Vuosi: 2017
Highly skilled immigrants aboard to build Finland
Pedro Góis (2017) informs that in USA alone, immigrants have been involved with founding companies such as “Google, Intel, WhatsApp, PayPal, eBay, Tesla, and Yahoo” and even though immigrants “make up less than 15 percent of the US population, skilled immigrants account for over half of Silicon Valley start-ups and over half of patents”. Could this be achieved in Finland as well? Building companies operating in English and having international potential such as the IT companies Góis mentioned will keep being created in Finland. However, working in many professional fields here requires the knowledge of our national language(s), mainly Finnish but speaking also Swedish can be an advantage. The language skills and navigating how our education and work-life operates typically takes time in the beginning. Yet they are significant puzzle pieces to integration. Back to studying basics? Anything human rarely surprises me, but I must say that the first time I heard a foreigner having a Bachelor´s Degree Certificate telling me he is studying in Finnish Basic Education - I went speechless. Basic Education is the school Finnish youngsters nearly always complete by the age of seventeen (EDUFI 2017a). Sadly, we in SIMHE-Metropolia have had a handful of clients like him who have taken too many steps backwards. SIMHE-Metropolia: 1) aims for faster integration It touches my heart when a client says after a thank you that they wish they had met me X years (that number could range from two to multiple years) earlier. Thus, I completely agree with the Minister of Education, Ms. Sanni Grahn-Laasonen, “We cannot afford to miss or waste anyone’s skills.” (Ministry of Education and Culture 2017b) and therefore need to better and faster recognize and utilize immigrants’ existing skills. 2) guides highly skilled immigrants My first three months in SIMHE-Metropolia have flown by fast because there is no shortage of clients. We guide those immigrants who reside in Finland but are not currently degree students in higher education (=HE) here. The minimum criteria to become a SIMHE client is that one is eligible to apply to HE in their home country and therefore in Finland as well. Actually, most of our clients already have at least one HE degree. 3) helps to steer multiple ways SIMHE-Metropolia has many services which we constantly develop. I mainly focus on group and personal guidance. In personal guidance discussions, we reserve an hour so we can holistically go through the immigrant´s situation and possible options. We focus on the topics they want, most typically connected to studies and career. SIMHE-Metropolia has been operating as of spring 2016 and already some of our clients have succeeded in gaining admission to studies or work where they were hoping. New initiatives for integration When it comes to degree studies, in my opinion vocational institutions are further with flexible options like apprenticeship training and competence-based qualification (terms from EDUFI 2017b). Fortunately, there is a momentum in Finland to accelerating immigrants’ integration seen in for example the launch of International House of Helsinki and that Espoo adopted English as their third official language. The Minister of Education allocated in total 5.5 million euros to various measures promoting development of for instance immigrants´ educational paths (Ministry of Education and Culture 2017a). From prep courses to graduates Some HE institutions like Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (UAS) have preparatory courses for immigrants. One of the projects which received funding from the Minister of Education is called in Finnish “Valmentavasta valmiiksi” where we in Metropolia UAS have teamed up with eight other UAS to develop preparatory courses. The idea is to develop them to be more nationally compatible and that the student who wants to graduate with a degree in higher education on that field would have a clear path for that. Utilizing everyone’s skills I have met so many clever and inspiring immigrants, most of whom are eager to stay and become full members of the Finnish society as fast as possible. Thus, I hope that initiatives like the above mentioned will help to make it more and more possible. I wish work places will to a greater extent take advantage of the diverse skills and ideas our multilingual and -cultural clients can bring. Sources: EDUFI (2017a) Finnish National Agency for Education. Education system in Finland picture available at http://www.oph.fi/english/education_system [retrieved 1.12.2017] EDUFI (2017b) Finnish National Agency for Education. Opetushallinnon sanasto available at http://www03.oph.fi/sanasto/listaakaikki_s.asp [retrieved 1.12.2017] Góis, Pedro (2017) Facing the human capital challenges of the 21st century’s new era of mobility: Migrant populations in higher education – students, academics, researchers. Keynote lecture, 13 December 2016 published in Käyhkö, Katinka; Bontenbal, Ilona & Bogdanoff, Minna (Eds.), "Open the doors!": Migrants in Higher Education: Fostering Cooperation at Universities Seminar 13.-14.12.2016 in Jyväskylä. Available also online: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-6977-6 Ministry of Education and Culture (2017a) Solutions for accelerating immigrants’ educational paths are sought and supported. Press release published in 11.8.2017 at http://minedu.fi/artikkeli/-/asset_publisher/maahanmuuttajien-koulutuspolkuja-vauhditetaan?_101_INSTANCE_0R8wCyp3oebu_languageId=en_US [retrieved 1.12.2017] Ministry of Education and Culture (2017b) Steering group: We need better ways to recognise immigrants’ skills. Press release 25.9.2017 published in English on 29.9.2017 at http://minedu.fi/en/article/-/asset_publisher/maahanmuuttajien-osaaminen-tunnistettava-nykyista-paremmin [retrieved 1.12.2017]
Highly skilled immigrants aboard to build Finland
