Osaamistalo Wakaru has been involved in international cooperation and bringing best practices in project management to Finland for more than 20 years. We work with Finland’s largest companies and are at the forefront of identifying constantly changing skills needs. Wakaru supports both newcomers to project management and professionals in various change situations. Right now, a collaboration is underway where Wakaru supports young project professionals in their career.
Text by Johanna Rakemaa
Photos by Wakaru
Working together on mentoring and supporting young people’s talents on their career paths
The Project Professionals Finland invited us from Wakuru to collaborate in running a mentoring programme for young project professionals. Participating in the mentoring programme provides us with an inspiring place to get involved in enabling the growth of future project professionals at the early stages of their career path. Mentoring is also a great opportunity to spar in challenging situations with an experienced coach and gain confidence in action.
At Wakaru, our commitment to the programme as a lead actor is part of our wider commitment to project development and a recognition of our solid professionalism. We offer a wide range of coaching services delivered by certified coaches.
Strengthening strong substantive knowledge and meta-skills
The world is changing when it comes to project skills and skills development in general. This is reflected in career paths and the need for agile skills development. The popular certificates are still important, but they need to be complemented by more practical and agile tools.
With our strong customer insight, we have built a project skills path that facilitates the development of project skills in different roles. Our agile, cost-effective and modular ProjectMaster coaching programme brings, among other things, certifiable coaching to those who previously had no access to expensive certifications and recognition of their own skills.
The Wakaru competence pathway and the ProjectMaster modules are built on the basis of meta-skills and role-specific competences. Our competence pathways follow the SFIA (Skills Framework for the Information Age), where skills are placed at different levels.
Wakaru in the international OMIMO working group
Across Europe, project management has been identified as an area for job creation. To address this need, an OMIMO (Open Minimalist Modules) working group has been set up, in which Wakaru is heavily involved. OMIMO is an EU co-funded initiative that aims to create easily adoptable learning modules and make project management more accessible and effective for all levels of organisations. It will also make it easier for people with fewer skills and different constraints to become involved in the world of work. It extends the work done earlier in the preparation of P3.Express – a minimalist and practical project framework.
The working group got off to a flying start with a kick-off meeting in Leuven, Belgium, in late 2024.Wakaru is represented by Executive Consultant Aaro Ollikainen, who brings expertise and active involvement in the development of the project. Wakaru will be involved in defining OMIMO’s project management competencies and later also in the production of materials.
“It is important for us at Wakuru to be involved in contributing to the development and offering our expertise. In this working group we also network extensively internationally, gain new contacts and information on where project activities are going worldwide and what is on the surface”, sums up Aaro after the working group meeting.
We believe that the development of the project industry is built on strong networks, knowledge sharing and human interaction. For us, supporting young people and those changing careers is a natural way to contribute to the future of the sector, not only by improving skills but also by strengthening values and culture.
