Library, open early childhood education, services for migrants, accommodation in Evo. See also our other services.
Library
The HAMK Hämeenlinna Library is open to everyone! We serve HAMK students and staff on all seven campuses, and other customers mainly in the library of the Hämeenlinna University School Centre.
In the campus libraries of Evo, Forssa, Lepaa, Mustiala, Riihimäki and Valkeakoski, we serve via Libgo video equipment and we are present at varying times depending on the needs of each campus.
All materials of the HAMK library can be found in HAMK Finna. Our collection includes both print and electronic material. Our collection focuses on the fields taught and studied at HAMK. Our collection is also available outside HAMK via remote access.
Welcome to Nipsula’s open early childhood education! Nipsula is located at the Hämeenlinna University Centre, in connection with the School of Wellbeing. We offer twice-weekly open early childhood education activities for children of early childhood education age and their families.
Nipsula is a meeting place for caregivers of children of early childhood education age, and at the same time it serves as a learning environment for HAMK’s social and health students.
The activities are led by Johanna Nieminen, Social Services Coordinator. Families can participate with a service voucher, and families from neighbouring municipalities can join in on a self-pay basis.
Open: Mondays and Thursdays 9-12
Location: the Hämeenlinna University Centre, Vankanlähde 9, S-building, 1st floor. Entrance through the inner courtyard.
We offer personalised and free career guidance in Finnish and in English to immigrants living in Finland who already have a university degree. We also serve immigrants who are eligible to apply to Finnish higher education institutions.
In SIMHE (Supporting Immigrants in Higher Education), you can consider your options and strengths in different fields with a mentor. In a mentoring meeting, we can discuss your situation further in confidence. The mentoring session lasts 30 minutes and takes place in Teams or on-site at HAMK’s Visamäki campus in Hämeenlinna.
Our Evo campus offers idyllic accommodation in the setting of Finland’s oldest forest school.
The Rahtijärvi hut is the last clay hut in the area, where the lumberjacks and drivers who collected war reparations lived. Today it is a lodging and meeting building located 3.5 km north of the Evo campus on the shores of Lake Rahtijärvi. The complex includes the main building Ukkoherra, the accommodation building Jätkälä, a wood-fired lakeside sauna for 8-10 people in Majajoki, an electrically heated sauna for 3-4 people in Jätkälä and a large courtyard with fireplaces. The two buildings of the cabin accommodate 26 people.
The location is quiet and there is a road to the house.
Are you looking for global education, partners or workers for a project or new ideas for development? On these pages you will find information about the cooperation and services we offer to different companies, communities and partners.
We offer:
Working with us will provide you and your organisation with tools for development and change, as well as empowerment for growth. Collaboration can take place on a wide range of scales; from global education services to large international projects or individual student projects. We also offer services to meet different needs; for example, testing, analysis or prototyping.
Find out more about the types of collaboration and services we offer. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, ask for more information – you’ll find our contact details at the bottom of the page.
Global education
HAMK offers customer-oriented, high-quality educational products with focus on different professional disciplines for the global market.
9000 new ideas! Looking for an intern or employee? Do you need to develop your activities? Finnish and international students are looking for collaboration opportunities!
HAMK has a positive attitude towards the business world and is actively exploring different possibilities for cooperation.
As a partner, we help to develop education, provide practical experience of working life and, of course, together we make Häme a stronger region.
Kari Turunen Lujabetoni Hämeenlinna Unit Manager
No single organisation can tackle the challenges alone; it is this kind of cooperation between working life and education that is needed.
Johanna Bjerregård Madsen HR Director Oma Häme
Future work-life skills need to be taught now.
I feel that HAMK welcomes workplace-oriented development proposals, even if they challenge traditional teaching. The beneficiaries of our mutual partnership are Rantalainen as an employer, HAMK as an educational institution, the students as creators and the whole region of Kanta-Häme, not forgetting the future working life in the wider picture.
Arto Hiltunen Rantalainen
Contact us
Please contact our regional contact persons. Each region has a contact person for education and research.
Students have fresh ideas and enthusiasm that can drive your organisation forward in many different ways. The most successful outcome is achieved when both parties are committed: the student cooperation requires a willingness on the part of the employer to give time to mentoring. Projects are also carried out in the rhythm of studies.
Projects are development tasks, design, product development or applied research directly serving the working world.
