I started my communications internship in ROUTE (Reshaping Orientation, Unity and Team-work in ECGS Master’s Programme) in the end of May. During my starting period, it was clear that there was a lot of new things happening around ECGS that needed closer concentration to assure that the programme could provide its staff, students and students to be a possibility for high quality teaching. Now, four months later, it seems there is still lots of moving parts searching for their place even in the basic communications needs of the programme.

This doesn’t mean that the four months I have had the privilege to be part of ROUTE has gone to waist, in the contrary. During the summertime, the programme’s webpages have developed from a confusing entity to serve as a window of what the programme has to offer for international applicants as well as Finnish speaking students. Student Guide from the ECGS perspective has evolved from a not enough informative Finnish platform to a useful tool for both, international and Finnish speaking students. Moodle pages have been evolved to help students and especially staff to get concentrated information about the programme and PSP work, also in the form of a FAQ. The use of orientation period (which now is considered to start already in the welcoming letters) to give students and staff a possibility to affirm their ECGS identity, took a huge leap forward. This list could be much longer, but I decided to describe my perspective of how much groundwork progress there has been made.

The reason I mentioned there is still lots of moving parts, is that noticing the gaps in information flow, teaching and the programme’s structure, are in my opinion the main objectives of ROUTE. Without the work that brings these gaps to daylight and forms ways to react to them, ECGS wouldn’t have a possibility to evolve as a programme. It would be quite easy to just relax after affirming that fatal communications needs are in place. Especially when you consider the almost constant heavy workload of teaching staff, education coordinators, programme board members and communications staff of the University. Of course, ROUTE wouldn´t run without its own coordinator, who has shown real talent in keeping hold of, and steering many strings at the same time, while keeping the working environment motivating and focused. One way of doing this, is not simply by emphasising the need for co-work, but facilitating it so, that the burden of development as well as the feeling of success when achieving it, is shared.

My traineeship has come to its end and I can’t help the feeling that it came too early. Still, at the same time, I acknowledge that there are many good co-operations building up through ROUTE as well as ECGS in general, which will help achieve the goals of this Digiloikka and hopefully leads ROUTE to Digiloikka’s to come.

Henrikki Pöntinen,

Communications intern for ROUTE project