Valoa Summary

8/12/2019 Valoa Summary

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Table of contents

VALOA-project

University of Helsinki

Higher Education Group,

School of Management,

University of Tampere

Y S, Y C,

E P

Employability of International

Graduates Educated in Finnish

Higher Education Institutions

Survey

ISBN ---- (PDF)

Employability of International

Graduates Educated in Finnish

Higher Education Institutions

2

www.studentintegration.fi

( Materials Surveys and publications);

www.helsinki.fi/urapalvelut/valoasurvey

P J, VALOA

T B

J P, Cloud Oy

The VALOA project is partly funded by the

EUs European Social Fund, and co-ordinated

by the University of Helsinki. The aim of the

project is to increase cooperation and network-

ing between universities and employers in or-

der to open new employment opportunities for

the international degree students in Finland.

www.beglobal.fiand

www.studentintegration.fi

Intro 3

Significance of the study 3Motivations to study in Finland 4Do international graduates stay in

Finland? 5Employment rate 6Fields and sectors of employment 7Job searching 8Main obstacles to finding a job in

Finland 9Skills required in the workplace 10Skills gained from Finnish higher

education 11Finnish language courses 12Finnish language skills 13Criticism of Finnish higher

education 14Recommendations for

Finnish HEIs 15& 16Employers perspective Cooperation

with HEIs: Good practices 17Degrees and employers 18Employers should become more

open-minded 19Finnish work environment 20Stakeholders should join forces 21Survey 22Research objectives 22Short Bio of Authors 23


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T the study is

determined mainly by four factors:

the lack of information on what hap-

pens to international students after

they graduate; the fact that the Finnish Ministry of

Education and Culture is planning to

use the employment of graduates as

part of its funding allocation system;

the Higher Education Internation-

alisation strategy aiming to increase

the number of international students

in Finland; and

the need to satisfy the rapidly grow-

ing labour market needs with an in-

creased input of foreign talent in the

context of ageing population.

Intro

T

employment is increasingly becom-

ing a concern in terms of both attract-

ing international students to Finnishhigher education and supporting Finn-

ish labour market development and

economic growth. However, there was

little concrete information available

on the subsequent employment of in-

ternational graduates. VALOA-project

launched a research project to fill the

gap by examining the activities, out-

comes and experiences of international

students after graduation from Finnish

higher education institution.

Significance of the study

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F be an at-

tractive place to take ones higher

education degree studies with of

respondents stating that Finland was

their first choice among study abroad

destinations.

T reasons for choosing

Finland were:

. Free of charge education,

. Possibility to study in English,

. A chance to improve employabil-

ity,

. A chance to explore a foreign coun-

try, and

. Reputation of higher education

institution(s).

F is val-

ued for its quality, flexibility, an oppor-

tunity to participate in real-life projects

and self-study options. Also, the vast

majority of respondents (.) would

recommend Finland as a place of studyto their friends or relatives.

E were more

recommendations on what could be

improved in Finnish higher education

respondents gave praising comments

such as the one above.

Motivations to

study in Finland

I think the Finnish higher education system andinstitutions are perfect the way they are. Im veryhappy with the education I have received and ithas helped get into a Masters degree program,develop contacts, and get a high quality managerial

position in a large, global manufacturing company.

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Do international graduates

stay in Finland?

A VALOA study

results Finland is also an attractive

place to live and work in. Among the

international graduates of

who participated in the survey, only

returned to their home countries

or moved elsewhere. This finding is

consistent with the Statistics Finland

data of stating that of inter-

national graduates are still in Finland

one year after graduation.

N, those who

would like to stay in Finland had to

leave due to the obstacles of finding a

job and there is a slight indication of di-

minishing stay up rate with time.

H in mind that of

the respondents spent more than half

a year in Finland before starting their

studies, which means that they may

have other reasons to move to this

country than study, e.g. family ties.

2-5

The place where graduatessettle after graduation

It is all about the 1st job. Finnish employers arehesitant to employ a foreigner mainly due tocultural and language related issues. Once aforeigner is able to get his/her first job and receivegood references for the future a 2nd employeris more willing to take an applicant because the

risk factor has been minimized/vanished.

