By June this year, we have met over 800 highly educated immigrants in personal guidance at SIMHE-Metropolia (1). In 2018, we met more women than men in personal guidance. Although, the gender ratio has been fairly equal among the sexes in previous years too. In general, immigrant-background women face more difficulties in entering the labour market compared to their male counterparts as pointed out by 2018 OECD report on skills and labour market integration of immigrants in Finland (2). 

Career mentoring is a joint effort towards better employability  

I have volunteered as a mentor for an immigrant-background lady in the Finnish Family Federation’s nine-month Womento mentoring programme (3) in 2018-2019. The programme has been running since 2011 to pair up highly educated female immigrants and native Finnish women. The mentor-menteer pairs usually share similar educational and professional backgrounds.  

Thus, our autumn 2018 group had 12 mentor-mentee pairs with the mentees interested in finding careers in their field in Finland. I was also happy to find few of my previous SIMHE customers among the mentees in our group. Furthermore, the mentors have a long experience in their field and a genuine interest to support their mentees. As a result, the mentees become more familiar with the Finnish society and working-life.

We have met with my mentee in the joint sessions at the Finnish Family Federation and in our one-to-one meetings about once or twice in every two months since October 2018. As we shared common interests and educational background, it has been of mutual benefit to talk, share experiences and discuss about the trends in the field. My mentee had education as her main goal and we have been very pleased that she has accomplished her goal during our mentoring voyage.   

I have now been a mentor twice in my professional life. At first, in Metropolia’s own mentoring programme in 2017-2018 and now in the Womento programme. Therefore, I strongly recommend mentoring to anyone who is willing to support others in finding their way in working life and in Finland. Above all, the small investment you put in as your time and devotion results in many wonderful encounters and enticing discussions. Additionally, you will get new and fresh idea for you to use as well.

How to make Finland a home – let’s focus on the spouses 

Finland is in need of international talents (4) due to an ageing population and already existing competence-deficit in some fields. Many brave newcomers have already moved here with their families. Universities, like Aalto University (5) in Helsinki region as well as Finnish business sector (6) have also paid attention to make it all easier to move to Finland – also with the family.  

It is somewhat common that women move to Finland along with their company-recruited husbands. Thus, highly educated wives are also looking for their path in Finland. Some of them have perhaps spent several years at home due to taking care of their children. Once your family has settled in at work, daycare or school, you wish to get back to business too!  

Companies do try to make it better for people to settle. For instance, I participated in a Supercell spouse event in May to introduce our SIMHE services. Albeit, this was not a new concept at Supercell as they had had a spouse event (7) also in 2018. The get-together was well organised with guest speakers from municipality services like International House Helsinki (8), well-being experts from Compass Psychology (9) to start-up scene at Shortcut (10). There was also plenty of time to mingle prior to and after the presentations.  I had vivid discussions with some affluent ladies from Mexico, Singapore, Russia, Kazakstan and India over a buffet meal. 

It’s a woman’s world 

Moving between countries and settling into new cultures is more and more prevalent trend in our contemporary world. Although, giving immigrant women possibilities to integrate in the society through education and work benefits not only them, but also their families and the Finnish society in general.  

Living in a new country without any connection to education or work can be a daunting experience for an educated person. However, I have met many courageous ladies who are ready to tackle the obstacles. In conclusion, English writer Virginia Woolf has encapsulated this phenomenon so well nearly a century ago in her quote “As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world”. 

Sources 

1. SIMHE-Metropolia website: https://www.metropolia.fi/en/about-us/simhe/ (Read 3 June 2019)
2. OECD (2018), Working Together: Skills and Labour Market Integration of Immigrants and their
   Children in Finland, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264305250-en
   
3. Väestöliitto website: https://www.vaestoliitto.fi/monikulttuurisuus/womento/career-mentoring/ (Read 3 June 2019)
4. Kauppakamarin linjaus: Suomi ei selviä ilman työperusteista maahanmuuttoa https://kauppakamari.fi/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/tyoperusteinen-maahanmuuttolinjaukset.pdf (Read 3 June 2019)
5. Aalto University website: https://www.aalto.fi/fi/palvelut/for-families-and-spouses (Read 3 June 2019)
6. TalentBoost Finland website: https://www.businessfinland.fi/en/do-business-with-finland/work-in-finland/in-brief/ (Read 3 June 2019)
7. Business Tampere news 14.3.2018. International talents boost growth – Talent Boost Spouse event on 22 March: https://businesstampere.com/international-talents-boost-growth-talent-boost-spouse-event-on-22-march/ (Read 3 June 2019)
8. International House Helsinki website: https://www.ihhelsinki.fi/ (Read 3 June 2019)
   
   
9. Compass Psychology website: https://compasspsychology.fi/ (Read 3 June 2019)
10. Shortcut website: https://theshortcut.org/ (Read 3 June 2019)

 

  

Since 2016, SIMHE-Metropolia has been actively developing and modelling its services to find out ways to improve highly educated immigrants’ education and employment possibilities in Finland. The number of customers at SIMHE-Metropolia has risen steadily over the past two years totalling in over 550 users for Guidance and Counselling and Recognition of Competences services in 2017.

