At the end of January 2026, Omnia’s Skills Week made visible something that often goes unnoticed in everyday life: without vocational skills, society does not function. Throughout the week, Omnia’s various campuses brought together students, teachers, companies, decision-makers, and regional partners around a shared theme – skills, working life, and the future.
The Skills Week culminated on 30 January 2026 in the national Skills Day, highlighting cooperation between education and working life. During the day, extensive discussions were held on skills needs, youth employment, and the role of education in building a sustainable society.
Skills Meet Working Life at DuuniOmnia and the Automotive Day
One of the most concrete encounters of the week was the DuuniOmnia recruitment event, where Omnia students met employers from various sectors, explored apprenticeship and training agreement opportunities, and reflected on their own career paths. Workshops addressed topics such as applying for summer jobs, entrepreneurship, the opportunities offered by apprenticeships, and pathway studies from vocational education to universities of applied sciences.
At the Automotive Day, a message emerged that was repeated throughout the week’s events: skills needs do not decrease during times of transition – they change. Technological development, electrification, and digitalisation require continuous learning, as well as close cooperation between companies and educational institutions. Up-to-date skills can only be developed when education and working life evolve side by side.
Without Vocational Skills, Finland Comes to a Standstill
Panel discussions on Skills Day strongly highlighted concerns about youth employment and the importance of first work experiences. Minister of Employment Matias Marttinen, together with representatives of working life and students, emphasised that skills form the foundation of Finnish working life and the economy.
Mirja Hannula (Confederation of Finnish Industries, EK), appointed Skills Ambassador of the Year 2025, captured the message succinctly: without vocational professionals, everyday services, industry, and future investments cannot be realised. Vocational education offers flexible, work-life-oriented solutions to skills needs arising from both the green and digital transitions.
Making the Value of Skills Visible
Skills Week also celebrated skills and the people behind them. The Skills Awards 2025 highlighted students, teachers, workplace instructors, and working-life partners whose everyday actions build competence, inclusion, and trust.
The awards served as a reminder that skills are not created solely through structures or strategies, but through people, encounters, and long-term cooperation.
Supporting Choices After Comprehensive School
As part of Skills Week, orientation days and evenings for ninth-grade students offered young people and their parents the opportunity to explore Omnia’s facilities, fields of study, and opportunities in a concrete way. These visits strengthened the understanding that vocational education offers diverse pathways, including access to higher education, and that changing fields and flexible transitions are possible.
Open dialogue, personal encounters, and the chance to see learning environments first-hand support young people in making informed choices at key transition points in their educational paths.
Strengthening Regional Cooperation
At the beginning of Skills Week, Omnia brought together vocational education providers from Western Uusimaa for a new type of network discussion. The shared goal is to strengthen the impact, attractiveness, and regional cooperation of education, while responding more effectively to the changing needs of working life and students.
Joint foresight, coherent communication, and student wellbeing also emerged as key themes from the perspective of a sustainable education ecosystem.
VET2Sustain Contributing to Building the Future
The VET2Sustainproject participated in Omnia’s Skills Week events, contributing perspectives on sustainability, skills development, and the long-term role of vocational education. The project examines how vocational education can support the ability of individuals, working life, and society to respond to change in an economically, socially, and ecologically sustainable way.
Skills Week demonstrated very concretely that a sustainable future is built on skills, cooperation, and continuous learning. The week attracted a large number of visitors to Omnia’s campuses and gained wide, positive visibility on social media.
Vocational skills do not emerge by chance.
They are built through people, curiosity, education, learning, work – and appreciation.
