Introduction to working life at Kuopio Health

Introduction to working life at Kuopio Health

In Finland 9th graders at primary school (15-year-olds) will do something called TET. Translated into English, it means “introduction to working life”. We will search for a suitable employee, send them a message or call them and hope we will get the opportunity to see what they are doing in practical means (although we don’t get paid for it…).

I’d say that some of the most popular jobs people apply for are schools and shops, but I decided to try something different, and so I contacted Kuopio Health. Luckily, they accepted my proposal.

When I started, I knew next to nothing about Kuopio Health. I was aware that it was somehow related to Kuopio’s health care system, (I mean, it’s named Kuopio HEALTH) and that it was a small company, but nothing else.

As the first day went, I was already much more educated. I was given a task to list all the Kuopio Health innovation ecosystem members and what they do, and that was actually much more fun than I had expected. 

As part of my tasks, I got familiar with AI. I went trough a university online course, and even though I surely wasn’t the most experienced person ever on the course, I still learned a lot about AI. I went trough some documents, and there were two things that stood out to me the most. First, how you can benefit from AI in health care. I’m actually really exited to see what we learn to do with with it.

The second was AI in art. There are some really cool things you can create with it. For example, you can take a picture about something and then AI will generate it to a chosen artstyle. Everyone will be able to express emotions trough art without having to go trough the struggle of learning how to actually make art. This is amazing, despite the fact that it takes away job opportunities from “real” artists. I hope we will find a middle ground between the traditional art and AI art. 

I’m afraid that the jobs we will have in the future will be even more “hard” in the sense that people have to study even more years to actually do the job. I think people who don’t do academically well will find the future jobground even more challenging.

I wish that everyone will get an opportunity to work. This also includes all people with disabilities, since I’m sure that with AI we will be able to help people with disabilities to do things they once weren’t able to do.

Overall, I’m so happy about my time at Kuopio Health. The people were amazing and I learned so much.

Text: Heta Solehmainen