We listen to our future professionals' expectations

We believe that securing future talent is an essential element in ensuring progress towards our vision of becoming the global number one in stainless steel – and being the most popular employer in the stainless steel business. We maintain an active dialogue with potential future employees by visiting universities, hosting visits for school groups and attending recruitment fairs – we attended three fairs in Finland, six in Sweden and two in the UK in 2009. The Outokumpu research centres in Avesta and Tornio are engaged in running technical research projects together with these institutions.

As in 2008, Group CEO Juha Rantanen participated in a panel discussion at a student event together with other CEOs from the leading companies in Finland's metal industry. More than 150 students from several Finnish universities took part. The positive feedback received included requests for the event to be repeated in 2010.

Outokumpu has close contacts with many comprehensive and upper secondary schools. Goals of this cooperation include raising awareness of the steel industry among children and students and encouraging them to learn more about the sector. Outokumpu has adopted schools in many of the Group's operational locations and also awards annual scholarships and stipends to local schools in both Finland and Sweden.

In 2009 Outokumpu improved its ranking among Finnish engineering students in an annual employer branding survey conducted by Universum. The survey tracks both young people's expectations regarding companies and the way they perceive certain individual companies. In the 2009 survey, Outokumpu was placed 22nd in the ideal employer ranking list in Finland and 81st in Sweden. Among Finnish business students, Outokumpu was ranked 85th.

According to a 2009 survey of graduates, Finnish students appear to have confidence in companies even though companies have no open vacancies. All students are in a similar situation. Comments made included general opinions about workplace conditions and job options, and no specific comments were made on Outokumpu.