Language training helps highly educated immigrants, but traineeships are still hard to find
Elena Mitina and her family moved from Russia to Finland when she was admitted to the University of Eastern Finland’s Master's Degree Programme in Education, which is taught at the Joensuu Campus. With a laugh, Mitina says that she has since gone through all the employment phases of a typical immigrant.
After graduating, Mitina found a job in her own field working at a daycare centre. However, this job was cut short by COVID-19, so Mitina ended up working as a cleaner. She has also done on-demand work and worked as a teaching assistant, at a reception centre and as an interpreter. Now she works as an employment coach for Russian and Ukrainian speakers, helping them prepare CVs, apply for jobs and so on.
The question of how to get highly educated people or those who want to go pursue higher education, like Mitina, to first come to Finland and then stay here for work is one that Finnish higher education institutions are currently putting a great deal of thought into.
“The need for labour is already high in some sectors, but our labour market, companies and organisations are not yet ready to recruit as many international specialists as are graduating from higher education institutions and from upper secondary education and training,” says Director of International Affairs Liisa Timonen from Karelia University of Applied Sciences.
In other words, people arriving in Finland are being provided with education and training, but their employment has so far fallen short of targets.
Language training helps
One recurring bottleneck in the employment of immigrants is language skills. A foreign professional who does not speak sufficiently fluent Finnish is seen as a problem, at least in informal discussions.
“In some working communities, there are concerns over how those with weaker Finnish-language skills will integrate into the community, whether people have enough time to provide them with sufficient support and how customers will react,” Timonen says.
People who move to Finland are provided with language training under SIMHE (Supporting Immigrants in Higher Education in Finland) programmes, for example, and traineeships are often promoted through Talent Hub programmes, which are jointly organised by higher education institutions and companies alongside SIMHE.
Elena Mitina initially studied Finnish independently, but through the university's SIMHE services she was eventually admitted to an English-language course.
“It helped a little to open doors, meet people and find my place,” Mitina says.
Mitina reached out to the other students on the course on social media, and through them found out about KAVA training, in which she continued her study of Finnish. According to Mitina, getting to speak Finnish with the other immigrants participating in the training made her more confident about her spoken Finnish. Since no one spoke perfectly fluent Finnish, everyone had the courage to speak as well as they were able. By contrast, speaking Finnish with Finnish people would have been a much scarier prospect.
"It is good that there are services like SIMHE, KAVA and labour market training, immigrants are very grateful for them. They really help,” Mitina says.
However, she would like the queues for the various integration services and courses to be shorter. Not everyone studies independently, and some of her clients, for example, end up having to wait up to six months to get on the courses.
Traineeships are hard to find
Elena Mitina is currently studying software development because she saw first-hand in the education sector that teachers are usually required to speak Finnish at a native level. Although she speaks Finnish well, she decided to change careers. In her new field, she has encountered another bottleneck.
“The lack of traineeships is a major problem in many sectors,” Mitina says. “Finding your first traineeship is really difficult, but things get easier after that once you have something to add to your CV. I understand that every company wants a professional ready for work, but you cannot have that if you do not provide opportunities for people to develop and learn.”
This is a problem that higher education institutions are trying to tackle in cooperation with companies. One company that has been active in projects related to these efforts for several years now is Phillips Medisize, the Finnish branch of which is located in Kontiolahti. Engineering Manager Janne Turunen from Phillips Medisize says that he, too, has noticed that there are simply not enough relevant traineeships that promote personal learning available for students, especially those with a foreign background.
Phillips Medisize takes in around ten trainees a year, some of whom are always immigrant students. According to Turunen, doing so is also a business choice: although they have not yet suffered from a labour shortage, Phillips Medisize have recognised that they may be facing one just around the corner.
Foreign students have integrated into the working community at Phillips Medisize well, as they are an international company where many employees can manage their work tasks just fine in English.
“I understand very well that good language skills are more important in certain sectors,” he says. “If you operate on the domestic market and have few contacts abroad, the skill requirements are certainly higher,” Turunen says.
Turunen’s experiences of foreign-background trainees have been good.
“The staff have been very welcoming, and the feedback that we have received from our trainees suggests that they have been very well received.”
According to Turunen, having groups from higher education institutions visit the company is a good practice. He welcomes the fact that Karelia University of Applied Sciences and the University of Eastern Finland have started to focus on this type of marketing and are working on getting more companies on board.
“I believe that their efforts are beginning to bear fruit, and I would encourage other companies to join in.”
Personal activity needed
Elena Mitina and Janne Turunen both agree that jobseekers themselves must also be active.
“Nothing will happen unless you take action yourself. I can attribute 90% of all my successes to my own activity,” Mitina says.
Turunen emphasises that students visiting companies should not hesitate to speak out: it is important to leave an impression. A single visit may include an entire class of students, and there are always a few who stand out as being a potentially good fit for the working community.
When Turunen later browses traineeship applications, he may recall students who asked good questions and displayed a positive attitude. By contrast, those who stay quiet and in the background during visits are less likely to leave a lasting impression.
Higher education institutions compete for students
Finnish higher education institutions are working hard to get more foreign labour to Finland in order to keep the country’s wheels spinning. The Finnish population is ageing, so all higher education institutions are focusing on developing international education and increasing their numbers of international students.
“Some higher education institutions are aiming to increase their share of foreign degree students to up to 40% in the next few years. Karelia’s targets are more moderate,” Liisa Timonen says. In her opinion, the demand for the education and guidance of foreign students will only increase.
At the same time, Finnish higher education institutions are developing international education to be more attractive, as the international competition for foreign students is fierce – after all, population trends are very similar in all the old industrialised countries.
Many students are attracted to the major English-speaking countries and Germany, but according to Timonen, Finland still has a good reputation as a safe country with high-quality education.
Everyone's contribution is needed
Since the challenge posed by the ageing population concerns Finnish society as a whole, it cannot be left up to higher education institutions, pioneering companies and students to solve.
Liisa Timonen would like the importance of immigration based on work and education to be widely recognised in Finland, and see this reflected in the form of more permissive immigration policies as well. The attitudes and international skills of ordinary Finns also play an important role.
“Every university graduate must have international skills,” Timonen says.
This does not mean that everyone has to go on exchange – although it would be preferable – but rather that everyone should interact in some way with international students and teachers.
“We must have an understanding of what multiculturalism, diversity and community cohesion are,” Timonen says. After all, foreign colleagues are more likely to commit to staying in Finland if they have good colleagues and friends here.
Text: Esa Salminen