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Various Variables
Aiming at recognising competences and guiding educated immigrants

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Recognising competencies of educated immigrants

Heidi Stenberg · 20.5.2016

Since the last autumn, there has been an intense debate on what should be done in this new situation with a growing number of asylum seekers and immigrants that has exceeded even the wildest guesses. ”Rajat kiinni”, “Close the borders”, has been one approach and on the other hand it has been considered if immigrants could be seen as a resource to benefit Finland. Metropolia’s solution is to offer a service concept produced by the SIMHE project, which is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The aim is to recognise the competences of highly educated immigrants and to guide them, and those who are eligible to apply to higher education, to interesting and meaningful educational and career paths.

Setting objectives for the project is easier than implementing them into contemporary society.

Mathematical competence, professional engineering competence and digital competence were selected to form the pilot test on recognising engineering competence that was implemented in April at Metropolia. The test parts were compiled by the Metropolia experts in mathematics, different engineering degree programmes and in digital competence. We considered what kind of competence the Finnish employers might value, and on the other hand, we thought that immigrants could benefit from the recognition of competences for example, if they apply to higher education in Finland, as an institution of higher education has already made an evaluation on their competences.

 When choosing the content to the recognition of competence, we looked at the issue from a perspective of integrating immigrants into Finnish society.

30 immigrants participated in the recognition of competence day out of which 28 were male and 2 female. The majority of them were from Iraq, a few from Syria and Afghanistan, one from Iran and one from Belarus. The participants’ age varied between 20 and 44. A few of them had been in Finland for nearly three years, the majority for 6-10 months. It was possible to do the test in Arabic, in English or in Finnish. The language options were based on the fact in which language the participants had filled-in the enrolment form. The results will be ready soon and we will reflect on them as well as on methods used in the recognition of competence together with participants and our experts.

 We need to reflect critically on both – the used methods and the chosen fields of competencies.

Is the recognition of mathematical competence relevant when working as an engineer? Those participating in the pilot, already had a degree, or studies in higher education in the field of technology. Why would someone, who already has a degree, and who has made the official recognition and international comparability of qualifications want to participate in our recognition of competence? What do the participants benefit from recognition of competence will probably not become clear until a long-term follow-up is done based on their individual educational and career paths.

Do the individual’s and society’s perceptions about adequate educational and career paths meet? This is also an interesting question to be considered later.

How do I get a chance to show my competence, attitude, motivation and will to do anything reasonable that would benefit both myself and Finland? How and where can I get more competence that can help me to get a job? These kind of questions are now directed to Metropolia. At this point, I must humbly state that these things we work with in the SIMHE project launched this spring are quite enormous. In the project we will consider the new models to recognise the competence of highly educated immigrants and asylum seekers and to guide them to adequate educational and career paths. This is done together with the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finnish National Board of Education, CIMO, Ministry of Employment and the Economy and the UniPID network.

There is clearly a demand for our new service concept – hopefully employers and educational institutions will grasp this new potential.

Let´s turn the societal debate even more towards the direction of possibilities! 

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Information about blog

Various Variables -blog introduces information, ideas and experiences about  support services in University of Applied Sciences for highly educated immigrants for recognizing their prior learning and competence and their guidance.

Various Variables blog´s Editorial Board

  • Heidi Stenberg, Project Director, tel. +358 40 535 3388
  • Marika Antikainen, Project Coordinator, tel. +358 40 681 1244
  • Riikka Wallin, Publications Coordinator, tel. +358 40 869 1849

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Editorial Board handles all the publications of Various Variables blog before publishing.



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Heidi Stenberg

has a vast experience in various fields as she has worked in promoting health, in sales and marketing, in conceptualizing services and in the field of education in expert and supervisory positions. Heidi has a Master’s Degree in Education and is also a Public Health Nurse. Learning, developing competencies, leadership and promoting health are in the center of her expertise and competence. Heidi devotes her free time for spending time with her family and friends and she is also active in many areas of sports. Heidi’s motto is: “If you start something today, you’ll notice it was worth the effort in a year’s time”.


