A group of master’s students and a few members of staff from the University of Turku Geography department paid a visit to Sitowise’s Turku office in March 2024. Sitowise Oy is a Finnish company with their business focusing on built environment such as smart cities, as well as digital solutions. Sustainability is a cross-cutting theme in all areas of business at Sitowise. Sitowise also utilizes a lot of GIS-bound solutions and geospatial technologies in the digital businesses, which is why it easily awakens interest among us who are interested in GIScience.
In the beginning we got to learn general information about Sitowise and the key aspects of their business strategy, before turning the focus on geospatial and other digital solutions. We also were presented a few of Sitowise’s products that heavily lean on GIS, and even a career path story from a GIS expert, which was particularly interesting to the students.
One particular subject we discussed was about potential collaboration opportunities between universities and businesses and how this collaboration could be incremented. Traditionally, universities supply businesses with fresh experts with cutting-edge knowledge that start working within the business after their graduation. However, a very thought-provoking view on this was whether universities and other higher education institutes could offer businesses short-term know-how as students could momentarily take part in projects where businesses lack people, but are unsure how long the resource deficiency will last. Students could benefit e.g. work experience and academic credits from this. This could be concretized via a digital platform where available students and businesses could reach each other.
Students view company visits useful for their career path creation.
“During these events students can learn about the field of job and reflect on whether it would be something you’d like to try for work”, one student says.
“If so, you can make valuable connections by being active. Companies can also inspire young experts to explore business opportunities, which could even lead to innovation creation.”
In conclusion, visiting local companies can be beneficial for both students and staff. Collaborations between students, researchers and businesses can create opportunities for all participants.