The Finnish Business School Graduates calls for better integration of foreign experts into Finnish working life

Without networks and knowledge on the Finnish labour market, finding a job in Finland may be difficult. The Finnish Business School Graduates has trained business school students and fresh graduates for different working life situations for years already. The first working life skills course in English will be organized soon.

The English-speaking course is a concrete means to help foreign experts towards the Finnish working life. The participants will learn how to look for a job in Finland and what should be taken into account in, for example, juridical sense.

”Our working life skills courses have been popular for a long time and now we want to offer the same high-quality training content also to foreign students. Trade unions play an important role in integrating foreign employees into the Finnish working life and society in general. At the same time, we want to challenge other trade unions to engage in concrete action to promote the employment of international experts,” Timo Saranpää, Chairman of the Board of The Finnish Business School Graduates says.

Working life skills courses of The Finnish Business School Graduates are organized in several business schools and universities. During the courses students can earn ECTS credits, depending on the number of course assignments. The courses focus on Finnish working life and its peculiarities. The trainers include lawyers as well as labour market and career services experts of The Finnish Business School Graduates.

Labour market tests should be suspended

Another factor hampering the employment of foreign experts are the slow work permit processes. The Finnish Government has, in its programme, committed to increasing employment-based immigration and speeding up the work permit processes but work still remains to be done. In the future, for example those who have completed a Finnish Master’s degree could receive the work permit automatically, without the application process.

In The Finnish Business School Graduates’ view, Finland should suspend labour market tests, i.e. the process of determining the availability of labour in the EU countries first. 

”A highly educated foreign expert should not be made to wait for the work permit for a long time. In that way, you lose an immense potential. The biggest losers are Finnish employers and the society as a whole,” Saranpää continues.