Your union is there to support you at every stage of your career. We work on your behalf to influence the development of working life and many matters of social significance. Membership provides many valuable services and benefits, as well as useful networks.
Membership brings security and benefits
Your union is there to support you at every stage of your career. We work on your behalf to influence the development of working life and many matters of social significance. Membership provides many valuable services and benefits, as well as useful networks.
Advice, training and information
Your union provides you with legal advice and services as well as employment counselling and training that supports your professional development, career progress and networking. The range of services and benefits vary between affiliates. Check your union’s website for the latest information about what the union has to offer.
The member and professional magazines and online services published by the union provide information on working life, supervision of interests and matters related to your profession. In addition to general websites, most Akava affiliates have specific member pages to communicate current information that is relevant to their members.
Your union supports you in job search and career matters as well as matters related to employment contracts. If you have any questions about membership or employment, don’t hesitate to contact your union.
Contract and employment security
Akava’s negotiation organisations, namely the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff (YTN) and the Negotiation Organisation for Public Sector Professionals (JUKO), as well as Akava’s affiliates oversee collective agreement activities in order to safeguard wage increases and the development of working conditions.
Together with our affiliates, we contribute to the preparation of labour legislation to ensure that it continues to meet the demands of a changing working life.
At your workplace, you can seek advice and help from elected representatives and shop stewards as well as from Akava contacts who supervise the interests of members. They negotiate with employers in the workplace and assist members in matters regarding employment and service relationships. The purpose of the shop steward system is to promote compliance with service and collective agreements, to settle disputes and to maintain peace at work. You are also supported in the workplace by an occupational health safety and health delegate.
Networks and community
As a member of the union, you have the opportunity to network with experts in your field. Your union organises courses, meetings and seminars to provide you with the latest information and opportunities to meet colleagues. Many of our affiliates offer career services and information on open jobs in the relevant fields.
Your professional community is an important source of peer support and discussion when looking for answers to questions related to your profession or working life. Information on open jobs is passed on through these networks. Some of our affiliates also offer mentoring. A mentor is an experienced expert who provides a less experienced person who is interested in self-development with advice, support and advancement in their working life or studies through one-on-one interaction.
Unemployment security
Members of a union can also easily become members of the unemployment fund. You can get advice on unemployment security from both your union and the unemployment fund. Unemployment funds pay an earnings-related daily allowance to members who become unemployed.
Insurance and banking services
Affiliates offer their members favourable insurance terms and bank agreements. For example, rates for home and travel insurance are lower through the union. Akava members receive significant benefits in banking and investment services from Danske Bank. More information about Danske Bank’s membership benefits for Akava members.
Discounts and support
Membership entitles you to discounts on many products and services as well as many domestic holiday destinations. Holiday services for Akava members are organised by A-palvelut, whose holiday property rentals are available to Akava members at a reduced rate. Descriptions and current offers on products and services at member prices can be found on the Member+ website. You can register as a user using your Akava membership number.
On the basis of cooperation agreements, members can get discounts on cruises, hotel accommodation and services and more. For more details, visit the Member+ membership benefit portal or your Union’s website.
Membership fees vary between affiliates
Membership fee practices vary between Akava affiliates, but for most part, the fee is a percentage of taxable income. You can submit a proxy that enables your employer to deduct the fee directly from your salary and pay it to the relevant union or you can pay the fee yourself as a separate payment.
This privacy statement describes how Akava collects, processes and discloses personal data in connection with its website.
1. Controller
Akava serves as the controller as defined in the applicable data protection legislation. We are responsible for the processing of your personal data in accordance with this statement and applicable data protection laws.
Contact information of Controller:
Akava
Business ID: 0200918-0
Address
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Data Protection Officer concerning website issues
Ritva Siikamäki, ritva.siikamaki@akava.fi
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Your personal data can be collected by various means. We mainly collect and process personal data that
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We collect and process, for example, the following categories of personal data in connection with feedback, if provided by the website visitor:
basic information, such as name and contact information (email);
information collected with the help of cookies or similar technologies in connection with the use of our website (device identifier and type, operating system and application settings).
