Children’s Day at Work

Please remember:

• The adults who accompanied or brought the children to the workplace are responsible for them for the entire visit.
• Please get your employer’s permission for bringing the children to the workplace in good time.
• Notify the child’s day care centre, school or preschool about their absence in good time, following the appropriate procedure.

Ideas for the day

• Offer the children breakfast, lunch or a light snack.
• Introduce the workplace to the children: what do people do there, what jobs there are, how many adults work there, what kinds of premises does the workplace have? Who is the boss and who is responsible for pen procurement?
• Hold a meeting. On what issues would you like to have the children’s opinions? What did the children imagine the workplace would be like? What would they like to change at the workplace?
• Can you arrange a child-appropriate way of participating in or learning about the work done at the workplace? For example, could you arrange a new employee health examination for the children’s plushies or let the kids create content for the workplace’s social media account?
• Let the children be seen and heard on the day! Drawings and other works of art created by the children for notice boards and break rooms on Children’s Day at Work will cheer your employees and build team spirit for months after the day.
• You could also play with the children. Play is good for adults too and builds solidarity.

Tips for promoting the participation of children

• Be present and focus on listening to the child’s opinions
• Be interested in what the child has to say, and give the child enough time to answer.
• Do not make assumptions or try to steer the conversation.
• Remember that choosing not to participate is also a valid choice, and you need to respect everyone’s personality and choices.

More ways of promoting participation can be found on the following pages, for example:

• Child participation (Save the Children, in Finnish, pelastakaalapset.fi)
• Child participation (National Institute for Health and Welfare, in Finnish, thl.fi)
• The Rights of the Child (in Finnish and Swedish, lapsenoikeudet.fi)

Ideas for engaging children

Children’s meeting

Below, we have listed a few sample questions you can use as an agenda for the kids’ own meeting.

• Why do grown-ups go to work? What is good about grown-ups working? What is bad about it?
• What does this job sound like? What is interesting / not interesting about it?
• What makes a workplace good?
• What is interesting about this workplace in general? What are you excited about and why?
• What things about this workplace are unexciting, and why?
• What kinds of duties would you be interested in for your TET work experience period? (You can ask older children this.)
• How could the workplace take children better into account?
• How could the workplace look after its grown-ups?

Workday Moment drawings

Go here to print a ready A4 template on which the child can draw.

• Workday Moment drawing (pdf)

Instructions: The child can draw what happened during Children’s Day at Work or what they found interesting. The adult writes the child’s name and age, their own name and the child’s description of the drawing on the page. You can make an exhibition of the drawings in the hallways of your workplace.

Other suggestions

• Let the children take charge of the workplace’s social media accounts for the day. Remember to safeguard the children’s privacy and obtain permission for taking and publishing photographs! Use the hashtag #LapsetMukaanTöihin
• Arrange a quiz for the children on a theme related to your workplace. Children like Kahoot! quizzes, for example.
• Hold a round of introductions, with the children introducing the adults accompanying them and vice versa. You can also ask the children to tell what the adults do for a living and the adults to tell what the children enjoy doing.
• Decorate unopened food cans or other suitable items found at the workplace with stickers or plastic eyes.
• Let the child think about and make up jobs that people could do at the workplace and show and tell what the jobs would be like.
• Make plans for the next Children’s Day at Work together with the children. Also request feedback from the children: what was fun about the day? Was something boring? What could have been done better?

You can arrange child-oriented activities for your youngest guests

• A fairy-tale read by the management team.
• A drawing or colouring session.
• An obstacle course and dance/office workout.
• Try the games recommended at the Play Day site: Sata leikkiä – Leikkipäivä (in Finnish, leikkipaiva.fi)
• Get more tips from the Play Bank: Leikit (in Finnish, Leikkipankki.fi)

Material Bank

You can use these materials for 2024 when you participate in Children’s Day at Work!

‘Our workplace is taking part’ poster

You can use the poster in both digital and printed formats.

Download the poster, A3 (pdf)

Event advertisement

Support the event by sharing this ad!

Download the ad, A4 (pdf)

Children’s access card on a lanyard

You can add your workplace’s name or logo to the access card if you like.

Download the access card (pdf)

Children’s diploma for participation

Write the child’s name on the first line and have your workplace’s representative sign their name on the second line.

Download the diploma (pdf)

Logo

Download by clicking on the logo!

Pictures for social media