Studies at SEAMK open doors world-wide

Even though it has been a few years since I lost the right to answer “twenty-something” when asked about my age, student life still feels like yesterday. The years rush by at a growing pace, and writing this alumni story is a good moment to pause and reflect on the years that have flown past.

I am Topias Välimäki, and I’ll share with you my studies at Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, along with bits about my life around those studies. I was born in Ilmajoki, a municipality near Seinäjoki. I haven’t wandered far from there, as I still live in the Seinäjoki region. After finishing lower secondary school, I weighed my options between upper secondary school and vocational school. In the end, the practical studies in electricity and automation drew the young man to the vocational school Sedu on Kirkkokatu in Seinäjoki, a building complex that has since been demolished. After specializing in automation, my studies included not only electrical work but also industrial automation and robotics. Sedu Kirkkokatu provided modern facilities for future electrical experts, even if the minds of boys that age sometimes wandered elsewhere.

I took a step toward my own interests in process industry during my internship at JPT Industria Oy. The company delivers solutions ranging from equipment supply to complete factories, especially for the feed and food industries. After a few instructive years of work and military service, it was time to start my university studies at the Seinäjoki campus, Kampusranta.

My studies as an automation engineer began in the autumn of 2016. The first two years included several theoretical courses, and I myself encountered challenges such as university-level mathematics. The calculation and programming tasks performed with MATLAB software were among the most intellectually demanding things I had faced in my life up to that point. Writing this now, I find myself looking back at snippets of code from those assignments and wondering how I managed to get through them. There were some professional courses during the first years of study, but it was time to dive into them properly in the third year. However, more than half of the third year was spent in Germany, at Hochschule Ravensburg-Weingarten. There, the focus of programming courses was on embedded systems and web programming rather than process industry solutions. In addition to the instructive and somewhat different courses during the exchange period, I remember a lesson from an entrepreneurship course about avoiding perfectionism: the product you develop doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be good enough.

The semester abroad, organized by SeAMK student services, was quite effortless for me as a student. While it was an extremely positive experience overall, it also taught me to appreciate the course selection, flexibility, and pedagogical practices of my home university. Electrical engineering and industrial PLC programming courses of SEAMK open doors to companies across Finland – and why not Europe as well. Various programming courses also laid the foundation for programming skills that are easy to build upon later, enabling a wide range of career paths. Many of the courses at SEAMK were useful in working life even during my studies: courses related to sensor technology and process automation supported my evening and weekend work in a maintenance team at Atria, and the experience I gained at school with Eplan and TiaPortal environments helped me secure an Engineering Trainee position at my current workplace, Arnon Oy. The company designs and manufactures electrification and automation solutions for equipment manufacturers as well as the energy, mining, and marine industries.

After graduating in 2020, my career path took me from a designer role to carrying project and customer responsibilities. I then spent three years at Arnon Ab in Haninge, south of Stockholm, before returning to the Kauhava office in the spring of 2025. Today, I work in technical sales and project management. In my current role, I can use many of the skills I acquired during my studies in electrical and automation engineering, project work, networking beyond Finland’s borders, and to some extent, programming and 3D modeling.

During your studies, professional skills develop in a diverse learning environment: students can choose elective courses according to their interests, explore laboratories with up-to-date technology, and find interesting challenges in project activities. However, it is important to emphasize the significance of basic work-life skills, so-called soft skills. These can be practiced during your studies: co-operation and communication skills, learning ability, self-direction, scheduling, and perseverance during challenging courses are invaluable skills in working life.

The world is constantly changing, and the pace isn’t slowing down. To meet this challenge, SEAMK, like many other universities, offers continuous learning courses, which I also take advantage of. In addition to various skills and attitudes, language skills are essential when operating on a global playing field. Europe and our Nordic neighbors have awakened to the importance of close co-operation and technological self-sufficiency; this creates opportunities for Finnish export companies to improve the country’s economic situation. An engineer who is skilled in collaboration and speaks English and Swedish is in a key position for the growth of technology exports – a position more important than many might imagine when applying for a study place.

Finally, I would like to send my greetings and heartfelt thanks to the lecturers and staff of Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences for their inspiring and professional teaching, advice, and other tools for working life. To young people seeking a place to study, I encourage you to apply to Seinäjoki – and even if your place is found elsewhere in Finland, I warmly wish you good luck with the challenges of studying and working life.