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We only collect and process personal data to the extent necessary for the web analytics and development of our website and for the purpose of responding to feedback. We also process personal data to ensure the data security of the website and to improve its quality.
Transfers and disclosure of personal data
We do not disclose personal data to third parties.
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We use cookies and other similar technologies on the websites akava.fi and akavaworks.fi. Cookies are small text files placed on your device to collect and remember useful information for the purpose of improving the functionality and usability of our website. We may also use cookies and other similar technologies for statistical purposes, such as compiling statistics on website usage and for improving the user experience.
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Personal data will only be stored for as long as it is necessary for the purposes specified in this statement. Personal data will be removed when the storage of personal data is no longer necessary for the fulfilment of the law or for the rights or obligations of either party.
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You have the right to inspect your personal data. You can also request the rectification, updating or erasure of your personal data at any time. Please note, however, that such personal data that is necessary in order to perform the purposes defined in this statement or required to be stored by law cannot be erased.
You have the right to object to or restrict the processing of your personal data to the extent allowed by the applicable law.
Whenever the processing of your personal data is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. In these cases, we will not continue to process your personal data unless a legal basis for the processing exists.
You can exercise your rights by sending a request by email addressed to veikka.kuusisto@akava.fi.
If you feel that the processing of your personal data is not being handled properly, you have the right to consult the Data Protection Ombudsman. The contact details of the Data Protection Ombudsman are available on the Data Protection Ombudsman’s website athttps://tietosuoja.fi/yhteystiedot
8. Data protection
We shall perform the appropriate measures (physical, digital and administrative) in order to protect the personal data against loss, destruction, misuse and unauthorised access and disclosure. Personal data can only be accessed by persons who require the data in order to perform their work tasks.
Please note that even appropriate measures cannot prevent all possible security breaches. We will notify you of personal data breaches as prescribed by the applicable law.
9. Changes to the privacy policy statement
We reserve the right to change this statement. We will notify you of any changes on our website, which contains the latest version of this statement.
10. Contact us
You can contact us on issues regarding this statement or the processing of your personal data by sending an email to viestinta@akava.fi.
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.
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, tells Kasper Laaksonen, chair of Akava Students.
“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.
Akava is the confederation of unions for highly educated people and higher education students. We represent the interests of 35 affiliate member organisations and their collective membership of more than six hundred thousand. Our affiliates represent employees as well as self-employed persons and entrepreneurs, but we are also a labour market organisation for students.
Individuals can join our affiliates based on their degree, position or profession. If you are studying at a higher education institution, you can join the union representing your field within Akava already during your studies. Our affiliates collectively have more than 100,000 student members.
Our goal is to achieve a satisfying and stable working life founded on a high level of competence and profitable work. This approach will lead to high employment as well as responsible and strong economic growth.
We work together with negotiation organisations and our affiliates to ensure successful and satisfying careers for Akava members. We contribute to the development of Finnish working life and society in many ways.
Advocacy work on many levels
Individual members of Akava affiliates can influence Akava’s activities and, more broadly, society as a whole through their own union.
We actively express our views on working life and the economy and assert influence on decisions. We propose solutions founded on research-based knowledge. When discussing the development of working life and society, we also introduce new ideas. We are building the Finland of the future.
We are a strong social influence in all our areas of activity together with our member affiliates. We exert influence at the national, regional and international level, both directly as an organisation and through our member affiliates.
Akava has national and international influence
Akava is a negotiating party, a special-interest association and an expert organisation. We are a politically impartial actor. Our advantage in negotiations and social dialogue is our profound and reliable knowledge base on the role of our members within the labour market and society. Through Akava Works studies and surveys, we collect and produce up-to-date information on changes in working life, employment, the economy and the position of Akava members in working life and society.
We coordinate and develop cooperation between the confederation, negotiation organisations and member affiliates and promote the conditions for joint advocacy and societal influence.
Akava-Åland r.f. is the umbrella association for members of Akava affiliates living in the Åland Islands. Its main task is to negotiate collective agreements for Akava members working in the public sector.
