This spring’s NouHätä! competition is here – 30 years of safety education for teenagers
The national NouHätä! competition testing the safety skills of eighth graders will kick off at the end of January. Every year, schools and rescue departments across Finland team up to provide safety education to young people. This spring, a total of 580 schools have signed up to the campaign.
Every year, around 70 to 80% of all eight graders in Finland – more than 40 000 students – attend NouHätä! lessons on fire safety, accident prevention and emergency preparedness.
“Every young person should have the right to learn safety skills”, says Tomi Sirkiä, campaign coordinator at SPEK.
The NouHätä! safety skills campaign also includes a competition which kicked off today on Tuesday.
Teams of three members selected by schools participate in the digital qualifying round from 20 January to 10 February.
Cooperation between schools and rescue departments is important
In March, rescue departments and associations will invite the best teams in their region to regional semi-finals, where teams’ skills will be tested with written questions and practical tasks.
The best teams in the regional competitions will advance to the grand final at the Emergency Services Academy in Kuopio in April.
“Cooperation between schools, rescue departments and the Emergency Services Academy is important for the whole campaign,” says Sirkiä.
In addition to the regional semi-finals, rescue departments and associations organise firefighting drills for students and safety education in schools.
Teachers have a key role in teaching safety skills to young people
Over the past 30 years, the NouHätä! safety campaign has reached a total of one million young people. The role of schools and teachers is important, as schools decide independently on their participation in the campaign.
“Young people learn skills such as giving first aid, responding to a fire and how to call the emergency number. Participation has been made as easy as possible for teachers, as all the necessary materials are available on the NouHätä website,” says Sirkiä.
SPEK coordinates the NouHätä! safety skills campaign. The campaign is supported by the Fire Protection Fund, and the competition prizes are sponsored by Esteri Group.