Elisa Manninen

Elisa Manninen

has gathered various experience in the field of higher education as well as in guiding international applicants and students in different institutions. She has a Master’s Degree in Education and is a Special Education and a Class Teacher. Additionally she studies to become a Guidance Counselor. In her work at SIMHE-Metropolia, she focuses in guiding customers with immigrant background to pursue their studies and career. Elisa has a keen interest towards social issues, stories behind everything and taking it easy. Favorite quote: “Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire” by Confucius.


Emilia Deseille

Emilia Deseille

is passionate about career development of international talents in Finland. Having studied and worked abroad on several occasions, she has experience in starting a career abroad, and feels at home in a multilingual and intercultural environment. Before joining the SIMHE Metropolia team as a career coach and employer relations specialist, Emilia was working in the field of labor market integration in Austria. She has a Master of Social Sciences degree in Development and International Cooperation, and studies in Intercultural Communication and Adult Education. In her spare time, Emilia enjoys dancing and doing other sports with friends, and the language geek in her enjoys learning new languages.


Ari Koistinen

Ari Koistinen

teaches mathematics, computer programming, application software, and modelling and simulation in Metropolia UAS. In recent years, his work has been related mainly to international degree programmes. Ari has also a long experience in hydrological modelling and development of software used in water forecasting. In free time he reads books, travels and does a variety of sports such as gym, climbing, ashtanga yoga and mountain biking.


Leena Honkasalo

Leena Honkasalo

works as project planner in Metropolia’s SIMHE services (Supporting Immigrants in Higher Education). She holds a Master of Arts degree in Spanish philology and has professional teacher qualifications. Before joining the SIMHE team, Leena worked in the NGO sector developing global citizenship education. Her special interests include sustainable development, equity and diversity. In her free time, Leena loves spending quality time with family and friends, eating out, visiting art exhibitions and doing yoga.


Marika Antikainen

Marika Antikainen

works as a project coordinator in Metropolia SIMHE services. Her work focuses on increasing employment among international professionals living in Finland. Internationalisation and societal responsibility inspire Marika in her work and life. She has a Master of Arts degree in intercultural communication and a professional teacher’s qualifications. She has also worked several years in international relations in Metropolia and has taught intercultural competence. Travelling and salsa bring an international flavour also to her freetime, balanced with hiking in Finnish forests and other sports.


Niina Tapanainen

Niina Tapanainen

spends most of her working hours with SIMHE personal and group guidance. Niina has a Master’s Degree in Education and is a qualified Guidance Counsellor and Psychology (as a second subject) Teacher. She has worked over a decade in Higher Education Institutions in various posts within the study and student services also with international students and admissions. She volunteers to help youngsters and spends rest of her free time enjoying life: relaxing, dreaming and whatever interesting comes her way.


Oksan Niemi

Oksan Niemi

has experience both in field of education and in agile projects in IT environment. Oksan holds a Master of Social Sciences degree in International Relations. Before joining SIMHE Metropolia as a project manager for two different projects, which concentrate on the employment of higher educated immigrants, she has guided international degree and exchange students and worked with the international partner higher educational institutions. Having graduated from an international degree programme herself and worked in international environment in different business areas, Oksan enjoys working in a global environment surrounded by people with various backgrounds. Oksan devotes her free time to her multilingual family, friends and travelling with them.


vierailija

vierailija


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      • To have someone who listens to me...
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      • Recognising competencies of educated immigrants

SIMHE on Metropolia.fi pages

Metropolia University of Applied Sciences has launched Supporting Immigrants in Higher Education SIMHE project to start services for recognizing prior learning and competence of highly educated immigrants and their guidance.

SIMHE Metropolia

Services for Immigrants

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Sisällöt edustavat kunkin kirjoittajan henkilökohtaisia näkemyksiä, Metropolian johtoryhmän Pelinavaajat-blogi ilmaisee Metropolian virallista kantaa.

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