Our domestic supervision of interests is closely linked to international advocacy, where we place our emphasis on work at the European level. We operate through official EU organisations and work actively to influence EU policy, particularly in the areas of working life and higher education. We are members of Eurocadres, the Council of European Professional and Managerial Staff.
Membership brings security
Membership in an Akava affiliate provides security through collective agreements, a negotiation system, a network of shop stewards as well as legal and career services. Our affiliates offer professional advocacy and employment counselling as well as networks. They are there for their members at all career stages. In addition, membership offers a wide range of financial benefits.
We are involved in preparing legislation on working life, unemployment and social security, as well as the pension system, which is an integral part of the safety net for working life.
We promote policies that support work and entrepreneurship. Our objective is to help realise a high employment rate, long careers, strong economic growth and the balancing of the national economy. We are involved in reforming systems to ensure that they adapt to the needs of the surrounding society and people.
Who are the Akava affiliates?
Members of Akava affiliates are highly educated experts in their field, working in managerial, expert and teaching positions. Akava members are employed by municipalities, the State and the Church, as well as in the private sector, but many work as entrepreneurs or self-employed professionals.
The employer sectors of Akava members in 2024.
In 2024, the employers sectors for Akava members were as follows:
Getting the voice of students to be heard: Akava Students is responsible for supervising the interests of students and recent graduates at Akava.
Akava Students
Getting the voice of students to be heard: Akava Students is responsible for supervising the interests of students and recent graduates at Akava.
We also serve as a labour market organisation for students: Akava Students represents the student members of Akava affiliates. Together, they number more than 127,000.
Akava’s Student Council operates under the authority of the Board of Akava. The Council presents the student perspective as part of our decision-making and serves as the voice of Akava students in communication. It also provides a forum for discussion and cooperation for student representatives in Akava affiliates.
The Council is comprised of representatives of all member affiliates that have student activities. It convenes three to four times a year. The President of Akava Students is a member of Akava’s Board of Directors and the Vice President of Akava Students serves as deputy to the President on the Board. The activities of Akava Students are managed by Akava Students’ Board, consisting of the President, Vice President and 4–8 Board members. The Board prepares and implements the decisions of the Council under the direction of its Presidency.
Kasper Laaksonen was elected as President of Akava Students for 2026 and Nelli Kortelainen as Vice President. Within our student activities, Laaksonen represents the Union of Professional Engineers in Finland and Kortelainen represents Akava Special Branches.
Diverse activities
Akava Students highlights topical themes for students in order to stimulate social debate and actively participate in discourse. It cooperates closely with, for example, student organisations and political youth organisations and participates in student advocacy projects.
Social influence in the interests of higher education students
Akava Students promotes the interests of students and recent graduates of universities and universities of applied sciences. We are not limited to any particular field of study or educational institution; rather, through its activities, Akava Students highlights the common national interests of all higher education students. The supervision of interests particularly focuses on matters related to education, labour force and social policy.
Akava Students actively communicates about its activities and objectives to student organisations, our member affiliates and their regional actors and stakeholders. It equally considers the perspectives of Akava affiliates representing both the university sector and the university of applied sciences sector in its activities.
promotes the rights and position of higher education students
coordinates the student activities of Akava affiliates and supports membership acquisition
provides advice on unionisation
is seen and heard within both Akava and society
Join already as a student
Akava has a suitable trade union for almost every university student. When you join the union for your field already as a student, you ensure security and support for the duration of your working career.
Akava affiliates offer their members legal advice, insurance benefits, professional publications, training and career counselling as well as networks. When you join an affiliate of Akava, you gain the backing of all of Akava: Akava supervises the interests of the highly educated in working life and society.
More information is available from Akava student activity personnel.
Finland needs a vision for the future that is based on competence and education. This means, for example, ensuring core funding for higher education, RDI investments and an increase in the number of starting places in higher education institutions.
Who: Maria Löfgren, President of Akava
What: Education and expertise are the cornerstones of economic growth and employment.
Akava’s goal for the parliamentary elections is to ensure the availability of a skilled and educated labour force in Finland. A greater share of the younger generations must be brought into the sphere of higher education in order for Finland to catch up to other countries.
