HAMK recruits new experts to strengthen the ties of international students to the region
HAMK has recognised the many challenges that international students face in settling into the region. The new project will provide solutions by recruiting community counsellors, developing alumni activities and helping employers in the region to recruit international students.
Häme University of Applied Sciences has over a thousand students from all over the world. HAMK is now looking for reinforcement and new solutions to help them strenghten the ties to the region and facilitate their transition to working life.
The Moment – Influential Career Guidance and Strengthening Vibes -project was launched at the beginning of the year. The first actions will be recruitments to enable new approaches on the HAMK campuses.
“We have identified the many challenges of attaching international students and the need for additional resources on campuses to support student community development. The project funding enables us to recruit three community counsellors as well as a career counsellor who focuses on strengthening field-specific Finnish language skills. These resources will directly link into our existing services,” says Kati Heikkinen, Head of International Affairs at HAMK.
“To be more successful in attracting and employing international students, we need to do things a bit differently. Boldly, openly and experimentally,” Tuominen says.
In addition to supporting student retention, the project manager Riikka Tuominen promotes the development of alumni activities together with HAMK’s alumni coordinator Katariina From.
“Active and attractive alumni activities enable us to reach out to our graduates and thereby create a comparable and sustainable knowledge base to follow the employment of our students after graduation. HAMK has done great work in alumni activities in recent years, which we can now continue further together with our degree programmes,” says Riikka Tuominen.
In addition to international students, another important target group is employers in Kanta-Häme who need to recruit and on-board international experts. In addition, project also takes into account the international student’s family members and other close contacts.
“To be more successful in attracting and employing international students, we need to do things a bit differently. Boldly, openly and experimentally,” Tuominen says.
This is what it’s all about
- Project name: The Moment – Influential Career Guidance and Strengthening Vibes
- Implemented by Häme University of Applied Sciences
- Duration: 1.1.2025-30.6.2027
- Project funder: European Social Fund plus (ESF+), the national funder is Häme ELY Centre
Contact information:
