Ministry of Education and Culture grants EUR 20 million for vocational education for immigrants
The Ministry of Education and Culture has decided to subsidise vocational education and training for immigrants by EUR 20 million. The financial resources are designed to promote a swift labour market integration of asylum seekers and other persons with immigrant background and to strengthen their education. The goal is to combine language studies with vocational studies. The funds are part of the Vocational skills for immigrants programme.
“Education and work are the best ways to integrate immigrants into their new home country. The reform of vocational education and training aims to make educational tracks more flexible and thus make combining studies and work easier than before. The aim is to use the granted financial assistance so that 2,000 new persons could begin studies this year,” says Minister of Education and Culture Sanni Grahn-Laasonen.
Financial assistance was granted to 44 different education providers. Vocational education and training provided by educational institutions received EUR 18.8 million and apprenticeship training EUR 1.2 million. EUR 1 million will be allocated later this year.
The programme Vocational skills for immigrants provides immigrants for example with a possibility to complete parts of vocational qualifications with support in professional Finnish and with other necessary support so that the persons could either enter the labour market straight away or complete the other parts of the qualification as competence-based qualifications. Competences and qualifications acquired earlier are identified and recognised, whenever possible.
The programme makes use of operational models developed and experiences gained within the Young Adults’ Skills Programme: it invests in the support in the early stages of studies and in discovering students’ strengths.
Recipients of financial assistance (in finnish)
Inquiries:
- Erno Hyvönen, Project Coordinator, tel. 0295 3 30398 (educational institutions)
- Mari Pastila-Eklund, Counsellor of Education, tel. 0295 3 30249 (apprenticeship training)