International students at the School of Business find internships in start-up companies

Career Services at the School of Business and Aalto Start-Up Center (ASUC) organised a networking and recruiting event for start-up entrepreneurs and international students. In the event, ASUC’s entrepreneurs heard about the recruitment services as well as the internship support that they can apply for to employ international students. International students in turn had a chance to hear about growth companies as potential future employers.

‘At the School of Business, we definitely also want to help our international students find employment when still studying. It is worth creating opportunities for bringing start-up companies and international students together because, at the moment, small and medium-sized enterprises are the ones that grow and employ people,’ says Jonna Söderholm, Head of External Relations.

Marika Paakkala, Project Director at ASUC, says that Aalto Start-Up Center offers a stepping stone for innovative and scalable growth companies, of which many are constantly looking for new employees and interns to complement the expertise in their teams. Students’ experiences of work opportunities provided by growth companies have been encouraging and have benefited both parties.

Five start-up companies introduced themselves to the international students in the event and told the students about their business and the internships available. The entrepreneurs and the students then had a chance talk with each other and find out more about companies’ needs and wishes as well as about students’ expectations.

‘Start-up companies are definitely very interesting employers. The event was excellent, although I haven’t found work yet and will continue to look for an internship. I hope even more entrepreneurs will attend the event next time so that the chances to find employment will also be better,’ Ngau-Thu Nguyen, who studies the BScBA programme in Mikkeli, praises the event.

Internship subsidy and many other services available for entrepreneurs

‘Foreign degree student's internship support program for internships in Finland is a programme offered in the School of Business that supports international degree students’ internships in micro and small enterprises of fewer than 50 employees. The intern must work full time for at least three months or, alternatively, part time for four months,’ says Career Services Manager Tanja Makkonen, who is responsible for the internship programme.

Annemari Rautio, who is responsible for Employer services in Career services in turn talked to the entrepreneurs about the other available services. These include Aalto Career Web, in which employers can announce vacancies and internships, and contact events such as the annual Summer Job Day! and the ARENA Career Fair, and many training events.

This recruitment and information event was organised on Thursday, the 17 March in the premises of Aalto Start-Up Center in Salmisaari in Helsinki. The first event, which was also the previous similar event, was organised a year ago in spring, and resulted in more than ten students finding an internship.