An attractive place for people and businesses

This article has originally been published in the Espoo Magazine 4/2021
Read other articles in the Espoo Magazine 4/2021
Read more about Mervi Heinaro

A vibrant city provides nourishment for both the body and soul and also offers employment opportunities.

“Vitality is born out of everything we do in our daily lives: work, sports and culture,” says Mervi Heinaro, Espoo’s new Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, Sports and Culture.

Work, sports and culture are closely intertwined. Sports and culture promote people’s well-being and satisfaction. Well-being improves working capacity, satisfaction attracts experts, and expertise creates more jobs. Work also provides people with a livelihood, which enables them to enjoy cultural and sporting activities.

For its residents, Espoo is above all a home where services are available nearby.

“Daily life accounts for 80 per cent of our lives. Its smoothness has a big impact on our well-being. A city in which daily life runs smoothly is therefore a good place to live,” says Heinaro.

In Espoo, more than 300 clubs and dozens of cultural operators offer residents all kinds of recreational activities and experiences. The city supports operators by giving them venues and marketing their activities.

“Every year, we get almost 20,000 reservations for using school premises in the evenings,” says Heinaro, as an example.

The city supports sports clubs and also provides extensive outdoor routes and plenty of local sports facilities for residents to use.

Heinaro is impressed by Espoo’s cultural offering:

“We have top-quality cultural operators, such as the Tapiola Sinfonietta. Museums and libraries also engage in a lot of educational work. We have 20 city-funded educational establishments that provide basic education in the arts. Culture has also been made a part of people’s everyday lives through environmental art projects at metro stations, for example,” says Heinaro.

Espoo is involved in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Finnish model for leisure activities, which aims to provide every child and young person with the opportunity to engage in a free and enjoyable hobby as part of their school day.

“For a couple of years now, all schools in Espoo have ended the school day at around 2 pm on Wednesdays in order to offer a variety of hobbies in the afternoon. Even more free hobbies have now been added to the list,” says Heinaro.

A good place to live attracts experts, and experts attract companies. This in turn creates jobs and business opportunities.

“We have top-quality educational establishments that produce highly competent experts. We’re further strengthening our collaboration with Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Espoo also has a lot of potential service users in the form of families with children,” says Heinaro.

There is still plenty of work to do, as Espoo’s employment self-sufficiency could be better. In 2018, Espoo had 91.7 jobs per 100 working-age residents. At the same time, the City of Espoo, which is a major employer, is suffering from a labour shortage in many sectors.

“For example, we need employees in social, healthcare and real estate services. We’re therefore developing our collaboration with organisations like Omnia. By creating a training pipeline, we can ensure a supply of experts who are trained for exactly the tasks we need,” says Heinaro.

It is the city’s task to provide its residents with basic services, which for the moment still include social and healthcare services. However, social and healthcare services will soon be transferred to the wellbeing services county, while the city will take responsibility for employment management.

“Although many cities, including Espoo, have already been providing employment services, we’ll soon be playing a greater role in their management,” says Heinaro.

In addition to a skilled workforce, Espoo is also investing in business services. Business Espoo is a one-stop shop for both entrepreneurs and those intending to become entrepreneurs.

“Being an entrepreneur has never been easy, but by reducing bureaucracy we want to give entrepreneurs the opportunity to focus on running their businesses,” says Mervi Heinaro, who spent seven years working as an entrepreneur herself.

Text: Tiina Parikka
Correction 29.11.2021 at 10:05: Every year, we get almost 20,000 reservations for using school premises in the evenings. Not 200,000, as the text previously stated.