Integrating international students is an important focus at Arcada

The number of international students is on the rise all over the world - in Finland, too. Nevertheless, several studies over the past few years show that international students experience resistance when venturing out to find work in Finland.

– There is still prejudice in our society, and this is the greatest challenge. The labour market is not all that open to those who don’t speak Finnish. We have seen that without speaking Finnish at the required level and lacking a network of contacts, international students find it more difficult to find a job or internship position in the field they have trained for, says Annika Stadius, Director, Arcada Services, who works with career support and student wellbeing at Arcada.

The picture shows the project team of the "INTERLOCALITY" project.

In recent years, Arcada has been involved on several levels in improving the conditions for international students arriving in Finland and at Arcada. Among other things, Arcada offers SIMHE services (Supporting Immigrants in Higher Education in Finland) which means we undertake to provide career counselling and information on higher education to people with an immigrant background. Arcada is also active in the Talent Boost action program, which was launched to support the government aim of increasing the number of international students arriving in Finland for a degree to 15 000 a year and that 75% of these students remain in Finland and are integrated in the Finnish professional environment.

– One aim of Talent Boost is to support the integration of international students in our society and, above all, to help them start a career after graduating. With external financing, Arcada has worked towards this goal through several projects. The largest current endeavour was launched in February 2022 with the Erasmus + project Interlocality (Increased Local Employability of International Degree Students). The aim of the project is to increase local employability of international degree students in the fields of technology and business administration, says Sandra Slotte, Senior Policy Advisor, Internationalisation, Arcadas Project Manager for INTERLOCALITY and responsible for Arcada’s Talent Boost-service promise to the ministry.

Internship to integration

Another Arcada Talent Boost endeavour, the “Internship to integration” project, was launched in the spring of 2022 in support of the integration of international students in the Finnish professional environment. The project is designed to convince Finnish companies to commit to receiving international business administration students from Arcada on an ongoing basis. Project manager Linn Hongell was inspired to launch the project by a lecture on an American internship model.

Portrait of Linn Hongell.

– We have phenomenal students who study in versatile programmes, and yet many find it difficult to integrate into the Finnish professional environment. When I heard about the American practice of businesses hiring interns on an ongoing basis, I thought that it would be a great solution and a model worth trying, Hongell says.

Participants in the Internship to integration project include Real-Time Locating System company Quuppa, C&C Port Agency Finland and Finn Church Aid. Over a six-month period, they will continuously accept student interns. The internship is unpaid, but the student gains 30 credits, 20 weeks of training and a valuable opportunity to gain a foothold in the Finnish labour market. The project is successful and appreciated both by the companies and the students.

- Participating companies have been very pleased and the way it worked out, they chose to take on two student interns at a time, instead of one. I hope this will also give the companies an increased appreciation of the competence the students possess, says Hongell.

A path to professional life

Ella Kennedy is one of the international business administration students doing her internship at Quuppa through the project. Her internship began in January and so far, she is pleased with the project.

– This has been a new experience and I’ve gained lots of valuable know-how. I have never had a nine-to-five office job, and this has been an exercise in adapting and a great deal of new information to process.One of the main lessons learned was teamwork, as I’m used to working more independently, she says.

Quuppa is an international work environment and the main internal communication language is English, something Kennedy appreciates. She also encourages everyone who can to aim for an internship.

– You learn a lot about a workplace and a job as an intern. I really think everyone who has the opportunity to work as an intern, should take it.

Giving more international students a path to professional life is also what Hongell strives for. The Internship to integration project will end in the spring of 2023, but she hopes this is just the beginning.

– Our work providing necessary support for the students, continues. The model can be extended and be part of that work. I dream that one day every international Arcada student is guaranteed a job in Finland.

Projects in wich Arcada takes part in aid of integration and support for international students

Arcada is a SIMHE higher education institution, which means we undertake to provide career counselling and information on higher education to people with an immigrant background. During the year 2022 Arcada has had a guidance counsellor providing SIMHE services through Karriärcenter Arabia. The services have been available in English, Russian and Swedish.
Talent Boost is an action program, launched by the government with the aim of increasing the number of experts, employees, students, and researchers arriving in Finland. Arcada and every other higher education institution have committed to the program. The largest Talent Boost endeavour at Arcada is the Erasmus + partnership project INTERLOCALITY - Increased Local Employability of International Degree Students, realised in cooperation with three other universities of applied sciences and, a third sector organisation in Europe. The aim of the project is to increase local employability of international students and alumni, both by developing the employability of students and alumni and by advancing the capacity and willingness of local businesses to recruit and retain them as employees.
The aim of the Internship to integration project has been to create a model for internship programs with businesses. The pilot was launched in the autumn of 2022 with International Business students who took internship jobs with participating businesses. The pilot was realised with two companies, and the work on enlisting more is ongoing.