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T of VALOA

study participants is .

A are not em-

ployed are undertaking fur-

ther studies which make it the most

popular strategy of enhancing onesemployability.

I the students continent

of origin, the variations in the employ-

ment rate are quite large.

A jobs taken by

graduates are characterised by fixed

term work contracts, the situation im-

proves further in the career with half of

the contracts being permanent in the

current job.

3-12

Status of first employment

3-5

Employment rate bygraduates locations

Employment rate

3-3

Employment rate of internationalgraduates by continent of origin

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3-18

Professional fields of thegraduates current jobs

3-19

Distribution of graduates currentemployment in terms of sectors

Fields and sectors

of employment

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T graduates got their

jobs in a traditional way by responding

to a job advertisement or by contacting

the employer directly (sending open

applications).

T play an in-

creasingly important role in finding a

job. Personal connections and recom-

mendations from the teaching staff

helped some graduates.

3-14

Methods of job searching (first job)

Job searching

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Main obstacles to

finding a job in Finland

W employ-

ers have positive attitudes towards

hiring and working with international

graduates, the graduates themselves

find the following obstacles to securing

a job in Finland:

The lack of adequate Finnish/Swed-

ish language skills

The lack of the right networks

The lack of work experience, espe-

cially through internships

The small labour market

Ethnic discrimination in the recruit-

ment process

Lack of career guidance in HEIs

I had to quit my doctoral programme in Finlandafter a year because of lack of scholarship andworking opportunities in Finland. I applied to

Germany and immediately I got a very gooddoctoral position and job at a German university.I wish I had the same opportunities as I havein Germany now in Finland. I lived in Finlandfor three years and had to leave the country intears because of its limited job opportunities.

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I -

that their skills are at higher

level than what is required in their

current job. This can be attributed to

them being overeducated, but in the

case of international graduates who

often have to take on any job avail-

able, the situation rather reflects their

underemployment.

N, of

university graduates have had to

take jobs that require a lower degree

of education or no higher education

whatsoever.

I that the international

graduates have to lower their job ex-

pectations in a foreign labour market

due to e.g. insufficient language skills.

Skills required in

the workplace

People with MBAs and different culturalknowledge work as cleaners and have nochance of getting proper job, because the job

market is not ready for international candidates,or does not have enough vacancies.

4-4.

The level of skills andcompetencies possessed bygraduates and those required atwork (graduates perceptions)

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Skills gained from Finnish

higher education

T Finnish higher

education seems to be in the academ-

ic development of the students. The

graduates thought that they have de-

veloped the most in their

ability to write reports,

in their analytical skills and

in the mastery of their own field.

T entrepre-

neurial skills, work experience and

leadership skills were the weakest di-

mensions of Finnish education.

A survey, the grad-

uates with a higher level of the follow-

ing skills and competencies have better

chances to be employed:

. work experience in the field or dis-

cipline,. team working skills,

. mastery of own field,

. inter-cultural competences,

. leadership skills,

. computer skills,

. knowledge of other fields or disci-

plines,

. ability to coordinate activities/

projects,

. analytical/research skills, and

. ability to rapidly acquire new

knowledge.

As far as the labour market is concerned withall the soft and hard skills needed the Finnishuniversities are not even close. The hard skills

become obsolete very fast, so I would not say thatits very important to know, e.g. the programmingvery well. That would change in six months. Butthe soft skills, for example, how to sell yourself,how to keep up your continuous learning, how torecognise your personal advantage and weakness,how to work within a team and so on... that I havenot seen in the curriculum, thats what is required.

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Finnish language skills

A 35 UAS graduates consid-

ered their language skills to be at least

in the intermediate level. In the univer-

sities, the corresponding share was less

than half of the students.

4-7

Language skills by type ofinstitution and discipline

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T that there

is room for improvement in terms of

the higher educations relevance to the

labour market. The other main issues

with higher education were

the lack of courses offered in English,

the lack of Finnish language courses,

the over-reliance on one industry,

and

the lack of practice in social skills

and customer service.

Criticism of Finnish

higher education

Many important courses are availablein Finnish or Swedish but not availablefor international programmes.