Pedro Góis (2017) informs that in USA alone, immigrants have been involved with founding companies such as “Google, Intel, WhatsApp, PayPal, eBay, Tesla, and Yahoo” and even though immigrants “make up less than 15 percent of the US population, skilled immigrants account for over half of Silicon Valley start-ups and over half of patents”. Could this be achieved in Finland as well? Building companies operating in English and having international potential such as the IT companies Góis mentioned will keep being created in Finland. However, working in many professional fields here requires the knowledge of our national language(s), mainly Finnish but speaking also Swedish can be an advantage. The language skills and navigating how our education and work-life operates typically takes time in the beginning. Yet they are significant puzzle pieces to integration. Back to studying basics? Anything human rarely surprises me, but I must say that the first time I heard a foreigner having a Bachelor´s Degree Certificate telling me he is studying in Finnish Basic Education - I went speechless. Basic Education is the school Finnish youngsters nearly always complete by the age of seventeen (EDUFI 2017a). Sadly, we in SIMHE-Metropolia have had a handful of clients like him who have taken too many steps backwards. SIMHE-Metropolia: 1) aims for faster integration It touches my heart when a client says after a thank you that they wish they had met me X years (that number could range from two to multiple years) earlier. Thus, I completely agree with the Minister of Education, Ms. Sanni Grahn-Laasonen, “We cannot afford to miss or waste anyone’s skills.” (Ministry of Education and Culture 2017b) and therefore need to better and faster recognize and utilize immigrants’ existing skills. 2) guides highly skilled immigrants My first three months in SIMHE-Metropolia have flown by fast because there is no shortage of clients. We guide those immigrants who reside in Finland but are not currently degree students in higher education (=HE) here. The minimum criteria to become a SIMHE client is that one is eligible to apply to HE in their home country and therefore in Finland as well. Actually, most of our clients already have at least one HE degree. 3) helps to steer multiple ways SIMHE-Metropolia has many services which we constantly develop. I mainly focus on group and personal guidance. In personal guidance discussions, we reserve an hour so we can holistically go through the immigrant´s situation and possible options. We focus on the topics they want, most typically connected to studies and career. SIMHE-Metropolia has been operating as of spring 2016 and already some of our clients have succeeded in gaining admission to studies or work where they were hoping. New initiatives for integration When it comes to degree studies, in my opinion vocational institutions are further with flexible options like apprenticeship training and competence-based qualification (terms from EDUFI 2017b). Fortunately, there is a momentum in Finland to accelerating immigrants’ integration seen in for example the launch of International House of Helsinki and that Espoo adopted English as their third official language. The Minister of Education allocated in total 5.5 million euros to various measures promoting development of for instance immigrants´ educational paths (Ministry of Education and Culture 2017a). From prep courses to graduates Some HE institutions like Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (UAS) have preparatory courses for immigrants. One of the projects which received funding from the Minister of Education is called in Finnish “Valmentavasta valmiiksi” where we in Metropolia UAS have teamed up with eight other UAS to develop preparatory courses. The idea is to develop them to be more nationally compatible and that the student who wants to graduate with a degree in higher education on that field would have a clear path for that. Utilizing everyone’s skills I have met so many clever and inspiring immigrants, most of whom are eager to stay and become full members of the Finnish society as fast as possible. Thus, I hope that initiatives like the above mentioned will help to make it more and more possible. I wish work places will to a greater extent take advantage of the diverse skills and ideas our multilingual and -cultural clients can bring. Sources: EDUFI (2017a) Finnish National Agency for Education. Education system in Finland picture available at http://www.oph.fi/english/education_system [retrieved 1.12.2017] EDUFI (2017b) Finnish National Agency for Education. Opetushallinnon sanasto available at http://www03.oph.fi/sanasto/listaakaikki_s.asp [retrieved 1.12.2017] Góis, Pedro (2017) Facing the human capital challenges of the 21st century’s new era of mobility: Migrant populations in higher education – students, academics, researchers. Keynote lecture, 13 December 2016 published in Käyhkö, Katinka; Bontenbal, Ilona & Bogdanoff, Minna (Eds.), "Open the doors!": Migrants in Higher Education: Fostering Cooperation at Universities Seminar 13.-14.12.2016 in Jyväskylä. Available also online: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-6977-6 Ministry of Education and Culture (2017a) Solutions for accelerating immigrants’ educational paths are sought and supported. Press release published in 11.8.2017 at http://minedu.fi/artikkeli/-/asset_publisher/maahanmuuttajien-koulutuspolkuja-vauhditetaan?_101_INSTANCE_0R8wCyp3oebu_languageId=en_US [retrieved 1.12.2017] Ministry of Education and Culture (2017b) Steering group: We need better ways to recognise immigrants’ skills. Press release 25.9.2017 published in English on 29.9.2017 at http://minedu.fi/en/article/-/asset_publisher/maahanmuuttajien-osaaminen-tunnistettava-nykyista-paremmin [retrieved 1.12.2017]
Healthy Mind, Healthy Life – How to improve the sense of belongingness among highly educated immigrants in Finland?
