VLR report part 6: Vantaa is vital and brimming with expertise
Vantaa is a rapidly growing city with approximately 250,000 residents and more than 120,000 jobs. The focus of the ‘Vantaa is vital and brimming with expertise’ strategic theme is to increase the vitality of Vantaa from the perspective of both residents and businesses. The implementation of the strategic theme is guided by Vantaa’s Growth and Viability Programme. Work for vitality creates attraction and retention factors for both residents and businesses.
Under the theme of ‘Vantaa is vital and brimming with expertise,’ Vantaa promotes both business cooperation and employment as well as the themes of continuous learning. These are significant issues for Vantaa, because the education level of the Vantaa population is lower than other large cities in Finland. The level competence and employment are linked.
In 2025, responsibility for organising employment services has been transferred entirely from the state to municipalities, which has brought major changes to Vantaa’s employment services. The reform further emphasises the role of the municipality as a promoter of employment and vitality. It offers positive opportunities when employment services can be linked to other services provided by the municipality, such as business and education services.
The economic situation in Finland is currently weak, which is also reflected in the high unemployment level. The number of available jobs has decreased sharply. At the same time, there is a shortage of skilled labour, and this mismatch is a long-term challenge. Therefore, raising the level of competence, promoting the employment of immigrants and anticipating competence needs are important development targets in Vantaa for which various solutions have been sought.
Active business cooperation is carried out in Vantaa, and efforts are being made to both support the growth of companies operating in the area and attract new investments to Vantaa. Vitality work shows that keeping the economic structure diverse will also strengthen Vantaa’s vitality in the long term. As a result, many factors influence companies in terms of where to establish themselves, such as the availability of land, the overall quality of the urban environment and the associated images, educational opportunities and modes of mobility. Therefore, vitality work requires cross-administrative development efforts.
In recent years, Vantaa has sought to strengthen innovation activities through a testbed trial platform, which was launched at the beginning of 2024. The testbed model allows companies to try out new innovations in an urban environment. The operation has started well and is being continuously developed.
Vantaa has invested in supporting startup activities and attracting startup companies. A new Vantaa startup runway has been opened in the Aviapolis area, offering shared workspaces right next to the airport.
The cluster activities aim to promote the sharing of information and ideas as well as cooperation between companies in a specific sector, thereby contributing to the growth and reinvention of companies. Vantaa will focus on developing the activities of three top clusters in sectors that are important to the city’s economic structure: food, logistics and hi-tech. The activities of each cluster are coordinated in vitality services, and extensive project-related and other cooperation is carried out around these themes with various actors and stakeholders.
From the perspective of comprehensive sustainable development, Vantaa’s vitality work emphasises Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 9, which are related to employment and economic growth. Employment and support for business activities indirectly affect many other dimensions of sustainable development, such as poverty reduction and well-being. On the other hand, the diverse connections between working life and well-being have not been visibly or comprehensively taken into account in Vantaa’s vitality efforts. Taking well-being into account in business operations would increase the appeal of companies as employers and support innovation activities. There is reason to consider even more broadly how the city can, through its own actions, promote a working and business life that places people’s well-being at the centre.
Themes related to equality in working life, such as gender segregation in work environments, which is particularly strong in Finland, continue to receive little attention in the City of Vantaa.
The perspectives of ecological sustainability and increasing vitality do not need to be seen as opposing each other. Instead, they can reinforce each other. Vantaa’s vitality work supports, among other things, the emergence of circular economy businesses and, in the future, a business ecosystem related to the promotion of biodiversity will also be developed. This can create new business and jobs while also increasing positive impacts on environmental sustainability in Vantaa and beyond. Through collaboration, innovations arising from business operations can be harnessed to promote sustainable development and solve significant and global challenges for Vantaa, which is why even more investments in these efforts should be made.
On the other hand, little attention is paid to supporting companies’ own responsibility work and critical discussion about types of business we want in Vantaa. The growth of business activity affects the city’s own environmental goals and, more broadly, environmental sustainability. If these links are neglected, the different strategic priorities may conflict with each other. Project activities have sought to support, for example, the green transition of companies, but this will remain small in scale and unsystematic if environmental aspects are not included in all vitality work more extensively. This would require a critical examination of the work’s objectives from a broader and more comprehensive perspective of sustainable development.
