A language-supported study path enhances technology students' employability

There is a labour shortage in the technology sector, but the barrier to employment for international students may be their Finnish language skills - or lack thereof. The Aalto sub-project, which is part of the larger project entitled Language-supported competence paths for the labour shortage sectors of immigrants in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, coordinated by the University of Helsinki and co-funded by the European Union, aims to address this challenge.

Two technology teachers from Aalto and two Finnish as a second language teachers from the Language Centre will participate in the planning and implementation of the project. The project is part of the Bachelor of Science and Technology programme taught in English. The aim of the project is to develop Finnish language courses to be integrated into the English-language Bachelor's degree in technology and to introduce new courses to the Language Centre’s offering. By completing the study unit, students can reach the B1 proficiency level in Finnish.

The project will also involve technology sector employers in the metropolitan area. The project's Finnish teachers, Verna Pelkonen and Elisa Räsänen, have already met representatives of the employment services in a joint workshop. The message was clear: in the technology sector, students need to be able to "pitch" their skills directly to employers, and internships and summer jobs play an important role in helping students find employment after their studies.

"In discussions with the technology teachers, it was the informal coffee-table conversations with colleagues that emerged as the key language situation in working life, not just the knowledge of field-specific terminology," says Pelkonen, who is enthusiastic about the project. "We are working together to build a package that can be replicated in other Aalto schools," Räsänen sums up.

Links and contact information

Link to the full project website. 

Project actors

Elisa Räsänen, University lecturer, Finnish teacher and project manager

Verna Pelkonen, Lecturer, Finnish teacher in the project