This youth workshop is run by Ekami, the vocational education consortium of the Kotka-Hamina region. It offers hands-on craft work: garden and yard maintenance, wood splitting, painting, interior and woodwork, and small-scale printing. Customer jobs include lawn mowing, snow work, landscaping, exterior painting and terrace repairs, and the workshop shop sells products made on site.
No prior skills are needed, and the work is adapted to each person's abilities and interests. Participants can set individual goals with a personal coach and a work coach, and earn competence towards vocational qualification units through recognition of learning. Workplace safety, first aid and hygiene pass training is included, as are workplace wellbeing activities. The workshop also does outreach youth work in Kotka, Hamina, Pyhtää and Miehikkälä, as well as in the surrounding area.
Have you taken part in the workshop? Share your experience in the comments for other young people and their families.