The innovation network supports development through projects
The City of Vantaa’s Innovation Network was launched in the autumn of 2024. The aim of the network, which is coordinated by the city’s project office, is to increase the quantity and quality of innovative urban development carried out with external project funding in the City of Vantaa, and to intensify cooperation between sectors in relation to development through projects. Vantaa has solid experience in development work carried out with external project funding, and projects have always played an important role in developing city services and seeking new solutions, for example.
The nature of the challenges is often such that solving them requires cooperation between different city units and sectors. Development projects offer an excellent opportunity for this. One of the purposes of the innovation network is to strengthen internal city cooperation related to development through projects and to bring to Vantaa broader development projects that cross sectoral boundaries. With externally funded projects, we can contribute to achieving the city’s strategic goals. For example, Vantaa still has a lot of untapped potential in utilising international project funding!
There is a clear need for a city-level network as development through projects has so far been more targeted and focused on certain units. The goal is to move development through projects towards more impactful projects, resulting in more joint development projects across sectors and increased cooperation.
The Innovation Network is an internal city network that welcomes all employees of the City of Vantaa who are interested in or working on innovative urban development. Membership in the network does not oblige members to get involved in anything. Network members can join the Innovation Network’s Teams group, which serves as an easily accessible forum and information sharing platform. The group shares information about open funding applications, project preparations and current issues related to project development. In addition to this, thematic networking events and project ideation workshops will be organised, listening to needs emerging from the network.
The upcoming competence campus will combine continuous learning and business services
A competence campus will be built in Jokiniemi, Tikkurila, in the coming years to meet the challenges of the labour shortage and the needs of the changing working life. The project aims to create a diverse ecosystem that connects educational institutions, businesses, city services and residents. The project has three overarching themes: inclusion, cooperation and sustainable development, which are reflected both in the planning of the built environment and the development of operating models.
The project was born from the need to solve problems related to mismatches. Many companies in Vantaa have difficulty finding skilled workers due to the strong growth of the foreign-speaking population, the low level of education and the increase in unemployment, for example. The City of Vantaa, together with its network of educational institutions, has developed a new type of operating model for continuous learning, the “education operator” through which educational modules shorter than a degree programme are offered to meet the needs of individuals and companies. This addresses the challenge of companies finding it difficult to recruit competent personnel who will meet their needs now and in the future.
The campus aims to improve the competence level of Vantaa residents, attract companies and investments, and increase the vitality of the city. The campus will combine physical, digital and networked operating methods to create new types of service models and educational solutions.
The key goals are the following:
- Continuing learning services: The campus will enable a diverse, needs-based and flexible educational offering that meets the rapidly changing needs of working life.
- Reducing the labour mismatch: Business Vantaa Hub will bring together employment, integration and learning services. This will promote the meeting of job seekers and employers, especially to support the employment of foreign-language speakers and young people.
- Supporting the establishment of companies in the area: The campus’s flexible and shared spatial solutions and its central location make it attractive to companies and support the creation of innovations.
The campus will serves as a hub for developing Vantaa’s competence and vitality, combining the resources of the city, educational institutions, companies and other actors. This cooperation model will create the foundation for a dynamic ecosystem that supports both the local economy and the well-being of individuals. The project will emphasise sustainable development and resource wisdom, and its construction projects will focus on minimising the carbon footprint and improving energy efficiency. Flexible and shared spaces will ensure the campus’s efficient and diverse operations.
The Tikkurila Competence Campus will increase the region’s educational services to a new level by providing facilities and starting places for Vantaa Vocational College Varia and Tikkurila Upper Secondary School, for example. The campus will also serve as a platform for innovation environments, such as RDI (research, development and innovation) activities. In addition, digital solutions and artificial intelligence will enable more personalised training paths and smoother service processes. The campus as a whole will combine education, housing, services and leisure activities into a seamless part of the urban structure.
