Akava students highlight their parliamentary election goals: better preparation for young adults entering working life
The goal of Akava Students is for Members of Parliament who are elected in the spring of 2027 to make decisions that improve the chances for young adults to succeed in working life.
The goal of Akava Students is for Members of Parliament who are elected in the spring of 2027 to make decisions that improve the chances for young adults to succeed in working life.
Who: Kasper Laaksonen, Chair of Akava Students
What: Higher education should better respond to the skills needed in working life.
Fewer assumptions, more knowledge. This is one way to sum up the thoughts of Kasper Laaksonen, Chair of Akava Students, on the position of young adults in working life.
He feels that young adults are expected to be able to use artificial intelligence, for example, even though such skills are not taught at higher education institutions. Leadership and teamwork skills could also be taught more so that, for example, when working in a group, people would not shirk their responsibilities.
“Finland needs a skilled labour force that is able to meet the needs of a rapidly changing working life. We want to ensure that higher education institutions are teaching what is needed in working life”, Laaksonen says.
Is this the core task of higher education?
“The autonomy of higher education institutions and the freedom of research are very important to us. But at the same time, we believe that higher education should be preparing students for working life.”
More qualitative employment
Akava Students is calling for qualitative employment: young adults should be able to get work in their field with appropriate wages, employment contracts and employment terms.
Laaksonen would like to see foreign students being offered more language and cultural studies and a better understanding of the functioning of the Finnish labour market. For example, it would be good to stress the importance of building professional networks to support employment.
“Eighty per cent of international students who complete an internship or thesis or find summer work in Finland remain in the country after graduation. The corresponding figure for those without such experience is only 20%.”
Laaksonen also urges employers to set more realistic job search and language skills requirements.
“For example, if you work in an international company located in Finland, where the working language is English, is it necessary to require the highest level of Finnish language competence?”
“At the same time, we point out that the qualifications of international students should include more Finnish working life skills and studies in Finland’s languages. Finnish language skills make it easier to acclimate to society”, says Laaksonen.
The unreasonable situation for higher education institutions must be remedied
Laaksonen states that higher education institutions have been in a situation for a long time where a larger number of students are being educated with consistently reducing funds.
“This is an unacceptable situation. Everyone surely understands that when there are fewer resources per student, the quality of teaching suffers.
For students, this is reflected as increased group sizes, increased remote teaching and fewer opportunities for teachers to provide individual support.”
“The biggest mistake would be to increase student intake without increasing funding”, Laaksonen says.
Akava and several other parties have set a goal to have 60% of young people aged 25–34 be highly educated by 2040.
“According to many, a goal of a 50% higher education rate by the 2030s would already be almost impossible to achieve. If we want growth to continue in Finland and to maintain the current welfare state, there must be more than a 60% higher education rate among young adults by 2040.”
Text Iida Ylinen
Photo Veikko Somerpuro
Other goals of Akava Students
–RDI money should be used more for co-operation between higher education institutions, regions, municipalities and cities and to create internships for future experts. RDI funds are currently being primarily used for business development activities, and only a smaller proportion received by companies is going to research being carried out with higher education institutions.
–Tuition fees paid by international students should be tax deductible if the students find employment in Finland after graduation.
–There should be a legitimate reason for all fixed-term employment relationships. Fixed-term contracts postpone major decisions, such as buying a home or moving to a new location.
–First-time student status for receiving a higher education place should not be lost until the student has completed 60 credits of study.
| Akava Students promotes the interests of students and recent graduates of universities and universities of applied sciences. It represents the more than 127,000 student members of Akava affiliates. For more information, see the Akava Students webpage and Akava Students’ parliamentary election goals page. |
