Browsing by Subject "Osaaminen"
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(2023)The forestry industry is in transition for several different reasons, which is why employees are also required to acquire new skills and knowledge to meet the needs of the future. The purpose is to find out the qualitative skills needs of forestry workers (forestry engineer, forest energy producer, forest machine fitter, forest machine driver, logger forest service’s producer) and timber truck drivers in the future, as well as how these can be met. The study was commissioned for the Finnish Forestry Center's western service area, which includes the provinces of Central Ostrobothnia, South Ostrobothnia, Pirkanmaa, Satakunta and Southwest Finland. The topic has been extensively researched in Finland in recent years, and these studies are the basis for this report. The research is based on the difficulties experienced in recruitment for both quantitative and qualitative reasons. The turnover of workers in the field is currently high, which in part causes the need to consider whether the change in the field of trained workers could be prevented by, for example, additional or supplementary training. The research was carried out as a survey for employers in the forestry sector in the western service area of the Finnish Forestry Center. From the extensive material obtained based on the survey, the sections dealing with the qualitative characteristics of the employees in the field have been limited to this study. These include the following sections: Challenges in recruitment, new skills for the future, needs for additional and continuing education, skills of recent graduates, and trainees and educational institution cooperation. The results are very similar to previous studies. Although the small and partly unevenly distributed material, the research questions were answered. The most important themes emerged were the personal characteristics of forestry interns and recent graduates, the changes brought about by digitalization, substantive expertise, and business topics, including customer service and sales skills. The knowledge and skills of the interns and recent graduates were perceived as satisfactory or good. The greatest future challenge can be seen as the increasing need for practical training. The learning in the forest and in work placements instills the students' ways of doing things, so if it is added to, the students would be more independent already after graduation. Many of the themes discussed in the study are ones that can be responded to already in basic education. Due to the changing operating environment, additional and continuing training is needed. Implementation of the results of the research has started through the Finnish Forestry Center. The results have been taken regionally to the western service area for training organizers, employers and other stakeholders as needed. Forestry Center has started, among other things, a project based on the results, the purpose of which is to increase awareness of the forestry sector among young people with an eye on future jobs.
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(2019)The importance of competence development has grown, especially in expert organizations, because of the rapid pace of change in working life and the need for continuous learning. The aim of this study is to examine competence development in an expert organisation that provides business services. The first research question examines what conceptions experts have about competence development. The purpose of the second research question is to deepen the previous question by studying the role of managers in the competence development of junior experts. The data consisted of nine semi-structured individual interviews. All were collected from the same organisation. Six of the experts worked as associates/senior associates and three of them as managers. The first research question was put through a phenomenographic analysis in order to make it easier to tackle competence development as a phenomenon. The second research question was analysed through databased content analysis. The phenomenographic analysis resulted in three abstract categories, which describe the concepts of competence development in the target organisation: 1) competence development as an assumption and aspiration, 2) the contradiction between the necessity of competence development and its actual implementation and 3) learning at work and knowledge sharing. Thus, it can be stated that the experts of the target organisation consider competence development to be an important and necessary part of the organisation’s operations. Everyone in the organisation is expected to develop and want to develop their skills towards deeper expertise. At the same time, there is a challenge in terms of the amount of available time and the demands of client work, which limit opportunities to participate in training. However, the largest source of competence development was found not to be training itself but learning at work and sharing knowledge with colleagues and managers. When studying the manager’s role, the databased content analysis resulted in three different managerial roles: 1) instructor, 2) supporter-enabler and 3) sounding board-advisor. To sum up, the role of manager emphasises providing guidance, enabling developmental paths and acting as a sounding board and advisor. Based on the results of this study, it can be stated that competence development is at centre stage and is seen as being at the core of the expert organisation operations. However, ensuring that this is accomplished requires time in addition to the motivation of individuals and the opportunities offered by the organisation. Managers also play a particularly important role in ensuring that the needs of the organisation and the competence levels of the experts meet.
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