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Master’s students Netta Ranta (Strategic Management) and Jussi Saastamoinen (Business Analytics) from the Aalto University School of Business carried out a project on young people’s working life skills in spring 2026 in collaboration with K Group. The aim of the project was to produce information on the basis of which K Group will develop an online training package for young people.

During the project, the students examined themes and sub-areas related to young people’s working life skills in a comprehensive way through a literature review, expert interviews, workshops carried out together with young people and a survey. The material consisted, among other things, of ten expert interviews and workshops targeted at young people.

The results show that there are challenges related to the employment of young people. The labour market is perceived as difficult and uncertain, and it is hard for young people to find jobs. At the same time, more experience and more versatile working life skills are expected of young people. The most important among these included interaction, problem-solving and self-management skills.

Although uncertainty is emphasised, the views of young people also highlighted hope and confidence in their own abilities. Young people are increasingly aware of their own limits and expect meaningfulness, opportunities for development and a work environment that supports wellbeing from working life.

Young people want online courses with concise and concrete content 

A key strength of the project was the workshops organised with young people at different levels of education. The workshops provided valuable information on what kinds of working life skills young people want to develop and in what form it would be meaningful to learn them.

Based on the workshops, young people want concise and concrete content: long and generic online courses are seen as ineffective, whereas short (5–10 minute) videos and real-life examples from working life increase motivation to learn.

These observations are also reflected in the project’s recommendations, which emphasise practicality and a clear structure. The online training should focus particularly on applying for a first job and summer work, include short expert videos and concrete working life situations, and offer feedback, intermediate milestones and a certificate to support job seeking. In addition, it is essential that the young person completing the course has the freedom to progress at their own pace and select content according to their own needs.

The expert interviews also highlight important observations on how to support the development and strengthening of young people’s working life skills. These include comprehensive induction, understanding young people’s expectations and needs, a safe and receptive atmosphere and career guidance.

Collaboration brought new perspectives and insights

According to the students, the project was an educational experience and offered an opportunity to combine research data and practical perspectives.

‘During the project it has been particularly rewarding to meet different people and hear their views on working life skills. Based on these and the literature, we have been able to build a clear and structured whole that is of genuine benefit in developing the online training package,’ says Netta Ranta.

‘The project was a particularly pleasant and educational experience for me. It was valuable to combine young people’s own experiences, experts’ views and research data into a single clear whole. It was motivating to see how the collected data was translated into recommendations that have a direct connection to K Group’s development work and can genuinely support young people’s readiness for working life,’ says Jussi Saastamoinen.

K Group’s representatives Eevi Pitkänen and Laura Leskelä describe the collaboration as smooth and rewarding.

‘The collaboration project with Netta and Jussi was smooth and straightforward in the way of working and successful in its outcomes. Communication and project management worked excellently. We engaged in continuous dialogue about the ways of working and the key observations emerging from the research. Netta and Jussi documented the progress of the project for us in writing, with images and videos. We gained valuable and diverse insights to feed into our own development work. It was also meaningful for us to be able to carry out exploratory research and development work with young people under Netta and Jussi’s guidance.’

Professor of Management studies Marjo-Riitta Diehl, who acted as the project’s academic supervisor, considered the project’s topic and K Group’s objectives to be socially important and appreciated the fact that the project was carried out in collaboration with Aalto students and from the young people’s own starting points. 

‘The project got off to a promising start, as K Group’s vision and needs had already been carefully thought through. It was also great to see how enthusiastically Netta and Jussi joined the project and how results were achieved. There was a real “let’s get things done” attitude in the project, just as there should be in working life,’ she says.