New Competence Center for highly educated immigrants – "We want to stop wasting international experts’ competence and skills"

New Competence Centre for Highly Educated Immigrants offers wide range of new and personalised services for jobseekers and employers starting from March 2021.  

In the local government pilot, over 18,000 jobseekers will become the responsibility of the City of Espoo. Half of them are foreign language speakers and one third are highly educated immigrants. The Competence Centre for Highly Educated Immigrants aim to provide services that support employment, which matches experts’ own competence level. These services are provided together with the higher education institutions of the capital region. 

According to Teemu Haapalehto, Manager of Immigration Affairs of Espoo, there is a clear need for this new competence centre: 

“According to studies, the foreign-born population is less likely to find employment matching their competence level. At present, society is missing out on the competence that they have acquired at universities. We want to solve the situation where experts’ competence has been wasted. As Omnia Skills Centre already supports its clients in the development of their professional skills, now similar services will be offered to highly educated immigrants.” 

There is already shortage of talents in many sectors. There are many international experts in Finland whose expertise, skills and networks are not yet fully utilised in economic and business growth or for innovation.  

Diversity and inclusion are success factors of future business operations and the Competence Centre offers support and advisory services for companies to succeed in it. Together with Business Espoo network, new centre also offers free of charge recruitment services and other business services for companies.  

“Without international mobility, Finland’s working age population will shrink soon. We need work related immigration and better access for international experts, who already live in Finland, to different job positions that match their own competence level. This can support internationalisation and growth of businesses and other employers,” Haapalehto says. 

According to Project Manager Olga Silfver, Finland attracts employees with its innovation opportunities and high-quality education, but it also needs to retain its international labour: 

“If an expert feels to be excluded from the Finnish labour market, these pull factors are not enough. We are losing international experts to other countries that offer better career opportunities.” 

This new service makes it possible to support unemployed highly educated jobseekers more effectively. 

“We finally have a service that provides targeted networks, employment services and further education opportunities for highly educated immigrants. Our clients receive personal support and coaching for their job seeking from business coordinators and career counsellors, who are familiar with the skills and challenges of their clients, as well as the whole range of relevant services in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area,” Silfver says.  

Teemu Haapalehto 

Manager of Immigration Affairs 

City of Espoo 

+358 46 8773200

teemu.haapalehto@espoo.fi 

Olga Silfver  

Project Manager 

Competence Center fos Highly Educated Immigrants 

tel. +358 40 6394895

olga.silfver(at)espoo.fi 

Learn more about the competence centre for highly educated immigrants on our website!