Creating a sustainable yet flexible method for recognising immigrants’ competences

SIMHE-Metropolia first piloted recognition of competences for highly educated immigrants in the field of technology in spring 2016 with some 30 customers to establish what would be the best method and participant criteria for the process. The current method, Mapping of Competences, has now been carried out in the fields of technology and business thrice since autumn 2016 with some 150 customers. The choice of fields was based on them not being regulated professions in Finland and Metropolia offers Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in both fields.

Mapping of Competences is managed and conducted by SIMHE-Metropolia. The field-related expertise is provided by heads of degree programmes or departments who work in the fields of technology and/or business at Metropolia.

In autumn 2017, the Mapping of Competences service was also offered for suitable customers through Public employment and business services (TE Services) in Uusimaa region with almost 60 customers along with some 25 customers who entered the process through SIMHE-Metropolia’s own registration path. The continuation of the cooperation with TE Services is yet to be realised later in 2018.

Recognition of Prior Learning is also needed for those not currently in higher education

Recognising existing skills and competences is not a new concept in university of applied sciences as Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is strongly supported in study planning for example at Metropolia to create individual learning paths for degree students. SIMHE-Metropolia’s service thus augments and modifies RPL concept to highly educated immigrants who are not able to use such services as they are not registered in higher education institution in Finland.

The official Recognition and Comparability of International Qualifications is conducted by Finnish National Agency for Education whereas SIMHE-Metropolia’s service aims at taking a more practical approach for recognising competences by helping customers to make their foreign qualifications and competences also more familiar to the Finnish employers.

Self-knowledge and understanding of the Finnish context make a difference

Education is highly appreciated in Finland, but being a highly educated immigrant in Finland does not always result in swift access to education or work. Immigrants often lack an inherent knowledge of the Finnish society and culture, they may lack sufficient language skills to enter in their field of expertise, and most importantly, they are not certain how their existing competences match with the Finnish requirements. Even though educated immigrants are needed in the Finnish labour market, we tend to run somewhat homespun and closed labour market in Finland (Kauppalehti 29.1. 2018).

As customers are in a centre in Mapping of Competences, the aim is to offer both individual encounters in addition to group meetings throughout the process by helping customers to

• understand how their formerly acquired skills and competences match with the Finnish requirements
• find suitable educational paths, when applicable
• support employment and obtain information and ideas on various ways for job-search in Finland
• be able to express their competences better

Now I know, where I am

SIMHE-Metropolia’s customers share common features like high level of education and being of foreign origin, but they are yet a very heterogeneous group of people with varied backgrounds, hopes and dreams how to live their lives in Finland. The best achievement over the past two years we have run the service, is to see how we have been able to empower people and give them tools for building possible career paths.

Now that we have developed the ways to support self-knowledge and growth in more localised professional identity through our services, the next steps are to create even more ways to match the job-searching talents with those in need of skilled workforce. The existing events like Recruitment and Matching Morning by COME project help immigrants to meet up and network with employers-to-be.

The road is still rocky and bendy, yet a lot has been accomplished by far. The most important thing is to include immigrants to the Finnish society by not always emphasising what they may not have, but rather embrace a feeble question raised by one of our customers: What if I am perfect already?

More information:

Maahanmuuton vastuukorkeakoulutoiminta Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriön julkaisuja 2017:38
https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/80706

Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriön julkaisuja.Työelämä  36/2017 Maahanmuuttajien koulutuspolkujen nopeuttaminen ja joustavat siirtymät -työryhmän loppuraportti ja toimenpide-esitykset
http://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/80625/TEMjul_36_2017_verkkojulkaisu.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Kauppalehti 29.1. 2018
https://www.kauppalehti.fi/uutiset/uutinen/HzNP4peF?ref=ampparit:730b&ext=ampparit

Mäki, Kimmo. 5.12. 2017 Osaamme sanoittaa osaamista
http://www.amkverkkovirta.fi/osaammeko-sanoittaa-osaamista

 

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]