Currently, 39 per cent of the young people in Finland receive a higher education degree. President of Akava Maria Löfgren says the percentage should be at least 50% and rise to as high as 60%.
“In comparison to other OECD countries, Finland is near the tail end. In OECD countries, the average number of young people with a higher education degree is around 48%. While this percentage has risen in many countries, it has dropped in Finland. This is the wrong direction”, she states.
According to Löfgren, Finland does not have sufficient resources for higher education and research. When examining the resources, the path chosen by Finnish decision-makers is quite different from the average in other OECD countries.
President of Akava Maria Löfgren says that Finland does not have sufficient resources for higher education and research. When examining the resources, the path chosen by Finnish decision-makers is quite different from the average in other OECD countries.
“At the beginning of the 21st century, Finland’s direction looked promising, but now it’s slowly going the wrong way.”
Over the past ten years, the per-student expenditure of higher education institutions in Finland has been negative (-13.5%), while the OECD average and their financial investments have been on the plus side (+8.6%).
Increasing resources would facilitate access to higher education studies.
“We still have too many blind spots and aren’t able to provide access to everyone who wants to get in. Resources also affect the number of degrees that are completed”, Löfgren says.
The vision of the future rests on a high level of competence
According to Löfgren, working life and the skills required at work are constantly changing. Technological development and artificial intelligence are also presenting challenges for today’s working life.
Akava’s primary message for the parliamentary elections is that without expertise, Finland will come to a halt. Löfgren explains that this message emphasises the importance of human capital. This has been recognised, for example, by the Bank of Finland, which regularly calculates and assesses how education, competence and experience acquired at work affect and bring value to the overall national economy.
Akava’s primary message for the parliamentary elections is that without expertise, Finland will come to a halt.
“If we don’t get the share of highly educated young people to increase, it will have a direct impact on our GDP. We should be creating products and services based on a high level of competence and added value, but the ability to create them depends on the quality of higher education we provide and how many young people have access to it.”
Löfgren points out that Akava indeed understands that the sustainability of our welfare society as well as EU fiscal rules require a halt in the growth of public debt. At the same time, however, it is important for Finland to look further as a society and set a vision for success in the future.
“Akava’s vision emphasises higher education and high-quality research. This is how we ensure the level of competence of our society, which is essential for sustainable growth.”
“We understand that there are no large increases in funding to be found all of a sudden, but it is possible to reallocate existing public funds, for example, to higher education and research. For instance, companies currently receive the majority of RDI funding and higher education institutions are left with crumbs.”
The ways of working are changing and work is increasingly relying on expert and knowledge work. Employees are having to find ways to manage their own work more independently.
More detailed legislation is needed to manage the psychosocial workload
“Despite this, issues related to occupational safety and well-being at work still continue to focus largely on physical load factors.”
Akava’s major goal for working life is to better prevent and manage the psychosocial workload in the workplace, which inevitably relates to expert work.
“This is an issue that is directly linked to management as well as to the coping ability and responsibilities of supervisors. Every workplace should understand that psychosocial load factors and the management thereof require just as much attention and investments as physical load factors.”
According to Löfgren, prevention and management are highly important when it comes to, for example, work pace, the internalisation of goals and other management elements. The functioning of the work community, team spirit and a good discussion culture are also a vital part of ensuring a functional environment.
“Autocratic leadership doesn’t suit expert work at all, because an expert needs a certain amount of freedom to be creative. We should be able to identify those factors that would facilitate the work of experts.”
The current Act on Occupational Safety and Health already obliges employers to manage psychosocial loading. Is Akava asking for new legislation that specifically focuses on the issue of psychosocial workload in more detail?
“That’s exactly what we’re talking about. More explicit and precise regulation is needed. Some workplaces are very competent when it comes to work ability management. In other places, however, there is a lack of skills or willingness to invest in workload management.”
Löfgren points out that other Nordic countries manage psychosocial loading better, either through legislation or collective agreements.
According to Löfgren, the management of psychosocial loading is directly linked to Akava’s main goal, which is to increase expertise, since Finland will come to a halt without it.
“When there are too many load factors, competence and the ability to learn new things suffer. Loading and stress are directly linked to work productivity and creativity.”
