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TAMK International

Companies invited international students for visits

— Emmi Suominen
The students dressed for Netled Oy's farm visit in accordance with hygiene requirements.

Practical training is an important part of studies. During the internship, the student gets to learn in practice and develop their own professional skills. TAMK's Talent Boost program and the Tampere Chamber of Commerce have created solutions to support international students for finding companies to implement their internship.

In order to increase new networking opportunities, we decided to organize company visits, which bring together students and companies interested in international talents. In the spring of 2023, we organized an opportunity for member companies of the Chamber of Commerce to invite TAMK’s international students for a visit. TAMK’s degree programs included Environmental Engineering, Software Engineering and International Business. Six companies signed up, one of which was Netled Oy.

The opportunity to visit Netled gathered a lot of interest and students from all three degree programs signed up. The visit took place on May 4th and a total of about twenty students participated. The internship supervisors of the degree programs were also present.

Theses and internship opportunities

Netled Oy is a company from Pirkanmaa that focuses on vertical farming technology. Netled operates in Finland and aims to increase its growth in the international market. Netled’s operations and development strongly reflect the values of sustainable development and ecological operations. The operation is significantly more energy efficient than traditional greenhouse cultivation.

Netled Oy’s Head of Sales Heikki Takko welcomed the student group and took them around to get to know the company’s facilities and operations. The students found the visit to the company interesting. After the farm tour, possible thesis topics and internship opportunities were discussed. The students asked questions and got information about the company’s operations and what kind of skills are needed.

Comment from a student:

The visit to Netled was a great experience, to see the small plantation in work and all the automation they applied was interesting too.

During the visit, it became clear that the skills of the students of TAMK’s degree programs (e.g. automation mechanics, process engineers, product development and software skills) meet the company’s growing needs. Heikki Takko hoped that some of the students would end up working for Netled Oy in the future. 

Visits increase encounters

During the visit, the students gained a lot of new practical information in a short time about how versatile knowledge and different skills are needed in companies. From the teaching point of view, such insights are important, as they encourage to think about the opportunities brought by your own education and the labor market more broadly.

Visits to local companies in Pirkanmaa help students network with companies and find internships. At the same time, companies also get new, up-to-date information about students’ skills and new potential employees.

Getting an internship is of great importance not only for the student’s learning, but also for the progress and completion of the studies. In the best case, the student will find a permanent job at the internship and an employer gets skilled new employee.

The visits will be continued in autumn 2023 in cooperation with TAMK Talent Boost programme and Tampere Chamber of Commerce. Read more about Talent Boost.

Text:
Petteri Jekunen, Training Coordinator, Software Engineering, TAMK
Marita Tuomala, Training Coordinator, International Business, TAMK
Laura Sairanen, Project Specialist, Talent Boost, TAMK
Mika Nieminen, Training Coordinator, Environmental Engineering, TAMK

Photo: Renata Brito

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