Talent Boost - A Better JYU for International Talents

In JYU we believe that by strengthening the connections between education and the corporate world, we can create clear channels and pathways to working life and possible careers in Central Finland. National Talent Boost programme is designed to attract and retain international talent, and to help with immigration.

What is Talent Boost programme?

Talent Boost programme focuses on attraction, integration and retention of foreign experts.

Talent Boost programme is coordinated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Ministry of Education and Culture. Nation-level objectives are:

  • Finland becoming an internationally attractive place to work, study, carry out research, and invest.
  • Employers willing and able to recruit international talent.
  • The expertise of international specialists driving the internationalisation and renewal of Finnish companies and organisations.

In implementing the programme regionally, the Ģֱ is involved in building the Talent Hub ecosystem in the city. It is a local service model designed to enhance provision so that foreign-born people in the region can feel that they genuinely belong to Finnish society and are able to achieve their professional career goals in the region.

Our objective is to make Jyväskylä and Central Finland a highly attractive place in the eyes of international talents: a place to come for not only studies and research, but also for work, and a place to settle in and live with your family, even permanently.

Our goals support a larger cultural change of inclusivity, and broadening diversity in society, which leads to benefits for everybody in the Central Finland region.

Subprojects of JYU Talent Boost project

The project consists of five sub-projects that develop services for international applicants, students, staff, long-term visitors and their families.

1. Developing the recruitment process of international degree students

In this subproject we develop JYU's recruitment of international degree students, guided by the objectives set by the University. We want to ensure that the recruitment process is a high-quality and seamless continuum for the international applicants, which supports the applicants’ commitment to study at JYU.

Our aim is to understand and describe the recruitment process as a student's journey from prospect to alumni, so that cooperation between the different actors is clear and consistent.

Systematic recruitment meets the objectives of expectation management, where our university responds to the information and service needs of applicants in a consistent and convincing way at every stage of the journey.

  • Recruitment is a year-round activity rather than a campaign-driven activity.
  • The University communicates coherently throughout the student pathway.
  • Marketing measures support the recruitment process throughout.

JYU units responsible for this subproject are Student and Academic Services and Marketing and Communications.

2. Developing the working life knowledge, skills, and competencies of the international degree students in JYU

The project builds JYU Working Life Path for international students, which aims to ensure that the students have an opportunity to develop their working life skills and competencies as well as build working life connections during their studies in JYU.

The combination of academic knowledge, competencies, and working life skills is the foundation of the JYU Working Life Path including:

  • Multidisciplinary studies that respond to the competence needs of today and tomorrow – responsible experts with impact.
  • Students building contacts to working life during the studies, as well as insight into working life and employment opportunities, and support in finding jobs
  • Students developing multilingual academic communication competence so that they can engage in expert activities in all the languages they need, both during their studies and after graduation

In practice this means

  • Developing the skills and competencies of the international students by integrating working life, language and communication studies, career services and guidance in a timely and accessible JYU Working Life path.
  • Helping international students to build their working life connections by promoting international students’ internship opportunities.
  • Supporting the organisations in strengthening their internationalisation competencies by creating opportunities for contacts and collaboration with between students, regional stakeholders and working life.

The subproject is a JYU Career Services and The Centre for Multilingual Academic Communication (Movi) collaboration.

3. Developing education and career paths for highly educated and university-eligible migrants

This subproject aims to develop and facilitate study and career paths for highly educated and university-eligible migrants. This is done by offering low threshold services of guidance and support of recognising prior learning and enabling studies of language and academic skills in the university environment.

Guidance and support are provided by SIMHE (Supporting Immigrants in Higher Education in Finland) services. The target groups of SIMHE are migrants and refugees interested in academic studies, improving their language skills and recognising their professional qualification in Finland.

The academic and multilingual education model of JYU.INTEGRA responds the needs of international talents by integrating language studies with studies in the participants’ own disciplines. In this way, the training will support the participants in learning the Finnish language, academic skills (in both Finnish and English) and the contents of their own discipline in Finnish. At the same time, the training promotes the students’ integration into the Finnish academic world and university learning culture.

The main aims:

  • Both SIMHE services and JYU.INTEGRA programme are established and integrated functions of the services for the international talents.
  • To disseminate the developed models and practices of instruction and guidance in the university communities of academics and practitioners who work with international students.
  • To develop admission and accessibility to higher education and support the sense of belonging in the academia
  • Strengthen the collaboration with national and international partner universities to further develop the education model of academic integration training

4. Developing services for JYU international staff and families

Our aim is to increase and develop actions that lower the threshold for international staff to participate in the University’s activities held in Finnish, and to encourage them to the make use of various services in Finnish. This is done by designing and providing Finnish language courses for staff in various forms, staff language courses on several levels as well as commissioned training for faculties. The aim is to increase the sense of belonging of international staff by facilitating interaction and encounters between international and national JYU staff in formal and informal events and settings.

We will strengthen our services for international staff by promoting and supporting their smooth settling-in, integration and engagement in our university community and Finnish society, and by supporting international staff to work as full members of the university community. We develop spouse and family services in cooperation with the City of Jyväskylä to promote and support the integration of international spouses and families in Jyväskylä and Finland.

The subproject is a JYU International Staff Services (ISS) and The Centre for Multilingual Academic Communication (Movi) collaboration.

5. Creating a Regional Talent Hub Operating Model in the City

A key part of the JYU Talent Boost project is to take a leading role in the establishment of the Talent Hub operating and service model in Jyväskylä. The Talent Hub Service Model aims to bring together and coordinate numerous regional actors and organisations to collaborate and cooperate in the development, operation, and evolution of services for the international population and businesses of our region.

As the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Employment says, “Regional implementation of Talent Boost largely relies on the Talent Hub service model. ‘Talent Hubs’ refer to geographical cooperation models that create clear-cut, cross-sectoral service paths in support of attracting and recruiting international talents, helping them settle in and integrate into Finland, and bringing together businesses and international talents, order to achieve the overall goals of Talent Boost”.

The three main multi-agency service packages – workstreams – to be developed are:

  1. Talent attraction, marketing and communication, and regional reputation. 
  2. Talent orientation, integration, and support. 
  3. Talent recruitment, employment, and retention. 

And each of these workstreams includes multiple initiatives, projects, and services.

Currently, we are working on several initiatives, including:

  • A comprehensive mentorship programme for internationals.
  • Development of comprehensive Finnish language learning opportunities for all requirements.
  • Smoothing the transition from student to citizen with the city’s integration and employment services (International Jyväskylä).
  • Developing evidence-based integration courses for international students and work-based immigrants via EduFutura education consortium.
  • Developing and Elite Student Athlete support programme.
  • Developing a multi-agency international student employment pathway programme.
  • Comprehensive matchmaking opportunities for potential employers.

Ģֱ's main current partners working in collaboration on the Talent Hub service model are:

  • City of Jyväskylä
  • JAMK
  • Gradia
  • ELY Centre of Central Finland
  • The Council for Central Finland (Keski-Suomen Liitto)
  • The Chamber of Commerce of Central Finland
  • The Startup Factory
  • Business Jyväskylä
  • Paremmin Yhdessä
  • Keski-Suomen Yrittäjät

Contact us

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Mentoring programme

JYU mentoring programme is a collaborative relationship between an actor and a mentor.

Tenure track at the Ģֱ

Through international open application processes, we want to attract the best talents in their fields to the Ģֱ.