Why is belonging so important for us? We all have the need of belonging to something. The basic need, according to Baumeister and Leary, is, the feeling of doing purposeful things and taking part. Whether it is inside your family, the workplace, or say, the local chess-club, the need to connect is vital. This feeling improves our well-being, and lowers the levels of loneliness and depression. Belongingness can be achieved through what you do, and as an adult, a big part of your everyday life is concerned with your work. So what would happen, if this sense would be taken away from you unwillingly? Or for example, if you could not work within the field of expertise you have? This is sadly, everyday life among many highly educated immigrants in Finland today. My question is, how can this happen, and how can we prevent this? Work as a part of one’s well-being As Burton and Waddell stated, upon discovering your own fields of interests in adulthood, work and your workplace becomes a big part of your everyday life. It is the source of your income, and satisfies many of your psycho social needs. Your own work is central for your identity and enables you to see where you stand in relation to others. Belongingness increases your willingness to work within groups by the group norms and rules. The closer you feel with your working community, the more purposeful you feel, and the more efficient and goal achieving you are. So we could almost say that work is key for one’s well-being. As I have been arguing, work improves your well-being, work links to belongingness, which on the other hand is an essential need for all humans. So what if the “work-piece” of the bigger puzzle falls apart, what is there left for you, can you feel purposeful at all? Arriving to a new country, is work the key to belongingness? As a refugee, you enter a so-called Limbo phase when leaving your home country. This is a very distressing time where your life is in an “in between phase” in the migration process before the asylum decision. You face uncertainty regarding your future, you have abnormal living arrangements and might even have economic challenges and limited access to activities. How do you achieve a feeling of safeness and belongingness, when your whole life is turbulent, at the same time the country you are in has an unfamiliar culture and language? I myself, as a previous exchange student know how important it is to find at least one stable pillar in your life when everything else is unfamiliar. In my case, my studies kept me going. As a highly educated immigrant, I would assume you would want to work somewhere where you feel you are valued for your own competences. The importance of pursuing a career in your own field of expertise cannot be stressed enough. As an immigrant, you already have a tenfold risk for developing post traumatic stress disorders and other symptoms of distress and depression. So why would you make the future even more disrupted by not allowing one to work who already possesses a higher education degree? Thoughts about the future and solutions for this? For Finland to be a more international country, we need to strive for a more international working force as well. The SIMHE-services have encountered several cases where highly educated immigrants want to continue their own career path, but because of the regulations or not finding a place, they cannot. They are so motivated in maintaining their skills and connect, that some would even work for free. A downgrade from your own field of expertise creates a feeling of self-worthlessness and increases lacks of motivation. Highly educated immigrants need to be recognized for their skills and degrees they possess. They need, just like anyone else, to feel the sense of belongingness, that they are a part of something. As an intern, and as a social psychology student, I sense that the services that SIMHE provides is of great importance, but could in the future also be done on a bigger scale. What is there left for us to do? How can we improve our integration of highly educated people in Finland? Did you, while reading this and after reviewing the SIMHE-Metropolia web page, come up with new ideas or questions regarding this topic? Or do you even already have a solution for us? We at SIMHE-Metropolia would like to hear more about your thoughts! Elsa Rinne, SIMHE Metropolia trainee, Social psychology student at Svenska Social- och Kommunalhögskolan vid Helsingfors Universitet
Is it all about happiness?
