Caverion turns its hiring problem into Finland's Energy-Wisest School Minecraft contest

Caverion builds and services the technology inside buildings, and in 2023 it faced a talent math problem: the company needed roughly one new skilled professional a day, but schoolchildren saw the sector as dirty old construction with bad indoor air and endless projects. The energy transition made the topic timely, yet traditional employer branding was not getting through to the people Caverion would need in ten years.

The campaign answered by giving children Caverion's own expertise as a game. 'Finland's Energy-Wisest School' invited every Finnish class to redesign its actual school as an energy-wise building inside Minecraft Education — the version of Minecraft schools already had licences for. Caverion's engineers supplied the energy knowledge, Microsoft shaped it into curriculum-aligned lessons, the City of Oulu's STEAM educators tested the material, and a popular Minecraft YouTuber helped judge the roughly 100 entries.

What looked like a corporate competition functioned as a national teaching moment and a recruiting engine at once. Participants learned about heat conservation, renewable generation and building automation by designing them; the winning builds showed solar roofs, geothermal loops, rainwater harvesting and recycling. The effect on Caverion was immediate and measurable: applications rose 54% in one month, hundreds of schools took part, and coverage reached twice Finland's population.