Like many other immigrants, Kimberley Gowdy, an American living in Lahti is highly educated. He has studied linguistics and has been a university teacher, e-products expert, translator and business analyst as part of his professional history. She is fluent in English, Spanish and French.
In Finland, however, Gowdy is not a desired employee because he does not speak Finnish fluently.
Gowdy blows up the difficulty of finding suitable Finnish language courses. In the opinion of the employment office, sufficient language skills are not enough for the employer.
"There are no courses to fill this gap. We are marginalized because we cannot go any further. This forces us to work as cleaners or cleaners. Why should I work in these professions and give up my dreams? It’s not fair," he says.
According to a study commissioned by the At Home in Finland project (At home in Finland), last year almost half of the companies suffering from labor shortages want employees with a foreign background to speak Finnish as their mother tongue.
The requirements are still strict, although according to a study by the Finnish Chambers of Commerce, three out of four companies suffer from a shortage of employees in Finland. The situation will worsen as more and more professionals retire.
The labor shortage does not end simply by lowering language skills requirements. In the study, companies estimate that only eight percent of recruitment challenges are due to the fluency of applicants. However, lowering the language requirements would help thousands of companies to get the workforce they need while employing more immigrants.
Employment of immigrants through reorganization of work tasks
Many jobs require strong Finnish language skills from all their employees, although the requirements for the job vary. Botond Vereb-Dรฉr, The project manager of the Pรคijรคt-Hรคmeen Lahti TalentHub project, hopes that companies will consider the tasks for which the Finnish language is essential. For example, in a restaurant, a kitchen worker does not necessarily have to know Finnish as well as a waitress working in customer service.
According to Vereb-Dรฉr, employers can also reorganize assignments so that not all employees provide customer service.
Prejudice behind language requirements
Anna Bruun, Adviser for Immigration and Integration Policy in the Ministry of Economy and Labor, considers that there may be a conscious or unconscious illusion behind high language standards. An employer may require its employees to have unnecessarily high language skills due to their own uncertainty. For example, an employer may think that work permit issues may be difficult to resolve, or he or she may fear that an immigrant may change the work community.
Many employers have prejudices against people with a foreign background. Akhlaq AhmadIn 2016-17, a sociology researcher at the University of Helsinki conducted a test in which he sent 5,000 job applications from both Finns and foreigners. These fictional people all spoke good Finnish. Jobseekers with Finnish names received by far the highest number of interview requests.
Bruun admits that changing employers โattitudes is a slow process. The Ministry’s Talent Boost program for the acquisition and application of international expertise has been running since 2017.
Bruun thinks many things have improved. For example, employers are provided with more support and information on hiring immigrants. The processing of work permits has also been speeded up.
Immigrants were encouraged to become entrepreneurs
Another option is to encourage immigrants to start their own business. You can succeed alone, even if the inflections of words are not always perfect. Bruun sees entrepreneurship as a good option, as long as immigrants are not forced to become entrepreneurs because there are no other options.
Gowdy participated in TalentHub’s entrepreneurship course in Lahti during maternity leave. Now he bakes gourmet biscuits and other pastries as part of his own business.
"In America, we say that when you follow your passion, money follows" he says.
Even as an entrepreneur, Gowdy hasnโt completely escaped language barriers. He is frustrated with how difficult it is to compete against Finnish competitors. Gowdy has also at times found it difficult to find official information on the authorities โwebsites, utilizing his current language skills.
Despite these difficulties, Gowdy believes in his company and has already found sellers who want to sell his product. His intention is to expand his business abroad, not just to conquer the domestic market.
Source: The Nordic Page