Digital services for job seekers
What kind of electronic services would best help job seekers find a new job easily, receive peer support and have better tools for communicating with their own OMA (expertise, motivation and activity) coaches at the employment services?
The Smart Tampere programme and the City of Tampere’s employment services have engaged in experiments to find the most functional digital services. The services are available to all job seekers residing in Tampere.
Osaamisbotti Chatbot
Tampere employment services have deployed the AI-based Osaamisbotti chatbot. The bot interviews job seekers with the purpose of gauging their skills and developing an expertise card based on the discussion. The chatbot is able to modify its questions based on the answers it receives. OMA coaches and business coordinators utilise expertise cards when finding suitable work for job seekers. Osaamisbotti also serves as a communication channel with the OMA coaches.
Osaamisbotti is an invention created by product developers in the Pirkanmaa area and developed in collaboration with Smart Tampere and the employment services. Initially, the chatbot was used by a dozen clients. Then, the experiment was extended to cover a few hundred people. Since autumn 2018, the service has been available to all Tampere-based job seekers.
Learning Finnish on a mobile phone
The employment services wanted to find out if learning the Finnish language could be sped up with the help of an app. During the experiment, immigrant clients were offered the use of the WordDive app for free for three months. The app allowed the immigrants to start their Finnish language studies even before they had access to face-to-face instruction. It also assisted those willing to do extra practice in absorbing Finnish words. The results at the end of the experiment were good, so a decision was made to continue the service in the employment services.
Electronic appointment booking
In 2019, the employment services will test an electronic platform that enables job seekers to find events that interest them and promote their employment, as well as to book appointments with their OMA coach.
Free-of-charge service for all job seekers
The City of Tampere employment services serve all Tampere-based job seekers, regardless of the kind of unemployment benefit they are entitled to. The employment services are free of charge. In addition to comprehensive digital services, job seekers receive personal counselling from their job seeking coaches. The service model developed in Tampere works: the city’s unemployment rate has decreased significantly.