"Rastor-instituutti wants to support its clients throughout their working lives. Along the way, they may need to update their knowledge on topical issues or complete work-oriented qualifications, for example. There are also periods of change and a need for help in redirecting their careers. In all these situations, we want to be a trusted partner on the client’s career path.”
Topi Järvinen,
Director of Growth and Development, Rastor-instituutti
Project objectives
The aim of the collaboration between Rastor-instituutti and Kuulas & Co was to model a career-oriented approach across Rastor-instituutti’s operations and entire service offering.
Career services, and a career-oriented approach more broadly, are seen as important ways of supporting clients’ education and skills development needs over the longer term.
In addition to finding ways to support career-oriented thinking across operations, the collaboration aimed to improve clients’ choices through digital channels, providing an individual service without increasing human workload. A third objective was to strengthen career services.
Project progress
This development project, which aimed to change operations, was also about leading and implementing change. This was one reason why participatory design and co-creation were chosen as the working methods.
Co-creation builds a shared understanding of the current situation, deepens knowledge from different perspectives, and develops and tests solutions across disciplines. Co-creation builds a shared understanding of the current situation and deepens knowledge from different perspectives, while developing and testing solutions with users, staff and stakeholders alike. These foundations create a very different kind of competitive advantage for development work: as the work progresses, people not only become increasingly committed to what is being done, but also break down silos and uncover latent needs. Co-creation offers a way to invite all the necessary stakeholders to participate and ensure that the expertise of the entire organisation is used in development.
A broad range of functions and people across the organisation took part, and the work was communicated widely within the organisation in accordance with a dedicated communications plan.
The work proceeded in two stages: first, following the design process from research through insight to ideation; then, working in subgroups prioritised around the identified themes, with different topics and working group compositions.
In the first stage, we built an understanding of the opportunities for a career-path approach within the existing operating model. This included mapping the bigger picture and identifying touchpoints along the student client’s journey where we saw opportunities for change or a different approach. The first stage also included a current-state assessment (interviews and surveys) and a light-touch analysis of the operating environment.
From the identified stages, we moved through ideation to prioritisation, initially continuing work around five themes. In the third stage, these themes and their content came together under three main themes as part of the resulting Career Path Model.
The collaboration gave Rastor-instituutti a way to identify client needs in changed circumstances, offer timely, needs-based solutions, and accompany student clients throughout their careers.
In conclusion
At its best, co-creation can offer an exceptionally rewarding learning journey for everyone involved. Learning by doing is a tremendous driving force for organisations, one that has been harnessed throughout history. It is particularly rewarding to see individual ideas developed through collaboration.
These foundations underpin both how Rastor-instituutti builds an understanding of clients’ changing needs throughout their careers and how it creates value for all those involved in development across the organisation’s different functions.
We would like to warmly thank the whole of Rastor-instituutti, and particularly Topi Järvinen, Toni Berkowitz and the project team, for their trust and excellent collaboration, and for the lessons we were able to gather and develop together.
Would you like to hear more about us and our work?
Kuulas & Co Oy. Kuulas & Co is a design agency and coaching company specialising in organisational development. We help our clients align strategic skills needs with employees’ career and learning aspirations. At the same time, we coach employees to become insightful developers of their own work and workplace communities.
Let’s shape the future of work and learn together!