Migration is by no means a new phenomenon. Many Finnish families have their own American cousin or a Swedish aunt with interesting stories. Migration thus evokes many feelings as a historical phenomenon. I was very pleased to be able to participate in Migration conference 2017,that was organized this year in Athens, Greece. Is aiming at happiness an underlying factor in migration? Saskia Sassen, a Dutch-American sociology Professor at The University of Columbia, has widely examined globalization as a phenomenon. After Sassen´s keynote speech, all in the audience understood how multidimensional phenomenon migration is. Her research concentrates on the underlying governmental issues that are the hidden factors causing the basic reasons for migration such as wars and religious conflicts. Yet, the main reason for people leaving their home country seems to be hopes for achieving better life that the home country is not able to provide. In Athens, it was easy to reminisce the philosophies of the ancient era. Even Aristotle indicated that a good life is achieved, when a man can use his abilities and capabilities for the society he feels connected to, and when he feels of being a useful member of this society. Unfortunately, while walking on the streets of Athens, I was forced to face the immigration crisis of 2015 in Europe in its real terms. This tragedy of the immigration overflow, is something you can still witness today. Having a good life and achieving happiness seems an unreachable quest for many living on the streets. It seemed paradoxical that I have just learnt about different research results on which factors increase the risk of violence among immigrants such as insecurity, uncertainty and hopelessness as I could see these feelings in people’s eyes when walking back to my hotel. How do different countries relate to immigration? Nelli Esipova from Gallup World Poll, had a presentation on immigration acceptance in different countries. The research focused on presenting a research setting, in which the acceptance index in the world was set as 5,299. The acceptance index included 164 countries and 1,7 million interviews among adult respondents. The research was conducted in USA in 2017 and in the other research countries in 2016. Among the top ten countries that accepted the immigration the least were e.g. Estonia (2,37) and Hungary (1,69). Among the top ten most accepting countries for immigration, the Northern Countries were represented as Sweden scored 7,92 and Iceland 8,26. Finland scored 6,58, which was above the World and also the European index. According to the survey results, immigration acceptance was higher on a personal level among those, who know immigrants personally, and acceptance was increased with other factors such as having a degree in higher education, living in an urban environment, economic status and belonging to the Z-generation. In EU countries, it was especially noted that opinions were also formed based on the interviewer’s positive emotions and social ability. If a good integration is based on happiness and in experience of having a good life, how can we contribute towards this feeling among the immigrants? Immigration is portrayed in the European media more through tragedies than through success stories. The media has a significant role in forming attitudes and in shaping the attitude among the general public. “Close the borders” and “Isolation” strategies have never been sustainable solutions on immigration based on research results and historical evidence. On the contrary, immigration is also proved to bring out many positive socio-economic possibilities. Being a member of a community, feeling of being part of something bigger, and finding your life to be meaningful have proven to increase happiness and well-being according to various research. We aim to reach these factors also in our services for immigrants at SIMHE-Metropolia. When planning our services, our vision was to include our customers in developing the service concept and that we create such services that we would like to use if living abroad as immigrant by ourselves.
365 steps later
Supporting Immigrants in Higher Education in Finland (SIMHE) has now been part of my professional life exactly for a year. It has most certainly been a year of many new encounters, views, angles, ideas, networks, seminars and happenings. This has been most apparent in terms of guidance and counselling as I have met around 300 educated immigrant-background people through one-to-one personal guidance discussions, Guidance Generalia lectures and in orientating customers to our Recognition of Competences Services. It was a very good year How could I describe the past year and its eventful occurrences? We started from an empty desk, only having a grasp of what there is to do, or what we wish to accomplish. Things evolved very fast and the first pilot in recognition of competences services, SIMHE-Metropolia internet pages and guidance and counselling services got a kick-start during April-May 2016. Evidently, once you get going, things tend to grow bigger and bigger, like a snowball effect. I have come across with people from many walks of life as my counselees have had education in engineering, nursing, law, medicine, business, pharmacology, languages and teaching, just mention a few. Some of them have been in Finland only for months, whereas some have been living here even for years. Despite their various backgrounds, all SIMHE customers share a need to get information and help in learning how to surf in the Finnish education system and labour market, or getting to know what are the authorities regulating certain professions in Finland. This has also put my skills to the test as I have myself learned so many new things by searching for information from various channels. Likewise, I have also learnt a lot from my customers and their international experience. It’s all about networks Many SIMHE customers’ main objective is to get employed in their field of expertise. Job-searching has been a daunting experience for many as there is little or no response from the employers, even after numerous applications and contact-making. It has become as a surprise to some that having the credentials and qualifications is somewhat meaningless, unless you have the networks and connections with the local people. It is a matter of trust, or sometimes of mere existence. If you have no one to endorse you and your competences, you are non-visible in the labour market. Thus, one of our challenges is to help to create such networks in making people exist in the eyes of the Finnish employers. Again, we aim to support this through our own networks like TE-office, Helsinki Chamber of Commerce and Start-Up Refugees in addition to our Recognition of Competences Services. The show must go on SIMHE-Metropolia and SIMHE-Jyväskylä pioneered the concept throughout 2016 with good results and a strong support from Ministry of Education and Culture. Issues revolving around immigration phenomenon have become more and more prevalent in Finland and the implications are apparent on all levels of education. The actions to be taken are described on The educational tracks and integration of immigrants - problematic areas and proposals for actions document that was handed to Minister of Education and Culture, Sanni Grahn-Laasonen, at Metropolia in mid-February 2017. SIMHE is getting even a stronger foothold in 2017 as more educational institutions are joining the concept and the work will continue until the end of 2020, or even beyond. We are very happy to welcome University of Helsinki, University of Turku, Oulu UAS and Karelia UAS to heighten the service concept and bring in fresh views and ideas. There is most certainly a need to open-up and brush-up the existing policies to create ways for immigrants to have an access to education, also on its highest level. SIMHE-concept could work as a stepping stone for supporting more inclusive education in catering the needs of immigrants and the Finnish society.