M prefer to

see more practical studies that are clos-

er to the industry. They regretted that,

most of the time, courses were solely

informative and did not teach how toreally work with the technologies.

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Recommendations

for Finnish HEIs

I enhance the interna-

tional graduate employability the re-

spondents have suggested a number of

measures and recommendations.

T situation and

the importance of learning Finnish

need to be explained to the students at

the beginning of their studies.

S

learning Finnish in a communicative

and flexible way should be provided

throughout degree studies. Intensive

summer courses could be offered as well.

If most students would be given theopportunity to carry out internships andother placements in the industries by their

institutions, then the level of employment offoreign students in particular might increase.

A be-

tween HEIs and employer representa-

tives should be encouraged, especially

in terms of curriculum development

and providing more internship op-

portunities. Mentoring programmes

proved to be a good practice in helping

international students become more

employable.

T in

English should be made equivalent

to those offered in Finnish in terms of

availability of courses and the quality

of teaching.

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There was a distinct lack of networking andcoordination of our Masters programme within theuniversity and with the wider Finnish community.

It was an international Masters, but I have apoor network and find it very difficult to becomeemployable. I have not had one interview outsideof my current job as a freelance English teacher.If it werent for family ties, I would not stay.

F, of internation-

al alumni contact details need to be

maintained for further research, mar-

keting and fundraising purposes.

T the interna-

tional graduates showed that there is a

clear need for better career services in

Finnish HEIs. A special emphasis was

placed on the lack of support with find-

ing internships. It was advised to make

work placements compulsory even at

the Masters level. Other comments

indicated difficulties with access to la-

bour market information and profes-

sional networks things that graduates

believe HEIs can help with:

Provide information at the beginning timein Finland, about Finnish job situation andimportance of local language and course.

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Employers perspective

Cooperation with HEIs:

Good practices

T asked about

the types of cooperation that compa-

nies develop with HEIs. Usually, such

cooperation involves the following

activities:

Study visits of students to companies

Internships

Joint projects: companies approach

certain departments in HEIs with

project ideas for students to work

on or use innovative platforms (e.g.

Demola) to form teams of students

from different HEIs and majors.

Such projects allow the students to

develop innovative skills and earnstudy credits.

Summer jobs

Thesis writing in the company.

Representation in HEIs Advisory

Board gives employers an oppor-

tunity to review and influence the

curriculum. In general, at least

of a universitys Governing Board

must comprise representatives of ex-

ternal stakeholders, which ensures

that educational programmes are

more closely linked to labour market

needs.

Offering some teaching in HEIs.

Individual mentorship by compa-

ny representatives: the mentoring

process seems to be a success even

though it is not directly meant to

secure employment for the gradu-

ates. The main outcomes of the

programme are that the mentees

learn new things about the Finnish

working culture and expand theirprofessional networks, the mentors

improve their understanding of their

own and other cultures and, on the

whole, awareness is raised about the

challenges that international gradu-

ates face in Finland.

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Degrees and employers

W who had

problems in degree recognition are

analysed, there are proportional differ-

ences between different nationalities,

genders and fields of study. Accord-

ing to the open-ended comments pro-

vided by the respondents, the major

problems were related to newly-estab-

lished, interdisciplinary programmes

or recently merged universities (e.g.

Aalto) that employers had not had time

to get used to yet.

T quite a few chal-lenges related to developing the in-

ternational programmes, including

their marketing, funding, organising

teaching in English and ensuring the

programmes continuity. In addition,

the employer might need to get used to

the interdisciplinary character of many

new programmes.

E more ac-

tively persuaded to become interested

in the process of curriculum develop-

ment and teaching in English. Also, if

there are more mixed classes for Finn-

ish and foreign students, the percep-tion of differences in the curricula will

fade away.

It is not just inviting companies to marketthemselves in schools that matter, the institutionsof higher education in Finland should have a closer

collaboration with the corporate world in promotingtheir product, who are the students. In other words,even though it seems as though there is a linkbetween the schools and companies, that link isonly seen to be in favour of the local students.

