Discussion of climate wisdom at Taitaja 2025 event on vocational education

“When we talk to students and farmers in Denmark about the green transition, most agree that they, – and the entire agricultural sector, plays a crucial and important role. But when asked how they can act more climate-smart, many become less clear. We need to give students and farmers specific skills to work in a climate-smart way and give the entire sector a more proactive voice and role in the green transition”

Kasper Hvelplund Overgaard – Denmark CoVE Regional Captain

“When we talk to students and farmers in Denmark about the green transition, most agree that they, – and the entire agricultural sector, plays a crucial and important role. But when asked how they can act more climate-smart, many become less clear. We need to give students and farmers specific skills to work in a climate-smart way and give the entire sector a more proactive voice and role in the green transition”

Kasper Hvelplund Overgaard – Denmark CoVE Regional Captain

Taking place in Turku from 5 to 8 May, the Taitaja 2025 event attracted 66,000 visitors interested in discussing the skillsets of young professionals. The programme included a Taitaja 9 competition for primary school students, two seminars and a variety of side events at the Partner Market, Event Market and Safety Market.

Taitaja is the biggest annual event in vocational education and training in Finland – a world championship in vocational skills where students from different fields compete for the Finnish championship. This year, they were around 450 competitors across 48 different disciplines.

On the joint stand and session, EVECSA discussed climate wisdom

Seven European COVE (Centres of Vocational Excellence) projects – AhlmanEdu, City of Turku, SataEdu, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Kpedu & ProAgria Keski-Pohjanmaa, Osao and Raseko – joined forces on a common exhibition stand, and led a joint session to present the following international projects: the European Platform Urban Greening, EVECSA, Infinite, EXCEED, Care About IT, SEED and WIN4SMES. Networking also gained international face-to-face encounters thanks to the presence of Dieuwke Reehoorn (Care About IT COVE) and Jessica Knopper from the Netherlands as guests on the stand.

EVECSA was represented by Tanja Yli-Tokola from KPEDU and Kirsi Leppikorpi from ProAgria Keski-Pohjanmaa. Visitors had the chance to try out the now popular Wheel of Fortune, where whoever got the right number got to answer a question about a project. ‘What does climate wisdown mean?’ was the EVECSA question, which led to inspiring discussions with young people about a sustainable future and climate-wise choices.

The workshop was a success, and, inspired by the shared positive experience, the group decided to organise a similar workshop for the Taitaja 2026 in Tuusula.

The event also gave us the opportunity to have a constructive discussion with representatives of the Finnish National Board of Education on how sustainable development could be more strongly reflected in the Taitaja in the coming years.