Mathematics and various variables
Supporting Immigrants in Higher Education in Finland (SIMHE) assists higher educated people with immigrant background in finding suitable education and career paths through guidance and by recognizing their competences. The main title for the blog, Various Variables, describes the diversity and complexity of the phenomenon at hand well. The etymological background for the words various and variables can be traced back to mathematics, where functions of various variables are often discussed. Currently, many functions are being made to handle these various variables we have faced through immigration and getting accustomed to the changed circumstances. This blog has not yet equated mathematics into its topics, so now it’s time to make a change! Mathematics is a universal language One part of the SIMHE services is recognizing competences that has been acquired through prior studies and work experience. This helps the customer in finding suitable supplementary education. People from different countries have different kinds of education and career backgrounds, which contributes to several challenges in recognizing their competences. Language barriers and cultural differences also play their part in these challenges. In the beginning of recognizing competences, it is the easiest to focus on areas that are shared globally and needed in several educational fields. A prime example of these universal fields is mathematics, which is a central part in the field of technology all over the world. The language of symbols in mathematics remains mainly the same compared to the spoken language that tends to change when moving to a different country or region. It was decided that mathematics would be a part of the first pilot project of recognition of competences within the SIMHE project. Tasks that demand complex verbal descriptions were left out at this stage to avoid language barriers and a burdensome translation process. Instead, this test included tasks in which the language of symbols in mathematics is enough to understand the tasks as well as short expressions such as “simplify the expression” or “solve the equation”. Unfortunately, this approach does not measure the most essential competences needed for working as an engineer. These competences were measured in other parts of the test. Preparatory education for immigrants Preparatory education for people with immigrant backgrounds has been organized at Metropolia already years before SIMHE was founded. This education helps students develop for example their linguistic and mathematic knowledge as well as digital know-how to meet the requirements for higher education. The aim of the education in mathematical subjects is to prepare for the entrance examination in the field of technology and transportation at universities of applied sciences. The task series used within the SIMHE project were also applied in the preparatory education for immigrants in autumn 2016. However, the topics were broadened to also include applied functions, and the tasks were completed on a digital learning platform. The first test run by SIMHE was organised using only pen and paper to avoid technical issues. 20 students who participated in the preparatory education for immigrants this year, had a relatively homogenous educational background. Only a few of them have a higher education degree, whereas most have completed their studies in the secondary level. The age in the group ranged from around 20 to almost 40 years of age, while the average age was around 30. Revision is needed sometimes Despite knowing mathematics before, it can be difficult to solve a more complex task after a long break without solving basic arithmetic calculations. This has also been proven to be true both when recognising competences as well as in preparatory education for immigrants. The results in mathematics in the first test of recognising competences were not on the strong side. However, when collecting feedback from the test, many of the participants suggested they would have done better in the test after a short revision. They have mastered mathematics before, but have forgotten the details for now. Some participants aired the same thought during the test. In this situation it is comforting that a very short revision and refreshing of the memory is sufficient in recalling earlier competences. This probably does not only apply to mathematics but also to other fields, which is good to keep in mind when planning how to recognise such competences in the future. This blog post was additionally composed by Ellen Avellan, Marianne Autero and Birgitta Nenonen-Andersson.
Blog introduces information, tips and insights that help international talents with a higher education background to integrate and find their study and career paths in Finland. The blog is part of Metropolia’s #talentboost actions.
Outi Lemettinen (head editor)
Riikka Wallin
Anu Luoma
Email addresses: firstname.surname@metropolia.fi
Editorial Board handles all the publications of Various Variables blog before publishing.
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