Employers feel that foreigners take somedifferent degree than Finnish students.Some Finnish employers feel that our studydoes not match to that of Finnish students.

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Employers should become

more open-minded

I that employers would

become more lenient towards inter-

national graduates and try to de-em-

phasise the knowledge of the Finnish

language as a criteria for employment.

International graduates represent an

important pool of talent that can help

Finnish companies internationalise.

T sharing suc-

cess stories concerning international

graduate employment was highlighted

by one respondent:

E was no ex-

plicit strategy for hiring international

graduates, the advantages of having

them around, especially in terms of

cross-cultural and native languageskills, are realized and acknowledged.

Also, the novelty of the different ways

of working that might be used in an-

other culture was appreciated:

F, to be impossible

to penetrate the foreign market without

employing experts from that country.

We seldom see highly successful foreigners in Finland.I do not know if this is because of lack of informationor it is the truth. Thus the international studentsfeel it is hard to get a good position for a foreigner.

I think Finnish employers should be educated byproviding cross cultural communication/managementcourses from government. That would enhance theirview then possibly give job chance to immigrants.

It will broaden your own view, improve understandingof different cultures. [] You will think out of the box.

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Finnish work

environment

I like to work in Finland, I like the working atmosphere,the attitude and work ethics here. Its like home, youwork, you show yourself. I would say that Finland is

a great country for opportunities, that people canuse and show their talents in different profession.

I work environment in

Finland, the graduates value the flex-

ibility, multiculturalism, the oppor-

tunity to develop ones potential, the

opportunity to use the knowledge and

skills gained during studies and the

democratic working environment. On

the other side, Finnish straightfor-

wardness, flat hierarchy and a lower

degree of supervision are the things

that international graduates often find

more difficult to get used to.

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Stakeholders should

join forces

T to grad-

uate employment cannot be solved

by HEIs alone as the transition proc-

ess from HEIs to work involves many

stakeholders, such as employers, policy

makers, project managers, recruitment

agencies, immigration authorities and

the graduates themselves.

I

currently extend their residence per-

mit for six months after graduation to

look for a job. Unless they have family

ties or are employed, they are not eligi-

ble for the social benefits, which makes

this group extremely vulnerable.

I is to benefit from for-

eign talent, policy makers should try

to support recent graduates. In order to

enhance the employability of the inter-

national graduates networking forums

for immigrants, HEIs and employers

should be provided.

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Survey

T a survey of

international graduates of -() in Finnish Higher Education

Institutions and interviews with the

graduates and employers. The survey

respondents involved both the Univer-

sity and University of Applied Sciences

graduates representing nationalities.

I acknowledged that the

response rate in the VALOA survey was

relatively low (.), which is one of

the limitations of the study.

Research objectives

To provide an overall and compre-

hensive picture of the activities,

outcomes and experiences of inter-

national graduates from Finnish

HEIs in the years .

To discover what factors affect the

employment of international gradu-

ates.

To explore the relevance of the skills

gained in the course of studies for

the world of work as perceived by in-

ternational graduates and their em-

ployers, focusing on the added value

of Finnish higher education.

To elicit recommendations on howFinnish HEIs can raise their profiles

internationally and enhance the em-

ployability of international gradu-

ates.

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Short Bio of Authors

Y C a Uni-

versity Lecturer and Ad-junct Professor at the


School of Management, University of

Tampere, Finland. His main research

areas are higher education policy and

management, internationalisation of

higher education (employability of in-

ternational graduates and education

export), and transformation of higher

education in innovation systems. His

publications include four books/mono-graphs and more than peer-reviewed

journal articles and book chapters.

E P a

university instructor,

belonging to the Higher

Education Group at the

University of Tampere. He holds mas-

ter degrees in administrative and po-

litical science and is currently enrolled

as PhD student. His main research ar-

eas are academic work, profession and

higher education policy.

Y S

a PhD candidate, at the


School of Management,

University of Tampere, Finland. Her

PhD thesis is related to the employabil-

ity of international graduates in Fin-

land. She graduated from the Erasmus

Mundus European Master in HigherEducation Programme in and has

a six-year experience of administrating

international education.

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Documents

Valoa Summary