Löfgren wonders about the polarisation within the remote work debate.
“The fact is that remote work is here to stay, and it would make sense for every workplace to agree on specific rules for remote work and hybrid work.”
Other parliamentary election goals of Akava
New method of targeting RDI funding: greater capitalisation of higher education institutions, which would enable them to increase their own funding as a result of the yield from their RDI activities.
Allocation of public funds to permanent core funding for higher education institutions in order to safeguard infrastructure and human resources.
Review of the funding model of higher education institutions: employment of graduates as one funding criterion, reduction of unnecessary sectoral overlap so that higher education institutions can focus on their own strengths.
More active participation of business and industry in the funding of higher education institutions. High-quality research that benefits business life cannot be obtained for free.
Education should be synchronised to the real needs of working life. The facilitating of low-cost degrees that lead to poor employment possibilities must be addressed.
Criminalisation of targeted harassment. The targeted harassment directed at officials in public service, research professionals and the media undermines democracy.
Akava’s proposal for a faster track to a permanent residence permit
Akava’s primary message as the parliamentary elections approach is “Without expertise, Finland will come to a halt”. A high level of competence and education are the cornerstones of economic growth and employment, but we can’t discuss these without also touching on the topic of immigration. For example, the Bank of Finland (2025) has assessed Finland’s long-term growth outlook as being weak without additional investments in, for example, foreign experts. An Akava Works report examining the need for work-related immigration (Mihin työperäinen maahanmuutto kannattaa suunnata?, 2022) states that an aging Finland needs work-based immigration for all occupational groups and sectors in order to maintain sufficient economic growth.
According to ETLA Economic Research (Etla) (2026), Finland needs greater net immigration, because the shrinking of the working-age population will weaken the labour market, productivity and the sustainability of public finances. The Government budget proposal (2026), for example, also states that work-based immigration is important for Finland’s economic growth and the safeguarding of services, and according to the sustainability calculations of the Ministry of Finance, an increase in work-related immigration of 10,000 people per year would reduce the financial pressure on public finances by approximately EUR 1.4 billion. The Economic Policy Council (VATT Institute for Economic Research, 2024) has stated that, as the population ages and the birth rate decreases, Finland will need immigrants in the coming years as well, and Etla’s recent report (2026) says that without immigrants, the total number of employed persons in Finland would have already dropped significantly.
Although the need for immigration is obvious, the debate on it continues to be highly vulnerable to polarisation. As a result, the implemented immigration policy also tends to oscillate. At the same time, fewer than half of foreign experts would recommend Finland as a place of residence and increasingly fewer intend to stay permanently in Finland, as can be seen from the International Technology Experts 2025 study conducted by the Union of Professional Engineers in Finland and Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland, TEK.
Finland needs a stable and predictable immigration policy, so that people dare to build a life here. Akava’s main parliamentary election objective with regard to immigration is to improve the integration of international experts in Finland. Akava emphasises that Finland must improve the conditions that enable immigrants to establish a stable life, such as psychological safety, by, for example, creating a faster route to a permanent residence permit. One means would be to implement a points system that assesses integration and competence potential.
Immigration as a tool for nurturing Finland’s future growth
Different points systems are occasionally mentioned in the media and in politics, but upon closer examination, the details of the systems are often unclear. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is currently working on a project with a special focus on models for immigrant scoring, as well as the related goals and impacts. The Ministry presented preliminary results to stakeholders during the spring, and the report recognised that there is no single unified system of points but rather several possible implementations. The scoring can be carried out as a path to permanent residence, i.e. a system whose strategic objective is to select experts that support long-term population and economic growth. It might also be used to complement the path of work-based immigration, whereby the points could lead to a residence permit that allows the applicant to look for work instead of requiring them to have a pre-existing job offer. A third option would be a points-based system that is a formality, in the form of a checklist to establish eligibility for a work-based residence permit rather than serving as an official selection mechanism.
Akava believes that any possible points system that is taken into use in Finland should be built as a tool that supplements the current system and facilitates a faster path to permanent residence for applicants with the most potential in terms of integration and employment. In our opinion, the strategic importance of immigration should be viewed more broadly as an economic, demographic and regional policy instrument that can support Finland’s long-term growth potential rather than simply as a labour market policy instrument.
