The UEF Trainee programme is a new opening to improve the working life skills of the university’s international Master’ degree students and to better integrate them into eastern Finland.
In the newly launched UEF Trainee programme, the university’s research groups and administrative units offer international Master’s degree students full-time, two-month internship placements. In the first call to the programme, one or two students from each international Master’s degree programme were selected, and the overall number of students amounting to 18.
“By offering these placements at the university, we want to promote educational immigration. The international students will have a contract of employment with the university for their internship period, and they will learn important working life skills and become familiar with the Finnish world of work and its rules,” Academic Rector Tapio Määttä says.
According to Määttä, offering international students an opportunity to do a paid internship during their studies also provides support for the university’s efforts to recruit new international students. The university’s international Master’s degree programmes are currently inviting applications for admission.
The UEF Trainee programme is part of the newly established North Savo (NS) Talent Hub initiative. NS Talent Hub works to increase the attractiveness of North Savo and Eastern Finland as a working area for international talent. It also wants to help the university’s international students to build their careers in the region. The UEF Trainee programme is the first concrete action of NS Talent Hub to increase the employment of international degree students. NS Talent Hub is funded by the European Social Fund.
“By hiring our own international students to work at the university we can set an example to companies and other employers here in eastern Finland. We would like to see more internship opportunities available to our international students here in the region,” Määttä says.
Godswill Ogbu Ikegbu from the Master’s Degree Programme in Medical Physics is one of the first international students selected to the UEF Trainee programme and, according to them, the idea is a brilliant and innovative one.
“After spending a year in Finland as an international student, my interest to work in the Finnish labour force has increased significantly because of the flexibility, qualitative training, and exposure it offers. Hence, participating in the UEF Trainee programme would be sensational for me and would further prepare me to make my dream a reality. I strongly recommend all international students to apply in subsequent calls,” Ikegbu says.
At the moment, approximately 850 students from abroad are completing their Master’s degree at the university of Eastern Finland, with more than 200 Master’s degrees awarded to them every year.
For further information, please contact:
Academic Rector Tapio Määttä, tapio.maatta(at)uef.fi
International Relations Coordinator Marko Pietilä, marko.pietila(at)uef.fi