Theses
Development, design, product development or applied research directly serving working life.
Part of the curriculum in all our degree programmes, so there’s a wide range of subjects and topics. Assignments can include finding a solution to a business challenge, background research and mapping, event management, product testing…
Field of technology/ICT:
Accessibility mapping, product development for food manufacturing, pedestrian and cycle flow research, corrosion testing, structural testing and strength testing, testing and analysis of biomaterials, development of websites and software, as well as point of sale and appointment booking systems (e.g. mobile app, testing of new technology solution, POC (Proof of Concept), process automation, testing and reporting, digital accessibility assessment).
Field of business:
Customer satisfaction surveys, staff surveys, business growth experiments, design services, social media and content marketing, financial management improvement plan, business financial research
Field of social and health care:
Welfare and health promotion services, Nipsula open early childhood education, simulation training, job coaching
Field of bioeconomy:
Laboratory analyses, lake spatial analysis, spatial data analysis, horticultural experiments, resource and energy mapping, environmental management
Design Factory
Student projects are also carried out in the Design Factory, which is common to all HAMK students and is part of the global Design Factory network developed at Aalto University. It brings together students from different disciplines to solve challenges for companies and organisations. The client receives a concrete prototype of a product, service or concept. Offices are located on the Hämeenlinna, Forssa and Riihimäki campuses.
Forms of cooperation
Product Development Project
In a PDP (Product development project), students create new or develop existing products on behalf of companies and organisations. The final product is a tested prototype for a company based on its needs.
The aim of the project is to identify product development opportunities and seek innovative approaches to development. The courses are international and the student teams include students from different disciplines.
Data Analytics Project
In the Data analytics project, students analyse and visualise data related to different company activities using data analytics. Data analytics is the foundation of information management and the collection of data helps to anticipate the business and the changes around it. The opportunities that data brings provide the horizon to make better decisions faster, streamline operations and potentially find new revenue streams.
Multidisciplinary teams of students work on business assignments for eight weeks. Work at Design Factory is international and the working language is English.
Smart Design
In the Smart Design project, students will design smart products using service design methods, smart business design, IoT opportunities and product development. As a result, multidisciplinary teams build a prototype product.
Building smart products requires an understanding of business, technology, usability, user experience design and product design.
Summer Studies
In a multidisciplinary summer project, students create new or develop existing services or business models, commissioned by companies to address their current challenges.
Workshops
Workshops can develop multidisciplinary skills. They provide an introduction to the basics of the topics and practical exercises.
The knowledge gained from the workshops can be used to shorten product development chains, with tools such as 3D modelling and printing, laser cutting for prototyping, vector graphics and information design for visualisation and marketing.
The Innovation voucher
The innovation voucher enables new openings to support business growth, product or service development and innovation activities. With an innovation voucher, we can provide expertise in areas such as virtual reality, 3D modelling, data analytics, service design, product development research, print and laser development. The innovation voucher is granted by Business Finland and there is no student cooperation.
Videointipalvelut
A wide range of digital teaching materials and recordings are produced for HAMK’s learning platforms and environments. The material is produced with a low threshold, so we are not aiming for a professional finish produced in studio conditions, but we are building accessible and cost-effective implementations for different needs. Filming can be arranged at HAMK’s facilities or elsewhere as required.
Video shootings can be arranged for panels, lectures, events, interviews, fashion shows or podcasts. We can take care of filming, editing, subtitling, streaming and recording.
The cooperation was fruitful. I think it is important that the subject is interesting for the student. Then the student is motivated to do genuinely useful work.
The student listened to our wishes and independently limited the huge amount of material.
Henni Paronen commissioner of the thesis Alva Hyvinvointi
The students knew how to make campaigns from a young person’s point of view, which is important. With their help, I saved weeks of my working time.
It’s worth getting involved in student projects, but it’s a good idea to think carefully about the assignment.
Outi Koskinen Client for student project Oma Häme
FAQ
The teaching is work-based and often project-based, which means that the modules are based on learning and insights gained through practical work-life projects.
HAMK has students from the fields of bioeconomy, health, education, business, design and technology. Our degree programmes and their descriptions can be found here.
The website of Häme University of Applied Sciences has undergone a complete renovation. The aim of the redesigned website is to better serve our users and to support our new brand, which was launched in August.