Urban Foresight in Vantaa
The City of Vantaa and the universities of applied sciences Laurea and Metropolia are jointly implementing the VALUE – Urban Foresight in Vantaa project. The project is developing a regional foresight model for Vantaa to meet future needs. The goal of foresight is to strengthen regional vitality in the long term and create a clear city-level strategy for vitality management. The aim of the operating model is to promote cooperation and inclusion, and to strengthen collaboration between the city, business and higher education, as well as connections to national and international networks.
Foresight benefits companies by creating future preparedness and competence through responding to competence needs and providing opportunities for networking and collaboration. For companies, a regional forecasting model provides a competitive advantage when future information is better applied in business development and decision-making.
In the VALUE project, Metropolia is developing a “Meadow Model” for ecosystem thinking to visualise the foresight ecosystem and serve as a guideline for creating foresight information. The Meadow Model is supplemented by an annual calendar and compass relating to foresight. The annual calendar commits ecosystem stakeholders and guides operations, while the compass guides the utilisation of predictive data. The goal of these tools is to create a comprehensive model for foresight work, taking into account different perspectives and needs.
As part of the VALUE project, the City of Vantaa implemented a forecasting platform pilot for the logistics sector in the autumn of 2024. The aim of the pilot is to test the digital platform as a tool for collecting and sharing forecasting information. The current situation and future needs of the logistics industry were explored using an online brainstorming survey. The collected information will be discussed in a workshop in spring 2025, which will be attended by companies, educational institutions and other stakeholders. Forecasting information is also collected on the ‘Vantaa anticipates’ website: Vantaa anticipates | Business Vantaa
In the VALUE project, Laurea University of Applied Sciences has strengthened foresight expertise by creating materials for companies, an MOOC course and workshops that support business development. The aim of the workshops is to increase knowledge and promote networking. The MOOC course introduced forecasting methods that support organisational operations and strategic decision-making.
In spring 2025, the Vantaa Future Forum event will be organised, with the aim of developing an annual forum for discussing foresight and future work in Vantaa. Efforts to spark interest in foresight have been made both in companies and within the city. However, more foresight knowledge, related skills and mobilisation are needed to make foresight work effective at the city level. The mobilisation efforts continue, and Tikkurila’s Competence Campus plays an important role in this regard. The competence campus coordinates the development and confirmation of competence and serves as a link between companies and educational institutions.
The TE reform brings challenges and opportunities
With the TE reform that came into effect at the beginning of 2025, the responsibility for employment services has been transferred entirely from the state to the municipalities. The reform is very significant from the perspective of the city organisation and will require a great deal of internal development work.
Pekka Tauriainen, Principal of Vantaa Vocational College Varia, how is the TE reform evident in your work?
Vocational education and training in Vantaa have been strongly involved in the preparation of the TE reform, as skills, education and employment are strongly linked to each other. In this context, Vantaa has a unique opportunity to develop new operating models in cooperation between employment services and vocational training to support employment and competence development. We are in a rare position in that Vantaa organises TE services independently and, in addition, vocational training has been integrated into the city organisation.
In cooperation with employment services, we have built an operating model in which employment service clients are guided directly to vocational training and through it to working life. Vantaa Vocational College Varia has a strong connection to working life, and we actively collaborate with companies. Harnessing all of this cooperation to ensure that unemployed people in Vantaa can gain the skills needed in the labour market and find employment as quickly as possible will benefit all parties. This is an opportunity for us to develop new types of collaboration between sectors to solve complex employment challenges.
What does the new operating model aim to influence?
We strive to meet the challenges of the labour mismatch by building even closer connections to working life. Among our employment services clientele, the low average level of education among the unemployed and the high proportion of foreign-language speakers have risen to the fore. In addition, youth unemployment and the number of NEETs have increased worryingly in Vantaa. As such, we must invest in competence development as part of supporting employment.
Our goal is to build, test and launch an operating model that identifies the target group’s existing competence and ensure sufficient Finnish-language proficiency and professional competence so that employment rates are improved significantly. Our ambitious goal is for 85 per cent of those who become unemployed to find employment within 100 days. This can be achieved through close cooperation between vitality services, employment services and vocational training.
Through joint anticipatory activities with educational institutions and employers, we can ensure that education focuses on degrees or parts thereof that are likely to lead to employment.