EDUFI-Trainees from Finland are leaving behind a Global Imprint

EDUFI-Trainees from Finland are leaving behind a Global Imprint

Yes, I will now write about our long-term cooperation with Latinamerica and Asia. And I would like to write about our cooperation with Russia too, which is one of the longest in ages. But because of the global situation, I only bring forth that it is as long in years as the cooperation with Chile. That is more or less 20 years. Would you believe it? Well, I think that is no surprise for you.

Spectrum of countries brings Joy and Challenges

And if you do not know where we have during the past years sent Finnish trainees to make a Traineeship in local organizations, the list is very long: Chile-Argentina-Brazil-Uruguay-Peru-Mexico-China-India-Russia-Estonia-Germany-Switzerland-Austria-Spain-France-Poland-Slovakia-Slovenia. To the European countries in the 90s and in the beginning of the 2000. And outside Europe from the year 2002 on.

You can imagine that cooperating with such wide variety of countries brings you global Know-How, but also interesting cultural challenges. And it brings sometimes also very difficult administrative challenges what comes to permits for Traineeships. Global incidents and administrative changes in general are not rare to bring changes to these issues.

To enable a student's Traineeship is sometimes a kind of an art of a craftsman. If you understand what I mean. You must use wide variety of skills, to be able to solve all the concrete problems which sometimes appear before a student is in the country of destination making a traineeship.

Main goals in sending Finnish Trainees abroad

The main goals of the Traineeships in local organizations are the ones that through Traineeships in various countries we bring Finnish Know-How to our target countries and foreign Know-How from abroad to Finland. Up to that it is very important to increase the professional language abilities (other than English too) and cultural Know-How of the trainees. Most of the Traineeships in local organizations take place in organizations according to Agenda2030, but there are also placements in organizations like ministries, universities or enterprises depending on countries and the specific countries’ possibilities.

Some Highlights of our Cooperation – Some Challenges of the Finnish Trainees

I could of course mention many of them from my own point of view, but I thought I will ask this from our cooperation partners in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, India and China.

Hello-Hello my dear cooperation partners:

Could you please mention for my LinkedIn-blog your thoughts about following issues:

• What has been the most challenging issues for Finnish students, when they come to make a Traineeship in your country? And now I speak about the cultural matters.
• And what do you think, which things have been the highlights of our cooperation during the years until now?

CHILE, 20years of cooperation:

Chile used to be the safest country in Latin America, but after the pandemic, the world changed a lot and Chile has not been the exception.?With crowds of?illegal migration, our culture has been enriched on one hand, but at the same time, safety matters are to be taken into account in an opposite current context seriously.

Some of the key cultural challenges are:

• Greeting in Chile, may be confusing for foreigners, as kissing once on one cheek is a common custom. But you have to know who and when to kiss socially (only young people or friends, in informal social situations kiss); hug (in close and familiar very happy or very sad moments hug); shake hands (in formal or business moments, never among youngsters).
• Calling or addressing adults, elderly, important people and bosses by their first names,?is?impolite, although st the beginning, students would be understood and would soon realize that the custom is, to maintain the formality of addressing them as Mr. Miss or Mrs.
• Dating and socializing customs are different too.

The Highlights of our cooperation:

Since Finnish education is so well ranked in the world, the technical, professional and language knowledge of the students, together with their work competence, have always been in direct proportion to employers's expectations, which have contributed for the experience to be a positive one.

ARGENTINA, almost 20years of cooperation:

Argentine Culture is very different from Finland. Some trainees find it more difficult to adjust to a more flexible train environment.

Some of the key cultural challenges are:?

• Most Argentinies feel?free to express their emotions even at work. Of course there are certain places where emotions are not allowed to be expressed but most NGO create an emphathic environment so that everyone can express?if they are homesick, or sad. And this is not consider a weak aspect of the personality.?As a consequence, some Finnish trainees feel it quite strange to see this behavior.
• Besides, talking about personal life at work is part of the meetings. We sometimes are not that punctual and when we are, sometimes we spend some time talking about personal matters and then start discussing about work.

The Highlights of our cooperation:

The highlights are stable relationship to EDUFI-Traineeship and excellent candidates

BRAZIL, 8years of cooperation:

The biggest challenge:

The biggest challenge I notice when welcoming foreign interns in Brazil is the language barrier, which limits their possibilities in terms of tasks at the internship site. Other than that, Brazilians are known for its hospitality and the interns usually report high satisfaction in their interactions with their coworkers and community.

The Highlights of our cooperation:

We started to cooperate with Edufi back in 2014. What I appreciate the most about welcoming the Finnish interns in Brazil is the quality of the candidates. Most of them have been exposed to different cultures before coming to Brazil, reflecting on their broad worldview. Finnish citizens are generally highly concerned about global issues and enthusiastic change makers. This characteristics present a great exchange to our host organizations and community.?

INDIA, 5+years of cooperation:

India and Finland are Culturally two opposite countries where mentality, working style differ a lot.

Some of the key cultural challenges are:?

• Concept of time and planning-Indians are usually late and not strict with planning.
• Hierarchy in relations, at work or even in daily life is common in India while for Fins equality is the main value.
• Finnish interns are very individualistic, while Indians have a collective culture-they solve problems together, live in big families, are used to less personal space, have less privacy, discuss a lot of topics openly.?

The Highlights of our cooperation:

After covid, Hybrid work modes were provided for the internship which allowed to restart projects in January 2022 despite pandemic.

Finnish participants are getting 26+ Internship fields to do the internship and experience how?India is one of the fastest developing economy and how India balances between poverty to extreme rich communities.

We have also increased the number of cultural workshops including Yoga, Bollywood Dance, Indian Traditional Dress, Heena Tattoo, Hindi Lessons, Indian Cooking lessons and a lot more.?

CHINA, 10+years of cooperation:

Some cultural challenges:

Now, 3 years after the implementation of Chinese Covid policy, we see that slowly students and few professionals are able to be in China once again. The sizes of the cities, the food and the much higher population makes our participants from Finland a bit longer to adapt.?Apart from that, some Chinese different habits always makes more interesting to learn.??

The Highlights of our cooperation:

Over the last 15 years, hundreds of Finnish students have gained valuable internship experience in China through CHT. This pioneering project was started by a cooperation between the Finnish National Education - EDUFI (ex-Cimo organization) and CHT organization in China. CHT contributes to opening doors for international talents to become the leaders of tomorrow.?

What is the essence of International Traineeships we strive together for?

We have heard during the years that the EDUFI-Traineeship abroad and in general international Traineeship has worked out as a a very good stepping stone to students’ and recent graduates’ future and future career. During the Traineeship the one could train the abilities which are very central in the working life, and then broaden these skills later when working. Up to that the Traineeship abroad was unforgettable because of all the personal encounters with the people. The Traineeship abroad opened many doors.?And if the one in the future moves abroad, “It does not stress any more” somebody said once.

Many EDUFI-trainees and ex.EDUFI-trainees state and have stated that they are grateful. But for the positive experience, keep in mind the advice of one of the EDUFI-Trainees: “You must be active and up to that in addition fearless enough when making a Traineeship abroad. That way you will get the most of it.”

Jaana Mutanen 12/2022 – EDUFI-OPH/ex.CIMO

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