Kela – The Social Insurance Institution of Finland

Kela, or the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, is an independent social security institution under the supervision of the Finnish Parliament, with its own administration and finances (Kela 2025). Kela’s functions are regulated by law, and its purpose is to serve citizens.

Personally, I use Kela and its services quite rarely, but they are still a part of my daily life in some way. I have a chronic illness, so I have needed Kela’s services from a young age. During my studies, Kela’s role in my life increased temporarily during vocational school. However, now in university, its significance has diminished, and I only use it for paying the student healthcare fee. Since I have a chronic illness, I had already pre-ordered a European Health Insurance Card for travel purposes.

OmaKanta – A National Digital Health Service

OmaKanta is a nationwide online service that provides access to personal health information 24/7. To access it, one must log in using online banking credentials. It is also possible to manage matters on behalf of another person or view their information if one has been granted Suomi.fi authorization, which allows access to health records. I use OmaKanta frequently due to my chronic illness. I do not have children, but I also manage my parents’ healthcare matters through OmaKanta, which is extremely convenient and helpful since we live in different municipalities.

Keva – The Largest Pension Insurer in Finland

Keva is Finland’s largest pension insurance provider, handling pension matters for municipal employees, state employees, church personnel, Kela employees, Bank of Finland staff, and employees of the well-being services counties. Another statutory task of Keva is to reduce the risk of work disability. According to Keva’s website, I do not receive a pension, and no pension record can be generated for me by Keva.

The Digitalization of Services

Nowadays, digitalization is advancing rapidly, and some services may become inaccessible to those who do not use virtual services. The reasons for not using them may be a lack of interest or the inability to use such services. Therefore, people should be educated and guided in using digital services to ensure that lack of skills does not prevent them from accessing important information.

It is now easy to use online shopping services, and I personally prefer them in some cases. When shopping online, I trust well-known stores a lot. Lesser-known stores can also earn my trust if their website provides standard information clearly and reliably. Generally, I consider well-known, reputable stores to be those that display clear payment details, business location, delivery terms, and reasonable price-to-quality ratios—nothing suspiciously cheap, even if the prices are affordable. The layout and appearance of a store’s website also contribute to its trustworthiness. For instance, awkward wording or strange images can create an impression of unreliability.

Although I find writing reviews a bit frustrating, I do enjoy reading them, especially when purchasing expensive items or products with specific uses. Detailed product descriptions also enhance the shopping experience and increase trust.

When browsing international online stores, I often notice that the same product can be available at different prices, even if it is identical. This happens because multiple sellers can operate within the same marketplace, such as on eBay or Temu. However, these platforms raise concerns about the environmental and ethical aspects of their products, even if their delivery services are reliable.

I use cybersecurity software on my computer, and when I visited Temu and eBay for this task, my security software provided an alert about whether the store was trustworthy based on its own evaluation and user feedback. It also gave me the option to rate the trustworthiness of the store myself.

FabaMappi – A Digital Service for Livestock Breeders

FabaMappi is a service provided by Faba for cattle owners, focusing on animal breeding. I use this application daily in my work, and it is available both as a website and a mobile application. The service provides information about the breeding and reproduction of the owner’s cattle and grants access to various other portals needed in daily work. It also enables external advisors to communicate with the farm on some level.

As an application, FabaMappi is reliable and easy to use because it requires login with an email and password that are specific to each farm. Its interface is simple, and its usability is designed to be straightforward. This service significantly facilitates and speeds up my daily work, as I can submit insemination reports via mobile instead of having to log in separately to the website from a computer.

Digital Skills Assessment

The digital skills test I completed indicates that I have a strong grasp of this area. I am critical of the information I encounter online and in digital environments in general. My initial perception of my skills was well aligned with the test results.

Self-Assessment

My self-assessment for this part of the course is that my skills were already strong and did not significantly develop in terms of technical ability during this task. However, the task helped me grow in other ways—I became more aware of my own thought processes and how critical I am when evaluating trustworthiness. I also realized how extensively I use different digital tools and services in my daily work.

Even though I did not necessarily acquire new skills, I still learned something valuable from this task. I now understand my reasons for being critical in digital environments more clearly and can better assess how much digital services, such as FabaMappi, truly simplify life. Since digital services have become an integral part of daily life, it is easy to overlook just how much has already transitioned from paper-based processes to digital ones.

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