Young people pay the highest price for stunted economic growth. They have lived almost their entire lives in a country where the economy is not growing. An increasingly small slice of the metaphorical pie of our national economy goes to our youth, and no change seems imminent. For 17 years, we have not been able to have faith that tomorrow would be better than today. Decisions leading to growth must be made urgently, as although adolescence may be a passing stage of life, it leaves long-lasting marks: discouraged young people with no prospects become discouraged middle-aged people with no prospects.

Similarly, an ambitious and experimental way of doing things learned at a young age can lead to incredible success stories. Do young people – who have fallen into despair struggling with debt and short-term work – have the resources to work in risky start-ups or set up their own businesses? Giving young people the chance to experiment and take risks regardless of their background would be in the interests of our national economy, as just one new mega-success alone could save the Finnish economy.

The success stories of the future come from visions and taking risks, not from political orders. The Government objective of investing in ‘sectors that boost economic growth’ aims to make higher education institutions lay gold eggs by an order from above. How do we know that resources will be allocated correctly? What if the eggs fall into the wrong basket? The collective intellect of the academic community is likely to strike gold faster and more surely than political decision-making. A more sustainable and secure way to support economic growth is to guarantee the basic funding of higher education institutions. This will enable the long-term operation of higher education institutions, which will, in time, reap profits.

The budget cuts from education and students over the past 14 years have led in the opposite direction. We have ended up at the bottom of the list in the number of young adults with higher education in OECD countries, and we have not managed to increase our human capital in the same way as the reference countries.

You can’t start a car that has a broken engine. It is impossible to cold start economic growth if we do not have sufficient competitive advantage. As a small country, we must use all the resources available. We need investment in education to steer economic development in the right direction. We challenge decision-makers to be bold and invest in things that will genuinely lead to sustainable growth in the long term, even if the impacts of the measures would not be reflected in the next opinion poll.

More information

Anselmi Auramo, President

anselmi.auramo@syl.fi, +358 456 471 116