Åbo Akademi Goes

Talent Boost

ATTRACT AND RETAIN INTERNATIONAL TALENTS 

Talent Boost FSEJ, funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education, has launched with the aim of assisting international graduates in finding work and settling in Finland. Aging population, rising wages, inflation, supply chain failures and ultimately a recession are among the many serious ramifications of human resources shortage. In Finland, the primary reason for the labour-market mismatch from the perspective of businesses is incompatible qualifications. In addition, to aging population and retirement, this is a current problem in the Finnish labour market. The Finnish government has soon realised that the most feasible answer to this problem lies in attracting and especially retaining international students and from business perspectives facilitating immigration procedures and channelling additional resources to the processing of residence permit applications can help to promote employment growth.

Finland welcomes a huge number of international students each year, and as one of the world’s top educational systems with a wide choice of different and universally recognised (or high-quality) study programmes, the shortage situation endures and is progressively deteriorating. This is owing to a number of obstacles, such as language barriers, cultural barriers, and restricted career prospects, which obstruct students’ absorption into the Finnish labour market and society.

This has resulted in a major brain drain, with talented individuals unable to devote their abilities to Finnish workplaces or ultimately decide to dedicate their abilities to other countries, despite having received a Finnish education. In this programme, we are committed to assisting students in entering the workforce. We take our role in organising networking events, recruitment campaigns, and conducting relevant research work on international talents and their integration into the Finnish job market. 

Our Mission:

Is to empower our students and enhance their soft and hard skills in order to better prepare them for work in Finland. We also intend to approach businesses in order to bridge the gap between them and our students and to assist businesses in becoming more international.

Our vision:

Is to provide Finnish companies with highly skilled employees. 

Our values:

Honesty, Integrity, Connection, Accountability, Collaboration, Learning, and Transparency. 

Through our project, we aim to achieve the following objectives:

For the International Students:

  • Empower students and develop their hard and soft skills
  • Provide students with valuable opportunities to develop professional skills and knowledge
  • Grow the student’s network with the Finnish companies
  • Raise awareness among international students about the job market and provide useful information on recruitment and opportunities
  • Strengthen the links between international students and our working alumni and share their success stories
  • Support international students and help them to know Finland and be able to integrate in both social and cultural aspects    

For the Finnish Employers:

  • Support companies to find international talents and to develop the effectiveness of multinational teams
  • Bridge the cultural gap between students and Finnish employers
  • Help solve Finnish skilled labour shortage while supporting the internationalisation of the Finnish employers
  • Increase innovation and creativity among Finnish companies
  • Expand Finnish companies’ frontiers and help them become international by retaining international talents and their valuable experience and skills

For the Finnish Society:

  • To provide solutions for Finnish higher education institutions in attracting and retaining international graduates
  • To build an efficient ecosystem for labour migration on a large scale by developing the cooperation and coordination of key interest groups and organisations