Partner companies point way to the top for Millennium Youth Campers
Company visits have been part of the program of Millennium Youth Camp from the beginning. This year companies will be more actively involved, alongside the experts from universities, in the projects, showing in a very concrete way how science and technology play an important role in their success.
Food Science and Technology team on a company visit during Millennium Youth Camp 2013. Photo: Jussi Nygren.
A common factor to the partner companies of Millennium Youth Camp – Kemira, Neste Oil, Nokia, Rovio and UPM – is the high value they place on science and technology knowhow.
“We have succeeded in becoming the leading supplier of renewable fuels in the world and in launching four completely new products during the past five years, and this is largely due to our investment in R&D and technology,” points out Lars Peter Lindfors, Senior Vice President, Technology at Neste Oil.
The companies also benefit from the interaction with the young people. Teemu Suila, Chief Operating Officer at Rovio, explains why his company decided to be a partner for the camp.
“It is important for us to be in direct contact with young people, who are interested in the natural sciences and technology, and to encourage them to create something new and to learn with us. We can give the young people some valuable experiences, but we feel that we also have something new and important to learn from the new generations.”
Exciting experiences give motivation for studying
Interest in studying mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering has declined among young people around the world, despite the growing need for experts in these fields. This is also true in Finland, and much effort has gone into thinking up the most effective ways to motivate young people to study the sciences and engineering.
Rovio believes that the key to arousing more interest is to make studying more fun, and the company wishes to serve as a role model in this.
“For example our cooperation with NASA has aroused the interest of children and young people around the world in space in a completely new way. The Angry Birds Space game has also been used in teaching, and it is important for us that Angry Birds can be involved not only in entertainment but also in providing new learning experiences,” Suila explains.
Neste Oil’s Lindfors stresses the importance of doing something practical in learning.
“In my opinion, what people experience for themselves and those aha! occasions provide the biggest motivation. Science and technology have to take visible form, closely related to their lives, if young people are to get excited about them. Cooperation between young people, research institutions and technology companies has a key role to play specifically in creating these personal experiences.”
Millennium Youth Camp is completely free of charge and anyone born between the years 1995 and 1998 is eligible to apply. The application period for the first phase of the application process is from 15 October to 15 December. Apply now by filling the online form at: elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/45593/lomake.html. More information on the application process can be found at www.millenniumyouthcamp.fi.
The main organisers of Millennium Youth Camp are Finland’s Science Education Centre LUMA (University of Helsinki), Technology Academy Finland, and Aalto University.
To find out what Millennium Youth Camp is all about, read the Camp news, look at photos in Flickr, and watch videos in Vimeo.
