The DigiMind project focused on developing and enhancing mental health and employment services for youth in Finland’s Satakunta region. Funded by the ESF, the project aimed to improve employment situations for young people, while preventing their social exclusion. DigiMind worked to build participants’ personal capacities, readying them for integration into the labour market.  

DigiMind harnessed digital tools, particularly Virtual Reality (VR) and mobile technologies, to ease access to its services, allowing for greater participation, while enabling the project to rapidly develop new ways to help young people learn.    

‘The DigiMind -project has helped Ohjaamo [One stop Guidance center] in the development activities by educating our staff and demonstrating us novel digital innovations. This has also led to trials in which technologies such as VR and well-being measurement tools have been in use in our services’ says Hanna-Riikka Vesterholm, manager of Ohjaamo in Pori. 

The project paid special attention to quality control while expanding its remit to include bespoke employment services, preventative mental health work and career guidance, working to match the needs of local and regional employers with participants’ skills development. DigiMind was carried out in close collaboration with public and private sector partners as well as education providers.  

The project provided useful results, such as technology prototypes, new knowledge, service and collaboration models as well as publications and ideas for further research and development. Through enhancing the use of digital technologies in a support environment, DigiMind is expected to promote long-term, far-reaching impacts for young people in the region.