Studies available, work is not
Markku Sippola, Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki, who has studied labour mobility, is currently investigating the positioning of individuals from atypical groups of university graduates in working life. In his unpublished study, he uses a qualitative approach based on interviews.
Among the interviewees, there is an interesting and heterogeneous small group of four people from abroad who have studied in Finland, come from all over the world and have studied at different universities in Finland.
”Both their stories and the ethos that flows from it are very interesting. Everyone has come to Finland attracted by the English-language master’s programmes, and they have also tried to stay here on the labour market,” says Sippola.
The most important reason for applying to Finland was the free or affordable teaching and the excellent quality of it.
”Studying has been cheap for those who came from outside the European Union and free for those who came from the Union. And those who have paid for their studies have also received scholarship funding,” says Sippola.
”Finland has been of particular interest to them as a country of high-level education. And they didn’t have to be disappointed, as they found the dedication of the professors to be exemplary and the guidance from them to be good. They also considered the English language skills of the teaching staff very good.”
In contrast, most of them have been disappointed by the low relevance of the education they have acquired for their working lives. The Finnish labour market did not receive them in the way they would have liked.
”Our country has offered a pleasant experience for them as a society because everyone wanted to stay here. Unfortunately, there have been few opportunities to continue after graduation.
There were several reasons for the difficulty in finding employment.”
”The greatest weakness was the lack of Finnish skills, which comes across during the job interview at the latest. This is partly why foreign students mainly stay in their own groups, which means that the networks created during studies and their social capital remain low for them,” Sippola says with regret.
”This shouldn’t have to be the case, as I think the interviewees were very capable students who have been successful and enjoyed their studies and who are clearly academically, intellectually and theoretically oriented.
One of the respondents submitted hundreds of job applications over the course of several years after graduation. For the majority of them, the respondent never even got an answer and was only invited to an interview a few times.”
”Even though this person received their MA in Social Science with excellent grades here, they didn’t get work until retraining as an IT specialist. I was personally wondering how such a diligent and talented young person still wanted to stay here. Also the boyfriend who came along got education and has got a job here,” says Sippola.
”It shows that Finland is still an attractive place for educated foreigners, even though the labour market here is terrible for them. The interviewees appreciated the local safety, tranquillity and good health care and social security, as well as the fact that it is good to put your children in a free, high-quality school.
The university also seems to have taken good care of its foreign students.” Sippola hopes that it would take care of their employment as well.
”It is the tip of the criticism they have of the Finnish university system: why were they not offered information about the Finnish labour market during their training and why were they not directed to recruitment events or even shown opportunities where they would have met potential employers?
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