My two-month internship in the Contemporary Old City

I study tourism in Karelia University of Applied Sciences, and I did my third-year internship in the “Contemporary Old City: Enhancing cultural tourism across the border” project (Karelia ENPI CBC). I chose to do my internship in the project because I wanted some new experiences and my previous knowledge of working in the project was mainly from my studies, so it was not very extensive. I found this project from our school’s website, and it whetted my appetite for getting more information about it. 

 

This project is closely connected with my studies, mainly because they cover tourism. With them, I learnt about international cooperation, as the project is about developing culture tourism across borders, which means collaboration between North Karelia in Finland and the Republic of Karelia in Russia. I found out how different cultures have influence over the cooperation and how different working habits may set some challenges. But I also found out how rewarding successful cooperation between different cultures can be.

During my internship, I got to do a lot of different things. For instance I planned marketing, helped to arrange a conference, helped to develop websites for travelers, went through some promotional and other materials produced in the project and took part in developing a new tourist route. I’m glad that I got to do some concrete things, instead of just listening and standing by. I have a feeling that everything I did was useful, at least to some extent. I was given as much responsibility as I was ready to take, but I also got support and help every time I needed. 

In my opinion, I benefitted a lot from this internship. I learnt a lot about planning and arranging an event – there’s a surprising number of little things that we usually don’t even think about. During the arrangements of the conference, my knowledge about the network of regional operators increased, and, while evaluating the usability of the VisitKarelia website and developing the new tourist route, my knowledge about the region improved. 

Besides that, I got to do different kinds of tasks and, for example, took part in meetings, I found out what working in a project is in reality. My instructors told me for instance about the budget and cooperation with project partners. I realized how much concrete output these kinds of projects actually produce. I’m sorry to admit, but I thought that project outputs are usually more like projections, but at least in this project something concrete was done. I believe that our outputs will enhance cultural tourism in North Karelia and in the Republic of Karelia. 

It was kind of challenging to join a project that had already been going on for a while. What made it challenging was knowing everybody involved. But little by little I got to know new people and found out how they were linked to this project.  

At some times during my studies I felt convinced I would never work in a project because project work seemed to me monotonous, discontinuous and not that productive or rewarding. This internship changed my mind. Now I actually can see myself working in some interesting project. Only precondition would be that it would involve something in practice and less sitting in the office. These days, working from home is often an alternative for working in an office. In this project, I had an opportunity to try working from home. It was a good experiment: I just needed to make sure that I had tasks to do (there was always something, so that wasn't a problem), and things would get done. I learnt that some tasks are easier to complete in an office and some tasks are better done at home.   

Even though my internship took two months, I think I only scratched the surface of project work in its entirety. But, nevertheless, I can warmly recommend projects (especially this one) as training jobs!

Thank you, Anu, Erja and Timo, for these past two months and for this rich experience. 

Have a sunny spring!

Elina Hämäläinen

Third-year student in Karelia UAS, Tourism (Marketing)

First information seminar of KA526 “Clean Ladoga”

On March 27th hotel “Karelia” hosted an information seminar of a “Clean Ladoga” project, where experts presented the results of the first in 10 years comprehensive research of Ladoga Lake’s water resources and recommendations on the preservation of Ladoga’s biodiversity.

The researches put great emphasis on revelation of human impact level on Ladoga and its tributary rivers. According to Sergey Komulainen, a senior researcher in the Institute of biology of KarRC RAS, the analysis showed that agricultural facilities (croplands and stock breeding complexes) as well as inefficient or even out-of-service waste treatment facilities located in coastal areas have the most negative impact on the lake. Petr Lozovik from the Institute of Water Problems of the North has also underlined high level of influence exerted by actively developing trout farms.

Thus, the conducted researches identified the whole new complex of problems that should be resolved as soon as possible. This is why the group of Russian and Finnish experts prepared an extended list of recommendations on easing-off the human impact. This list includes a number of top-priority tasks such as

·      establishment of a forest protective belt in a water conservation zone and transfer of agricultural facilities from this zone;

·      regulation of further development of trout farms;

·      construction of water treatment facilities for untreated sewage water as well as upgrade of existing facilities and their efficiency.

Moreover the researches will help to select the most toxic waste water treatment plants, develop feasibility studies and design estimate documentation for at least 4 communal objects and propose them for investments to private and state investors. Local communities will be actively involved as well: the project experts will hold a series of training seminars for both treatment facilities’ employees who will work with new equipment and entrepreneurs and representatives of local administrations responsible for the practical implementation of measures aimed at Ladoga’s pollution reduction.

 The importance of solution of problems revealed by the project is noted not only by scientific community but the representatives of government and local authorities. The officials from the Ministry for land use and environmental protection, as well as from the Ministry for construction, housing and utility services and energy expressed readiness to support project partners’ initiatives and told about the work that is being implemented today.

Particular attention was paid to legislation. Polina Goldenberg, State inspector on control in the sphere of water objects use and protection, land use and environmental protection of Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Natural Resource Use, presented the amendments to the Water Code and  the Code of Administrative Offences came into force November 1, 2013. They are designed to fight unscrupulous entrepreneurs who untill recently benefited from paying the fine for violation of environmental legislation more than from elimination of disastrous consequences of their business activity.   

One 2-year project is obviously unable to solve all identified problems that have been cumulating for decades. This is why the partners’ alliance has decided to continue this work in future, including the projects that will be implemented in the framework of European Partnership Instrument. But all the future project will definitely have a common goal: make the Ladoga shore a comfortable place to live for local people, an attractive place for tourists to come, and interesting for controlled fishery.    

Ellen Cherniakevich