Finland’s current employer-driven immigration model responds to the competence needs of a specific time, thereby leading to cyclical dependency and short-sightedness. In order to realise Finland’s growth potential, the matter should be examined in terms of decades. For example, the Bank of Finland (2025) states that children who have moved to Finland as a result of a parent’s work or studies will contribute to the development of human capital and the dependency ratio in future decades.
Akava believes that a path for permanent work-based immigration would facilitate, alongside the employer-driven approach, a Government steering approach, whose objectives would be to harness this long-term growth potential.
Permanence as incentive for integration
The aim of Akava’s proposal is not to change the current system or its conditions, but to supplement it. We propose that, alongside the existing pathways for immigration (work and study-based migration, family relations, humanitarian immigration), a new path for permanent work-based immigration should be built.
A permanent residence permit would serve as an incentive for integration and permanence for the most potential international experts who move to Finland via this route and those who already reside here. A points-based system connected to permanence would balance immigration by shifting the focus from risk prevention to potential identification. The same idea has already partially been implemented in Finnish immigration policy through the creation of a pathway to permanent residence for international students who have completed a higher education degree in Finland (excluding those who have completed a first-cycle degree from a university of applied sciences) on the condition of language proficiency.
Currently, third-country nationals who have moved to Finland for work and then find themselves unemployed have only 3 or 6 months to become re-employed if they wish to stay in Finland. This is a short time to find a new job or to uproot from Finnish society. Uncertainty undermines the ability to make big decisions about life choices during employment. Is it worth spending my free time studying a language or making efforts to build friendships? Do I want to raise my children here, buy a home or try my wings as an entrepreneur? Decisions would be easier if the continuation of residence in Finland was not dependent on a certain employer or economic cycles.
Creating uncertainty for immigrants is not a sensible growth policy. The objective of permanence would expand the strategic importance of immigration to long-term growth and Government steering. At the same time, it would support a fairer labour market, since the dependence of international experts on a particular employer would decrease, thereby also lowering the reporting threshold in cases of exploitation. Employers could also react more flexibly to economic cycles, as the responsibility for an employee’s life and residence in Finland would no longer be placed on them. At the same time, administrative, repetitive bureaucracy surrounding permit applications would decrease and the number of international experts living in Finland would increase.
Table 1: Advantages of Akava’s model
Scoring competence and integration potential
The debate on points models is often stopped short by the view that scoring applicants is an inhumane way of approaching immigration. All immigration systems require choices to be made, but scoring makes the criteria public and predictable. Akava’s scoring criteria would assess an applicant’s competence and integration potential rather than their personal traits. Most of the scoring factors are things that a person can influence themselves. This creates an incentive for integration already when an applicant sets out to apply for this route of immigration. The criteria are transparent in order to provide an equal opportunity to gain points.
Table 2: Akava’s scoring criteria
General criteria in systems
Criteria relevant to the Finnish labour market
LANGUAGE SKILLS (Finnish, Swedish)
A small language country should consider points for English
AGE (more points for younger people)
Additional points based on the average age of family members (family positivity as part of image work, early participation of children in the education system promotes integration)
DEGREE
• More points for higher degree levels
Additional points:
• Separately specified sectors
• Completed in Finland
WORK EXPERIENCE
• Additional points for work experience in growth sectors/labour shortage sectors/RDI
Additional points:
• Work experience in Finland, including internships
• Work experience that corresponds to degree
• Verification of competence in the EU (e.g., Europass)
EMPLOYMENT OFFER OR CONTRACT
• Responsible employers (e.g., within scope of collective agreements, no notifications to occupational safety and health authorities, no convictions for owners)
• Consideration also for investors and (start-up) entrepreneurs
Additional points:
• Location outside growth centres
• Job offer that corresponds to competence
• More points as the salary level increases
• Permanent employment contract
• Guaranteed language training provided by the employer
Additional points for NETWORKS in Finland (e.g., family ties, volunteer work or positions of trust in Finland)
The criteria proposed by Akava include elements that are the same as those of many countries that utilise points systems, such as age, language skills, competence and possible job offer. In addition, the points system takes into account the special characteristics of the Finnish labour market, which promote (a) employment in Finland (e.g., language skills and prior work experience in Finland), (b) integration (e.g., networks), (c) prevention of work-related exploitation (e.g., type of employment, wage level and responsibility of the employer) and (d) long-term growth conditions in Finland (e.g., sector emphases, regional perspective and family members).
