Training programme for Finnish Institution of Occupational Health

In this thesis a training programme was made for Finnish Institution of Occupational Health. This thesis consists of theory section, research results and conclusions. The research problem was to study what kind of training programme is needed in Finnish Institution of Occupational Health. The secondary research problems were, what kind of interns have been working in the past for the Institution, from which schools, how long their employment relationships have lasted and what will happen to the interns in the future. The research method in this thesis was a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The research was put into practice during January 2012. The questionnaire was sent to each 72 managers of the Institution by using email. The Managers had 2 weeks’ time to answer the questionnaire and after that the answers were analysed by using Excel program. The questionnaire was made by using Digium questionnaire program and there were approximately 20 questions in the form. The response rate in this research was 41per cent.

The responses to the questionnaire came from each 8 units of the Institution. The survey indicated that most of the Institution’s interns have worked in office works and assistant research work. The working periods of the interns have lasted mainly 2-6 months and the trainees were working mostly unpaid. The managers have had only positive or quite positive experiences of their interns.

In the future, in the Finnish Institution of Occupational Health, interns are needed who are at the end of their studies, preferably from universities of applied sciences, but also from universities. It is hoped that the interns would still work for 2-6 months, which has been considered as an ideal time. In the future, the largest need for interns is in the research and specialist sectors and in the office and maintenance sector, but interns from other groups are also needed. When it comes to payment, the majority of managers think that trainees should get a salary, reward or some kind of another advantage.

More than half of the Institution’s managers think that in the future the need for interns will be the same than now and interns would be employed in all the seasons, except in summers. The most important experiences that the interns need are enough amounts of studies and good IT-skills. According to these answers and the theory, a training programme for Finnish Institution of Occupational Health was made. I hope that the Institution can benefit from this programme in the future and improve its competitiveness of students.