Upper Savonia’s industry is multidisciplinary and innovative. The modern and competitive concentration of the technology industry includes companies operating on the international market and subcontractors operating in the network. Ponsse’s forest machines, Normet’s mining vehicles and Profile Vehicles’ ambulances are known worldwide for their high quality. Genelec’s studio monitoring loudspeakers represent the international top of their field, and the brewing company Olvi makes sure that thirst does not surprise you.
The turnover and exports of Upper Savonia’s industrial companies have grown faster than the rest of Finland in the 2000s. The turnover of Upper Savonia’s industry in 2019 was 2.6 billion euros and exports 520 million euros.
Project plan
Background
The industrial concentration of Upper Savonia (Ylä-Savo) includes several companies operating on the international market and subcontractors operating in their networks. Machine and equipment manufacturing, and the related service network is the region’s largest employer and an extremely important industry in terms of the region’s vitality. The goal of the project is to secure access to skilled labor for the industry of Upper Savonia and to offer expert business development services, product development and testing services, as well as RDI environments that apply high-level research knowledge to the needs of companies’ skills development.
Purpose and goals
The goal of the project is to strengthen the position of Upper Savonia’s industry by offering, with the help of the collected foresight information, a competence development service implemented jointly by educational organizations as needed. The project’s measures strengthen the launch of the machine and equipment manufacturing cluster, the KesTech competence center. The KesTech cluster is formed by the educational organizations operating in the region, i.e. the University of Eastern Finland, Savonia University of Applied Sciences and Upper Savonia University of Applied Sciences.
The main goal of the project is to create a new training and RDI competence center in Upper Savonia that supports the development of industry and technology sector operations. The project promotes cooperation between Upper Savonia’s industry and technology companies and educational organizations in regional training and development activities. The project supports the renewal of industry and the technology sector, the increase of know-how and the utilization of new technology in business. In addition, the project develops, tests, and evaluates processes and services produced using the co-development model.
The measures of the project are:
- Anticipation of possible future activities in the technology sector. Utilizing the services and information of available forecasting platforms to create a future picture of sustainable industry. The planning and piloting of the data collection and analysis model for the future training, competence and labor needs of the technology sector will be implemented.
- The network-like operating model of the KesTech competence center is being developed. A joint development and action plan will be drawn up and a process-like development model will be implemented into practice.
- A business partnership model and a continuous learning service model are planned and piloted. RDI cooperation between universities, research institutes, vocational training institutes, public entities and companies will be increased, also at the international level.
- Regional technology sector project actors and development projects are identified. A joint technology project development platform and orchestration model for educational organizations will be implemented.
As a result of the project, an operating model will be created between the industrial companies of Upper Savonia and the educational organizations operating in the region, with the help of which future skills and technology development needs can be anticipated and innovative solutions can be offered. The operating model proactively responds to the changing needs of the manufacturing industry and the technology sector.