Practical Training at Villa Paasirinne and Lastenpop

Hi there! My name is Venla and I´m a third-year tourism management student at JAMK. During my studies I´ve gained a lot of interests from our field and that is the reason why I decided to divide my first practical training into 2 smaller trainings. This made it possible for me to gain experience from different positions and companies. I started my first training at Ikikannel Oy in March. It is an accommodation company called Villa Paasirinne which consists of 2 holiday accommodations in Toivakka, approximately 35km away from Jyväskylä. The retired owners are running the company by themselves without extra employees. The surrounding nature and central location attract customers mostly from all over Finland. Destinations are perfect for travelers that like to relax and enjoy nature.

Job as a social media marketing trainee turned out to be extremely diverse as I got to do many different tasks during the training. I worked remotely from home expect a few times I had to visit the destinations myself (photographing, creating content, meetings etc.). I learned to use many digital platforms related to marketing on social media and online advertising became familiar as well. The best thing about my practical training there was to learn new things, create content for social media channels and to see them develop. It was rewarding to hear compliments about channels being active and visually beautiful from other companies and especially customers.

I completed my other half of practical training 1 as an event management assistant in Joensuu. There we organized an event called “Lastenpop” which is a free event for children and their families. My duties as an event assistant were extremely comprehensive as I got to do almost everything related to the event (budgeting, bookkeeping, design, staff meetings, material purchases etc.). However, most of the time I was a right hand of the manager and responsible of social media marketing. Workdays were challenging just days before the event, but it was all worth it. Lastenpop turned out to be a well-organized, great experience for children of all ages.

Completing 2 separate practical trainings at the same time turned out to be extremely intense and scheduling tasks between two companies was much harder than I first expected. Time management has always been difficult for me, and it definitely developed a lot during these months. I can warmly recommend you to challenge yourself by dividing your practical training to gain more experience.

Venla Viitamäki, Bachelor´s degree programme in Tourism Management