, Ulvila, and Kokemäki. During the lectures, we practiced, for example, communication skills, identified the strengths and weaknesses of our professional selves, contemplated our career paths, explored various routes to employment, and discussed the importance of rules. Mental well-being in both work and everyday life was a significant part of the exercises. According to the feedback, most participants found the content to be useful, new, and interesting. Some thought that there were also unnecessary elements, and a few found it a bit dull. Not everyone thought the day was very useful.
Networking is one of the future skills
Future skills focus on digitalization, problem-solving ability, adaptability to change, and service development, as well as information acquisition. These aspects should be considered in both secondary and higher education and in their planning. Projects coordinated by educational institutions partly address these needs, but for the continuity of operations, the importance of collaboration is emphasized. It is important that industry stakeholders collaborate and develop innovative strategies to support the recovery and renewal of the tourism and catering industry in Satakunta.
The establishment of a network of collaboration among the HoReCa industry operators in the Satakunta region began in the fall of 2023, to support youth employment and alleviate market matching problems. Information exchange, sharing experiences, discussions, and planning joint activities are central tasks of the future Satakunta HoReCa industry labor market cooperation group, SaMaTyö.
Did you know this?
- The Uraboost Workbook guide is available in its online version at https://www.matkailunkehittamiskeskus.fi/tietoa-meista/projektit/matkaan/ (fin)
- TE-live provides visibility for your recruitment efforts, saves you time, and offers the opportunity to positively influence employer branding. In TE-live broadcasts, you'll hear employers' and employees' views on jobs and what the actual work is like. You'll gain a deeper understanding of available job positions and the type of employees that are being sought. Find broadcasts in the Satakunta region at https://te-live.fi/ (fin)
- Watch the recording "Are you looking for a job or an employee? Special broadcast for the tourism and catering industry" from the TE-info live broadcast on the website https://te-live.fi/lahetykset/1CK5K81Sc (fin)
In Satakunta, there are ongoing projects to support employment and orientation. The ESR-funded #MATKAAN project of the Tourism Development Center supports the employment of young people in the HoReCa industry in Satakunta and accelerates the meeting of employers and employees. In the project, awareness of career and employment opportunities in the industry for young job seekers, their employability skills, self-management, career planning, and job-hunting skills were developed through personal guidance and a joint coaching series in the fall of 2022 and spring of 2023. Some of the coaching materials were used to produce an electronic guidebook targeted at young people, "Get Employed in the Tourism, Hotel, and Restaurant Industry," or Uraboost Workbook, which young job seekers and their stakeholders can use during and after the project. The Uraboost Workbook guide was created during the #MATKAAN project funded by the European Social Fund. The goal of the #MATKAAN project is to support the employment of young people in the tourism, accommodation, and restaurant industry, which has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The project has been implemented at Satakunta University of Applied Sciences' Tourism Development Center since May 1, 2022, and it continues until the end of December 2023.