Talent Traction closing seminar highlighted the expertise of international talents
A successful pilot
”Talent Traction: Co-creating Multicultural Workplace” was a 30 ects education organised by TAMK and TE-Office. The aim was to to study the root causes for barriers for hiring internationals in Finnish companies and try to solve those challenges in the target companies. The students were introduced to several themes during the studies, for example practicalities in working life, Finnish language and service design. There was also a practical training period in companies, where the companies could learn more about their internationalisation stage and receive development ideas from the students.
”There were 15 students who started the education and four of them were already hired during the education,” Kati Lammi, Consultant at Enterprise and Training Services team at TE Services celebrated.
A unique education
Timo Nevalainen, Senior Lecturer of Business and Media at TAMK emphasised that this education was one of a kind, because the participants of the education shared their expertise as active developers in the companies instead of only receiving teaching and guidance. Taru Nurmala, Senior Lecturer of Business and Media at TAMK, added that the training was mainly implemented using the team learning model, which TAMK Proakatemia has successfully used in degree teaching for more than 20 years. In a dialogue-based model, everyone learns from each other and learning is more comprehensive than just adopting certain knowledge or skills.
The challenges in the education were related to differences in goals, identifying the cultural differences and communicating about them, challenging the own ways how to work, as well as the participants' previous negative experiences of contacting Finnish companies and official services. These challenges were resolved along the way and they provided new knowledge to all parties involved.
“I personally see this kind of education that develops the abilities of both the participants and the participating organisations as almost necessary, if we are going to increase international recruitment and meet the demographic challenges of Finland's near future,” Timo Nevalainen emphasised.
Practical approach of the education was praised
The students Annika Oravecz and Nsame Catherine Dzekem both praised the practical approach of the education. The education offered them a change to learn about Finnish worklife, offered them an opportunity for networking and gave them also concrete tools for finding a job in Finland.
Both Annika and Catherine saw the education beneficial for themselves. They especially liked the opportunity to work in organisations. Annika did her training in Purso and TT Gaskets and Catherine at KVPS.
Aleksi Arpiainen, CEO of TT Gaskets and Sanni Kraneis, Human Resources Specialist at TT Gaskets were extremely pleased with the education. According to them the education helped them to understand the importance of considering the cultural background, language and competencies of the employees, so that they can integrate the employees in best manner into the company and to the Finnish working life.
“The education encouraged us to increase our operations by internationalising our personnel, so that things could be looked at in a broader perspective”, Sanni Kraneis adds.
At TT Gaskets, the education has led into concrete measures. A work-buddy mentoring program, more detailed introduction to work and to the company itself and various joint family activities are examples of how to welcome employees to work at TT Gaskets.
“Reviewing our international capabilities and receiving development ideas from the students help us to develop further our operations”, Aleksi Arpiainen celebrated.
Text and pictures: Riikka Mölkänen
