The Skills Actor of the Year Award for Business College Helsinki

Vuoden Skills-toimija julkistettiin Taitaja2022-tapahtuman yhteydessä. Palkinnon ottivat vastaan Business Collegen lehtori ja pitkän linjan Skills-toimija Tapio Kattainen (vas.), toimitusjohtaja Antti Loukola ja rehtori Antti Sirainen. Kuva: Skills Finland.

The winner of the award was published at Taitaja2022 in Pori. Teacher Tapio Kattainen, CEO Antti Loukola and principal Antti Sirainen received the price. Image: Skills Finland.

Business College Helsinki has been sending its students to Taitaja for around twenty years. Considering the numbers of its students and fields of education, it sends a significant number of young experts to this competition.

Recently, the institution has inspired new teachers to participate in the competition activities in addition to the students. This has opened access to vocational skills competitions not only to ICT students but also business students.

Business College Helsinki has also recently developed the coordination of participation in Taitaja within the educational institution. Full-time teacher Tapio Kattainen, a Taitaja and Skills veteran, explains that resources granted by the management have made it possible to put the institution's Taitaja activities on a more professional footing. “Rather than individual teachers shouldering the tasks related to the competitions, they are now completed as team work”, he describes the change.

Kattainen appreciates the fact that his employer makes it possible for so many students to participate in Taitaja semi-finals. He considers competition activities not only a path for developing students’ competence but also an interesting challenge to teachers' vocational competence.

Principal Antti Sirainen finds that Taitaja competitions help young people find jobs and pursue further studies, promote cooperation with working life, build networks and offer teachers an opportunity to develop their vocational competence and specialise. "We have seen how one euro spent on these activities brings back two in the form of students’ and staff members’ competence", Sirainen sums up.

In addition to a trophy, the award presented to Taitaja actors in Business College Helsinki included tickets to an escape game. The game marketed as moderately difficult raised the competitive spirit of the team nicely, even if it turned out to be easy for them. Image: Margit Tenosaar.

In Taitaja, educational institutions are ranked each year based on their success in the competitions. In this ranking, institutions with a small number of students are the underdogs, even if their students did well in the competition. This is why Business College Helsinki is particularly chuffed about the Skills Actor of the Year award: it makes visible the efforts made by an educational institution which is smaller than average in terms of its student numbers but which participates actively in the competitions.

“I encourage all educational institutions to find their own way of participating in the competitions, even on a very small scale, because the benefits are so massive”, Sirainen says.

Skills Finland presents the Skills Actor of the Year award to an individual or organisation that has significantly developed the competition activities or increased their visibility. The award goes to those involved in national and international competitions in alternate years.