Career opportunities for international talent is currently a topic of rigorous public debate, with questions surrounding whether people with an international background can or want to stay in Finland long-term. Times are tough on the job market, but we should keep our eye on the future.

Aalto University President Ilkka Niemelä opened the 15th academic year on 3 September 2024 and launched a campaign aiming at expanding all Aalto’s on-going activities to connect students with Finnish working life.

‘Fellow Aaltonians here today, it all starts with getting a foot in the door – and we can all help crack that door open. This afternoon Aalto is launching the ‘Hey employer!’ campaign on our university’s social media accounts to bring more employers on board to connect with international students. Please do share our posts to spread the word’, says Ilkka Niemelä in his opening speech.

Encouraging facts

Opposite to common belief, a large proportion of our international students stay in Finland.

• Half of Aalto’s international graduates are employed in Finland one year after graduation.
• Tech students from outside the EU who have done their theses in cooperation with a Finnish company are four times more likely to be employed in relevant positions after graduation (source: TEK Graduate survey)  
   

This is a good start – but we want to do more to help our international talent integrate.

We help you design a meaningful career path

We support all our students to build careers and connections in many different ways – here are a few examples: 

• We create work-life connections for international students, for example through our popular Aalto International Talent mentoring programme and Thesis Day networking event.
• We invite employers to give challenges to students to solve as a study project and post ads about jobs and internships.
• The Doctoral education pilot will bring nearly 200 new doctoral students to Aalto. We want to connect the new doctoral researchers immediately to Finnish working life through joint research projects and mentoring. We are currently negotiating cooperation with 50 interested business partners.
   

Find out more about the career design services available to you below!

For the campaign, we have created the Future talents web page, making it easy for both our students and employers to find ways to get involved – click to the page here! 

The aim of our campaign: To connect every student to Finnish working life

In addition to a diploma, understanding how Finnish workplaces function, concrete experience, networks, and contacts in working life will help you find a job in your field. 

Now, we want to expand our activities so that each student gets a meaningful connection to Finnish working life. To do this, we need cooperation, which is why we are inviting all employers to participate:

‘Help us connect every student to the Finnish working life’, says President Ilkka Niemelä. ‘We need the best talent, after all, to ensure Finland's future and solve the challenges the world faces.’

Photo Mikko Raskinen, Aalto University