Taitopajat 2020 is a product development project, the main objective of which is to create a new kind of skilled work that strengthens the skills needed for employment. The project’s objectives are to develop customer-oriented and effective operating models for strengthening the digital skills needed for working life (digital skills workshop)2.to strengthen the skills needed for self-employment (entrepreneurship workshop) 3.for coaching work in the City of Kuopio’s group communities (the so-called ‘workshop’)4.For parallel strengthening of Finnish language and employment skills (the so-called Language Competence Workshop) during the project, the operating models will be piloted in practice through customer work. The goal is that a total of 575 customers will be directed to the project over the entire project period. The long-term unemployed and the parallel long-term unemployed are the main target group of the project. The project does not include rehabilitation services, so the participants in the project’s services must have the work ability required for employment. In addition, young people who are unemployed or graduates from education and training may be included in the project’s measures, for whom a pathway to employment or training can be built through a job skills or entrepreneurship workshop. The target group of the Entrepreneurship Skipper is selected from the above-mentioned broad target group who have the will and the ability to start planning self-employment through various entrepreneurial pathways. In turn, the target group of the Language Competence Person is selected from the target group for those people with an immigrant background who have had a longer period of integration in Finland and whose undeveloped language skills are an obstacle to getting to the path of employment. The service concepts and operating models created as the result of the project are productable and can be applied for further implementation as a purchasing service, for example through cooperation between the county or municipalities.
