Harnessing the expertise of pedagogical professionals
The proposal for a new kind of employment experiment was made by Olga Silfver from the Ukrainian Association in Finland and Anna Suchodolski from the employment services. They discovered that, as the war in Ukraine continues, many of the people fleeing the war have decided to stay in Finland and, therefore, the expertise of pedagogical professionals should be put to good use.
Experts from the Education Division’s Human Resource Services decided to take on this task.
In line with its city strategy, Helsinki is increasingly investing in the availability of personnel from the perspective of societal advocacy work, recruiting employees who speak a language other than Finnish or Swedish and promoting diversity.
– Finding work for foreign-language speaking pedagogues at the city is one concrete measure to put the city strategy into practice, say Kati Mhone and Mira Antinniemi, HR experts at the Education Division’s Human Resource Services.
In particular, the national challenges regarding the availability of early childhood education have been widely discussed in recent years.
– One of the many ways in which we are tackling these challenges is to leverage the potential of the professionals already living in the country, say Mhone and Antinniemi, who deal with the issue in their work on a daily basis.
Making things happen through cooperation
The experiment was joined by the UkrainaTeam of Stadin AO, The Helsinki Vocational College and Adult Institute. The team was set up last year to provide support to the people fleeing the war in Ukraine by helping them to find employment and seek education in Finland.
Language training was organised by a Finnish language teacher at Työväenopisto, The Helsinki Finnish Adult Education Centre. The vocational teachers of employment management in the Helsinki Vocational College and Adult Institute were responsible for working life coaching.
– What is particularly gratifying is how we have been able to make things happen in a short timeframe with the cooperation of many different actors, says Jenni Pyhähuhta, supervising teacher of the UkrainaTeam.
The target group of the experiment soon expanded from Ukrainians to include all foreign-language speaking pedagogical professionals who have a degree in education or teaching but who do not yet have the necessary Finnish language skills for the job.
– We obtained the contact details of many education professionals from different countries at the Work For You event for international jobseekers held at the City Hall in April, which is why we expanded the target group of the experiment on the fly, says Pyhähuhta.
In May, more than 30 foreign-language speaking pedagogues attended an information event organised as part of the experiment. Each participant was planned a suitable path to either employment-oriented language training and vocational orientation, individual guidance or a work try-out or fixed-term employment, depending on their skills and objectives.
The model to be developed based on the experiment
Of the participants, 14 continued to language training and vocational orientation, and two of them eventually moved on to a work try-out in a daycare centre of the City of Helsinki. The other participants found employment elsewhere during the experiment, decided to continue their language studies before entering the working life or moved back to their home country.
Although the number of participants who continued to the work try-out was low, the experiment created a completely new path to support foreign-language speaking pedagogical professionals in finding employment at the city’s daycare centres or schools.
– The most important thing has been to get the experiment up and running and to get the different actors to work together in a coordinated way towards this important goal, say Kati Mhone and Mira Antinniemi.
– The people who moved on to the work try-out are experienced pedagogues who have completed their degrees abroad. These individuals alone will bring a tremendously strong set of skills and new perspectives among us.
The utilisation of the new model will continue in the field in the autumn. The organisers will compile the experiences of the participants and use this information to consider how to better engage participants in the process in the future.
The model will continue to focus on proactive, timely, low-threshold training as well as flexible and personalised support measures.
– There are as many different situations as there are people, says Jenni Pyhähuhta.
