In the Immigrants as Business Mentors project, international talent had the chance to showcase their skills to companies in Uusimaa. The activities are planned to continue even after the project ends.
Building self-confidence, discovering and presenting one's strengths, and networking were the main goals of the Immigrants as Business Mentors project. The project, which started in January 2024 and ended in May 2026, was co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF+) and improved the position of international talent in the Uusimaa job market through all its activities. The project was carried out in collaboration by Haaga-Helia, Laurea, and Metropolia.
In the project's Business Mentoring Model, 37 companies from Uusimaa gave assignments to the project, and international talent carried out the assignments in groups of two to four people. The majority of the more than a hundred participants in the project were international degree students from Haaga-Helia, Laurea, and Metropolia.
By participating in the project, students got to showcase their skills in their own field to a Finnish company and add this experience to their resume.
The innovation hub and startup meeting place Epicenter Helsinki is one of the organisations that offered a project to an international group of talent. The group, among other things, investigated how deep tech companies position themselves in Finland and how Epicenter should approach them.
According to CEO Kristian Nieminen, the results of the group work benefit Epicenter directly, because the project involved work that the organisation would have had to do anyway.
– The discussions and meetings with the group are also beneficial, because innovations happen through encounters, Nieminen adds.
When applying for a job at Epicenter, Keerthana Koiloth was upfront about how she could contribute to the organisation's work. - I decided at an event to boldly talk to the CEO, and it paid off: I was first hired as an intern to help with event production and then for a full-time position.
The project's closing event encouraged international professionals to boldly compete for jobs in the Finnish labour market. The event's keynote speaker, Deputy Mayor of the City of Helsinki Shawn Huff, shared from his own experience that international professionals bring different backgrounds and always some kind of different thinking to the work. This acts as a strength in the workplace.
According to Haaga-Helia's Degree Director Anna Hankimaa, the event showed that the participants of the project had networked both with each other and with companies in Uusimaa.
– Networks are a key factor for integration and employment, Hankimaa notes.
The importance of networking was also evident on the Immigrants as Business Mentors project's LinkedIn page, which gained over 560 followers. Participants also actively shared their own experiences on their own LinkedIn pages.
A continuation is being created for the activities developed in the project.
– During the project, various methods to promote employment were piloted, and now we're thinking about how the best practices can be continued after the project, says Anna Hankimaa.
According to her, career planning, which focuses on finding your own strengths and actively offering them, could be well utilised, for example, in the 3UAS studies that Haaga-Helia organises together with Laurea and Metropolia.
According to Bao Thai, who studies at Haaga-Helia, and Desiana Miranti, who studies at Laurea, participating in the project and assignment was a great opportunity to get in touch with Finnish companies and develop their own skills.
