From Care Work to Forestry: Tampere Worker Retrains at 39
Former practical nurse Rauno Nevalainen enrolled at Häme University of Applied Sciences in 2023 and is retraining to become a forest engineer while completing an internship at Stora Enso.
After enrolling at Häme University of Applied Sciences in 2023, Rauno Nevalainen is studying to become a forest engineer, Tamperelainen reports.
Nevalainen trained as a practical nurse in 2008 and spent years working in Tampere at Validia’s Hervanta and Muotiala units. He later worked in services for people with disabilities at Attendolla and TampereMissio.
He says the two fields share skills, with forestry demanding social ability when negotiating with landowners while also involving solitary days measuring sites and recording numbers.
Nevalainen is completing an internship with Stora Enso in Kuopio through the end of August. He will return to TampereMissio afterward and aims to finish his degree and thesis by December.
He advises other career changers to plan their finances, saying he benefited from the adult education allowance. The care sector remains an option if they choose to return.
The shift to vocational retraining comes as the city has been working to better align vocational and adult education with employer needs through a new foresight planning model announced earlier this year.
Earlier coverage
Catch the full story over at Tamperelainen
