Focus on Youth and Employment
This year’s workshop specifically tackled topics concerning the future of young people, emphasizing the importance of making Kymenlaakso more attractive to youth. Employment plays a significant role, especially in light of the current TE24 reforms, which reorganize employment services and naturally impact young people.
Kymenlaakso faces several challenges. The population is aging, and the number of children and young people is declining, leading to a weakening dependency ratio. Structural changes, such as the contraction of the forestry industry and the migration of jobs to larger cities, have also eliminated many traditional jobs, causing young people to leave the region in search of work or education. Youth unemployment has risen as economic conditions have worsened.
A Collective Will for Positive Change
Despite these challenges, there is a strong will in Kymenlaakso to develop and promote positive changes. This year’s Future Workshop aimed to address youth-related themes comprehensively and collaboratively brainstorm solutions that will sustain into the future.
Engaging in foresight activities like the Future Workshop benefits the region and its youth in several ways. It fosters a proactive approach to identifying and addressing future challenges and opportunities, encourages collaborative problem-solving, and promotes the development of innovative solutions tailored to regional needs. For young people, such initiatives provide a platform to voice their concerns and contribute to shaping their future. However, it is a well-known fact that involving young people in decision-making processes that affect them is a challenge. This time, too, only a few of the young people who signed up actually participated in the workshop.
Nevertheless, the Future Workshop ensured that youth opinions were heard by collecting information through service design methods beforehand and compiling it into a video. This approach resulted in a more diverse range of voices and prevented the responsibility of speaking for an entire generation from falling on the shoulders of just a few young individuals.
Workshop Results Reflect Both Concerns and Hope
The main results of the 2024 Future Workshop highlight concerns about mental health challenges and a lack of future confidence among young people. Working life may seem too challenging for the youth, and the region may not be able to meet unrealistic expectations – perhaps no region can.
Significant changes lie ahead, requiring everyone’s involvement. In addition to active developers and the statutory duties of public administration, companies that employ young people should increasingly join the discussion. While better instructing young people on the rules of working life, new flexible models for hiring youth should also be tried in the workplace – without forgetting international students.
The workshop results also emphasize the importance of guidance. Support is needed in studies and overall life. Signals of increasing learning difficulties are evident.
But there is also hope: young people have always challenged the status quo. This renewing force should be trusted now as well. Openness to diversity remains strong, despite some polarization of opinions. Community and meaningful work promote well-being.
Changes in consumption and ideas supporting sustainable development also create new jobs. As earning models diversify, more people can find flexible ways to work that suit them. Even an aging population can prove to be an advantage for the region: retirements open new job opportunities for young people.