The new hamk.fi website has been rebuilt from the ground up, including content, technical platform and maintenance. Important objectives in the redesign have been, for example, good accessibility and the availability of content in English.
The site’s content is now divided into five major sections:
Come to study: for anyone looking for a different kind of education. One of the biggest changes is our new search engine, where those considering different education options can easily find out about HAMK’s entire range of education – from degrees to continuing learning. Our aim is to help everyone find the right education for them from HAMK’s wide range of courses and degree programmes.
Cooperation and services: this section brings together the services and cooperation opportunities we offer to businesses, organisations and individuals. In different sections, we describe cooperation with students or our experts, opportunities for skills development, and other services we offer, such as our library or early childhood education open to all in Nipsula.
Research: information on the three key ecosystems of our research (SmartBio, SmartBuilt and SmartEdu) and their solutions for raw material production, circular economy, sustainable construction and built environment, future skills and education.
Student pages: guidance on starting, planning and completing your studies – whether you are studying for a degree, a qualification, open studies or continuous learning units.
About us: Various basic information about HAMK, our current news, contact details and vacancies.
The new website has been developed by our partner Evermade. The website’s layout and user interface design was done by business design agency Kuudes, who also designed the new brand look of HAMK. From a technical development point of view, the focus has been on functionality, performance, security and easy updating.
The new website will be actively developed after its launch, also based on the feedback received.
HAMK has already trained around 70 early childhood education professionals for the multi-national company Kipinä Kids, which operates early childhood education centres around the world. The basic idea is to introduce a child-centred model that respects children’s rights.
Text by Jaana Siljamäki, photo by Kipinä Kids
Inspired by Finnish early childhood education, the multi-national company Kipinä Kids has franchised nurseries and pre-schools in 15 countries. Since 2018, HAMK has trained all the early childhood education teachers and leaders who work in Kipinä centers, for example, in Indonesia, Romania, Azerbaijan, Morocco and Egypt.
As this is a continuing programme, the content is adapted to the starting level of the participants. In other words, the participants have already a degree in the field, but Kipinä Kids wants its employees to acquire the skills corresponding to its philosophy through specific training, in order to ensure the quality of its operations.
“The curriculum and concept are Kipinä’s own, but through our programme, we aim to underline their child-centered perspective and the respect of the children’s rights, which we believe will enhance children’s well-being and learning. In some countries, this can be a revolutionary idea,” says Maaret Viskari, Director of HAMK Global.
The programme is conducted online and is available non-stop, as the Kipinä teachers are in different time zones. Typically lasting several months, the programme includes applied learning assignments, practical experimentations in nursery and a final project.
HAMK´s experts Samu Toivonen and Mari Korhonen are responsible for the basics of early childhood education, Irmeli Lignell for special needs education and Mervi Lepistö for the programme for the Kipinä centre directors.
Mari Korhonen and Samu Toivonen, lecturers at the HAMK’s School of Wellbeing, say that the teaching emphasises the importance of play, children’s individuality and agency and the importance of daily outdoor activities.
The teaching emphasises the importance of play, children’s individuality and agency and the importance of daily outdoor activities.
“In the target countries, the guiding idea in early childhood education might be about learning academic skills, with learning objectives and homework. We promote the idea that childhood is an intrinsic value and that different skills are taught in ways that are typical to the child: through play, exploration along with artistic experience and expression,” says Mari Korhonen.
The five-credit programme produced by Korhonen and Toivonen includes 15 different tasks and questions. The material includes videos demonstrating pedagogy in different situations in Nipsula centre for early childhood education at the Hämeenlinna university centre. In addition to implementing the programme, they assess the Kipinä teachers’ competence and the videos they produce and give their feedback on a separate final assignment.
“The tasks aren´t that easy. If we find gaps, we ask the Kipinä teachers to do it again. But it’s great to see how the participants’ competence grows along the way,” says Samu Toivonen.
Last autumn, Toivonen and Korhonen visited Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, to hand out certificates to programme graduates at a graduation ceremony. Thirty media representatives were also present, and almost as many stories were produced for local newspapers.
“We don’t usually meet our participants, so this was a great experience for us too. The joy and enthusiasm among the people of Kipinä Kids was palpable.”
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In the photo: Lecturers Mari Korhonen and Samu Toivonen, and Jeannine Laubner, Global Academic Director at Kipina Kids Nurseries.
