Business – The New Kid on the Block
19.10.2026
Business is one of the three new skills in the Abilympics competition. In Finland, Business has been part of the Taitaja national skills competition for several years as a TaitajaPLUS skill for students with special needs. Marika Carlborg, the Skill Manager for Business at Abilympics Helsinki 2027 and a special education teacher with many years’ experience in skills competitions, shares her experiences and reflects on preparing the first-ever Business skill at International Abilympics.
Marika Carlborg
- Special Education Teacher, Vocational Qualification in Business, Live Vocational College
- Abilympics Helsinki 2027 Skill Manager in the Business skill
- Roughly a decade’s worth of experience in national skills competitions for people with special needs (TaitajaPLUS) as coach, judge and skill competition manager
- Over 30 years of experience working in special education
The Business skill in brief
A professional in business is able to operate in a customer-oriented manner and serve customers. They have good teamwork and communication skills. A professional in customer service is able to search information about products and services as well as inform the customers about them.
Business, together with the two other new Abilympics skills – Logistics and Property Management – represents an expansion of the competition’s scope and reflects the evolving demands of modern industries and vocational excellence.
The Abilympics 2027 competition will be the premiere for Business as a skill. On a national level Business, or Customer services and sales, has been a part of Skills Finland’s TaitajaPLUS roster for competitors with special needs for quite a while. I personally find it a welcome addition to the Abilympics family.
Being new has both its advantages and disadvantages. There are no tried and true past competitions to look back on for inspiration. Everything is brand new which really lets my imagination take flight and offers the opportunity to try different approaches. On the other hand there are no previous competitions to use in order to avoid pitfalls.
I was fortunate enough to arrange the qualifying competition for Finland last spring. This offered an excellent opportunity to test competition modules and find out what works and what doesn’t. I find that the biggest challenge is how to formulate the instructions so that they are understood in one way only and not open to (too much) interpretation. Something that seems clear to me can easily mean something else to the competitor.
Language and culture also bring their own challenges to the table. Good customer service means one thing in one culture and something else in another. Finding commonalities is an exciting challenge. The same can be said for the use of symbols to convey product information, such as washing instructions or raw materials used.
The Business 43 skills competition will be divided into two tasks: a theoretical and a practical task. The theoretical focuses on general business knowledge such as terminology and calculus. The practical involves tasks in a mock shop selling household items. Since this is the first time, I hope most aspects will go well. I am certain there will be things that need tweaking before the next Abilympics if Business remains a competition. All experiences are valuable, especially when developing something new. I am looking forward to next spring with an open mind. You won’t know until you try it.
The Technical Descriptions for all Abilympics Helsinki 2027 skills are now available on each skill’s page.
