The Finnish government has been implementing several new strategies and initiatives to increase work-related immigration. Fast-track services have been developed to smoothen the immigration process for specialists, startup entrepreneurs and their families. Under the process, the residence permit application has been cut to a maximum of two weeks. This is relevant in Finland-India collaboration for talent mobility including highly qualified IT experts, service design and development, who fall under this category.
We are aiming for a ‘one-stop shop service’ where all services provided by different authorities will be linked together to make the information easily available and hence make the relocation process easier for the skilled workers and their families. An example of this is the newly launched www.workinfinland.com/ website, where one can explore open jobs for English-speaking professionals. This will help to find all the relevant information about moving and settling down in Finland. Finland’s primary target countries for talent attraction activities have been chosen, and India is one of these.
Q2) The Finnish government aims to triple the number of international students to 15000 by 2030. What are the initiatives taken to attract more students?
Finland is keen to have students, skilled labour and startup founders. Even though Finland is not yet one of the main study destinations for Indian students, it is the world’s happiest country with a safe, stable society that offers equal opportunities to everyone. We hope to see more Indian students and talents. As Finland has the world’s most employee-friendly working hours, the Indian professionals studying or working here will also get to enjoy the ‘nightless nights’ when the sun doesn’t set at all during the summer, arctic winter wonderland and beautiful northern lights, as well as cities where the real nature starts literally from your doorstep.
Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences are very active in India. For April 2023 we are planning to organise a joint roadshow with Finnish higher education institutions, to introduce Finland as a study destination more widely.
Q3) What are the sectors in Finland that are open to hiring more foreign students?
There is a lack of workforce or talent in almost every sector now. The ICT sector, healthcare sector and hospitality industry are a few of the prominent ones.
Q4) What are the initiatives taken by Talent Boost to create awareness among Indian youth about Finland as an education hub and a suitable place to work? Traditionally, Indians are drawn to study in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
As a part of the Talent Boost activities in India, we launched a Finland Alumni Network in India in December 2022, which gathers together those Indian students or talents who have studied or worked in Finland but later returned to India. These alumni are the brand ambassadors of Finland who can share their personal experiences. Finland will also be participating in events such as GIDS23 and Bengaluru Tech Summit where we aim to disseminate information on opportunities in Finland. HEI Finland! Will hold joint road shows with Finnish higher education institutes to interact with Indian students.
Q5) Finland’s Minister of Employment Tuula Haatainen visited the Indian government and administrative stakeholders to promote Finland as a destination for study and work-based immigration. What was the outcome of the visit?
The response to Indian government officials was very positive. The signing of the Declaration of Intent on Migration and Mobility between the governments of India and Finland during the meeting with Union Minister of State for External Affairs & Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan.
Minister Haatainen also met with the Minister of Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav, Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan as well as with a delegation from Kerala, Indian multinational system integrators and the management of IIT Bombay.
During the trip, Business Finland and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) signed an MoU. University of Helsinki with IIT Delhi have collaborated on Big Data Sustainability.
Q6) Indian researchers prefer to travel to Finland for the state-of-the-art facilities. Is Finland collaborating with Indian research institutes to boost research exchanges?
Finland and India have a couple of collaborative schemes funded by Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture. There are several collaborations between the IITs and Finnish academic universities under the Finnish Indian Consortia for Research and Education (FICORE). The consortia funds events to foster the deepening of collaboration between the universities and research teams. Similarly, the Global Innovation Network on Teaching and Learning (GINTL) helps Finnish universities enable collaboration with India in the field of education. Under GINTL, we have collaborated with the NCERT, the government of Delhi and Kerala and TATA Steel Foundation. These schemes will allow the mobility of researchers between the countries. There is also a funding programme under the National Agency of Education, which supports joint courses between Finnish and Indian institutes and offers financial support to students.
