Pathways to the pharmaceutical industry – This is how Orion encourages young people to find their place

Young people are an important target group for Orion. Orion wants to boost schoolchildren’s confidence in the future, provide them with experiences of a good workplace and offer inspiration for different career paths. 
  
Orion provides information to students at vocational education institutions and universities on the career opportunities offered by an international pharmaceutical company and the type of talent needed by the industry now and in the future.

Phase1 trainee programme is a path to Orion  

Many employees have joined Orion through the Phase1 trainee programme for university students. The popular programme will be arranged for the 11th time in summer 2025, and the application period starts in January.  
  
Phase1 differs from many other summer jobs, as every year 40–60 students from different fields, including natural sciences, pharmacy, technology, and economics, participate in the programme. The programme covers a wide range of functions in all of Orion’s locations in Finland.  
  
Each Phase1 student has a mentor to support them, and many joint events and information sessions are arranged throughout the summer so students can learn about Orion as an international pharmaceutical company and about the pharmaceutical industry in general.

Visits to education institutions and recruitment events

The start of the year is a busy time for students looking for summer jobs, as many student fairs and recruitment events take place – and Orion and Orion employees participate in dozens of these.  
  
In addition to the Phase1 programme, Orion offers other traineeships and summer jobs to students at vocational education institutions and universities, as well as thesis-writing opportunities.  
  
Orionees also visit education institutions to talk about jobs at the pharmaceutical company, and students are invited to Orion to find out more about the company.  
  
Orion works closely with many education institutions, such as Omnia, Turku Vocational Institute and Helsinki Vocational College.

Orion game and varied TET week 

The Yrityskylä learning module is part of the school curriculum and an important way for Orion to reach schoolchildren. The target group is ninth graders, who get to play the Orion game, which has been created by Yrityskylä’s educational experts, at Yrityskylä in Espoo.  In the game, the schoolchildren spend a day playing the roles of Orion’s Executive Management Board, running the company, and considering the issues involved in responsible business operations.
  
Orion has been offering work experience in the form of TET placements for years. Recently, TET work experience in groups has been arranged at Orion in cooperation with the Children and Youth Foundation. The Foundation selects six ninth graders for the TET placement to learn about the work of Orionees. Over a week, the young people visit different departments, learn about the pharmaceutical company’s operations, and complete a group project about Orion.   
  
In autumn 2024, Orion participated for the first time in a TET remote work experience organized by JA Finland, which reached thousands of young people in different school grades throughout Finland. Orion also participated in JA Finland’s Job Shadow Day where Pyry Simi, an upper secondary school student from Tampere, closely followed the work of Outi Vaarala, SVP, Innovative Medicines & R&D.  
  
In early 2024, Orion organized an International Day of Women and Girls in Science event where over 60 primary school children heard about the career stories of Orion’s female scientists and about their work in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.