Yosra Yahya has found her place in North Karelia

Yosra Yahya, a student at Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences, will soon grad­u­ate as an engi­neer from the Indus­trial Manage­ment degree programme. The young woman who moved from Saudi Arabia to Eastern Finland has achieved a lot in a couple of years – in addi­tion to her studies, she has learned Finnish, volun­teered and got a job that matches her educa­tion.

Yosra Yahya has an inter­est­ing back­ground: she is a Jordan­ian citizen of Pales­tin­ian descent. Her parents’ work even­tu­ally took her to Saudi Arabia, where Yosra grew up and went to school until grad­u­at­ing from high school.

Moving to Finland is prob­a­bly thanks to her big brother. He studied at a univer­sity in Jordan, where Karelia and Arbo­naut Ltd came to hold a compe­ti­tion. The brother went and won the whole battle, as a result of which he got an intern­ship in Joensuu. When Yosra was think­ing about where to go to study after grad­u­at­ing from high school, her father encour­aged her to apply to a Finnish univer­sity because he had heard a lot of good things about the educa­tion system here.

Yosra came to Finland in the middle of the coro­n­avirus pandemic in 2021. There was drama in the begin­ning, as she fell ill with the flu, which required a hospi­tal visit. The brother went along for support and protec­tion. When Yosra at the hospi­tal realised that her brother couldn’t stay there with her, panic crept into her mind. However, she felt reas­sured when she noticed how well the friendly nurses took care of her.

“At that moment, I decided that as a thank you for the good care I received, I would learn Finnish”, Yosra says.

She has indeed learned the language; you can see that when we conduct the inter­view in Finnish. Yosra’s speech flows and the words click into place with a natu­ral­ness you can’t help but admire. Her own moti­va­tion has played a big role. Yosra has partic­i­pated in language studies organ­ised by Karelia and has persis­tently spoken Finnish to both teach­ers and Finnish fellow students. She even joined the Finnish Red Cross as a volun­teer so she could talk to Finns.

Own activ­ity rewarded when looking for a job

Yosra works at Phillips-Medi­s­ize, which provides end-to-end product design and manu­fac­tur­ing services for health­care and health tech­nol­ogy. She found the job by partic­i­pat­ing in recruit­ment events organ­ised by Karelia and by boldly talking to employers.

The tasks are related to mould main­te­nance and spare parts manage­ment in the SAP system. Along­side her work, she has contin­ued her train­ing in online courses organ­ised by her employer related to clean­rooms, stan­dards and SAP systems, for example.

Phillips-Medi­s­ize is one of Karelia’s part­ner­ship compa­nies. The purpose of the activ­i­ties is to improve inter­na­tional students’ connec­tions to working life, to enable intern­ships in North Karelia and to promote the inter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion of employ­ers in the region.

The company sees a short­age of labour lurking around the corner, which is why it wants to do its part in support­ing the place­ment of inter­na­tional talents as part of Finnish society and life.

“I hope that our example will encour­age other compa­nies in our region to seize this oppor­tu­nity because moti­vated young people like Yosra are the best source of vital­ity for Eastern Finland”, says Engi­neer­ing Manager Janne Turunen.

“While Yosra has learned while working for us, we have also learned to appre­ci­ate many of the self-evident things in Finnish work commu­ni­ties that younger people from differ­ent cultures see here.”

Deter­minedly towards dreams

The people, language and culture in Finland are very differ­ent from Jordan or Saudi Arabia. Yosra has adapted to the new envi­ron­ment by partic­i­pat­ing in various activ­i­ties and hobbies. In addi­tion to volun­teer­ing, she plays volley­ball with Joen Juju club, skates, and knits. You can also add public speak­ing to the list – Yosra goes to tell her story at various events.

Yosra enjoys living in Joensuu. One of the reasons she mentions – perhaps some­what surpris­ingly – is the climate because she likes the cold. In addi­tion, she appre­ci­ates the honesty and frank­ness of the Finns, as well as the fact that the hier­ar­chies are low.

“In Finland, people work with heart, and the quality of work is high. What is consid­ered good here would be inter­preted as almost perfect else­where”, she describes.

The north­ern country feels so much like her own that Yosra wants to stay. The goal is to acquire Finnish citi­zen­ship one day. She also dreams of a house or summer cottage by the lake – a dream that many Finns can easily relate to.

“Finland is a good country where it is easy to develop your­self and get ahead in life.”

When it comes to the employ­ment of immi­grants, Yosra has one wish for Finnish employ­ers. She hopes that employ­ers will see people’s true poten­tial, even if they have not yet mastered the Finnish language.

“Even if a person does not yet speak Finnish, they may still have skills that are useful for the employer. When the skills related to the work tasks are in place, language skills will also be acquired through practice.”

Support for recruit­ing inter­na­tional talent

The chal­lenges related to recruit­ing inter­na­tional talent have been iden­ti­fied from the perspec­tive of both students and employ­ers. The educa­tional insti­tu­tions of Eastern Finland UEF, Savonia, Sakky, Karelia, Riveria and YSAO have joined forces to solve the problem.

The Talent Hub Eastern Finland coop­er­a­tion aims to ensure that inter­na­tional students arriv­ing in the region find their place, secure employ­ment, and inte­grate into Eastern Finland. Students are helped concretely to famil­iarise them­selves with Finnish working life, build networks, learn Finnish and find intern­ships, jobs and busi­ness opportunities.

Employ­ers are supported in iden­ti­fy­ing the poten­tial of inter­na­tional students and finding a skilled work­force. There will be concrete tools for recruit­ing, onboard­ing and learn­ing the language at the work­place, as well as for adapt­ing to the Finnish work culture. The aim is to lower the thresh­old for hiring inter­na­tional talent and make it a natural part of organ­i­sa­tions’ every­day operations.

Talent Hub Eastern Finland is a project co-funded by the Euro­pean Union.

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Text:

Tiina Weman, Commu­ni­ca­tions Special­ist, Talent Hub Eastern Finland, Univer­sity of Eastern Finland