In addition to general conditions, the current conditions for a permanent residence permit, depending on the application path, include a period of residence (6 or 4 years), work history in Finland (2–3 years), a language skills requirement (satisfactory or particularly good B1-C1) and an annual income requirement. An applicant must meet the requirements for a continuous residence permit (A permit). In addition, the applicant or their spouse may only have received social assistance or unemployment benefits for a maximum of three months throughout their work history.
The Akava model has similar elements with the exception of the period of residence requirement. It should be possible to grant a permanent residence permit even as the first permit for the most potential applicants in order to enable them to commit to integration from their first day. For those living in Finland under other permits, the model would accelerate the acquisition of permanent status once the applicant demonstrates their commitment to integration. Unlike the current permit conditions, Akava’s scoring criteria would be flexible: it would enable one to compensate for some sub-area of the criteria with another sub-area.
Support for establishing roots also comes from society and communities
Akava’s points-based model is founded on the assessment of integration and employment potential, and the realisation of these probabilities requires support from society and the Finnish people in addition to the actions of the individual. The creation of assessment criteria is useless if we do not have the capacity to assess them.
A permanent residence permit alone does not lead to integration without support from society and working life. Therefore, the likelihood of integration into Finland should be strengthened by improving, in particular, the possibilities to study languages and assess language skills. More needs to be done to connect the needs of working life and the skills of immigrants, for example, by creating more comprehensive criteria and processes for identifying and recognising skills acquired abroad, and by updating the classification of occupations. In addition, the general atmosphere affects the integration and employment of immigrants, so each individual person, employer, organisation, municipality and social actor can also contribute to the realisation of Finland’s future growth potential through their own actions.
At Akava, we think that Finland’s future will be built on the knowhow of experts. Our aim is for Finland to become a society based on strong expertise and education, since sustainable economic growth is founded on solid competence and employment as well as on a satisfying and safe working life.
The road to success begins with thought.
Competent and innovative people and companies capable of renewal create growth. The best return on our shared finances is provided by higher education. It nurtures human capital, improves productivity and supports longer careers.
Higher education and research are essential for growth and renewal in international competition. They provide companies and the public sector with the necessary competent workforce. They facilitate investments, create jobs and strengthen regional vitality. High-quality higher education and research require far-reaching decisions and strategic investments.
New information and new ideas must translate into evolving products and services. Every employee educated or working in Finland can strengthen our nation’s ability to develop and commercialise new products and innovations, and improve our productivity. Thriving employees generate a productive working life that creates sustainable growth. For work to give more than it takes, workplaces need clear responsibilities and good leadership. A satisfying working life carries and supports – both the individual and our society.
Fairness is the foundation of Finnish working life. Career development must be possible regardless of family leaves. Employee rights and security must be realised even in temp work. When discrimination is prevented and the position of fixed-term employees is improved, working life becomes more just. Dismissals should not be too easy to implement.
A stable labour market requires a functional mediation system and up-to-date information. Discussion and negotiation triumph over confrontation. When security to cover interruptions in work careers and the employment pension policy are developed in collaboration, trust grows stronger throughout careers and across generations.
Finland has been successful before – and can be again. This is why we propose solutions that reintroduce thinking, research and expertise to the core of our success. When we commit to nurturing them, our future is full of possibilities.
We will not let Finland come to a halt.
Think.
Maria Löfgren President, Akava
Growth and education
Without experts, Finland will come to a halt. Think.
Growth is born out of thought. Finland needs new ideas and new expertise. Science, research and education breed innovations that create well-being, culture and sustainable growth. Growth is built by raising our education and competence level to a leading international level, by investing in higher education institutions and research and by ensuring the incentives for working.
Akava’s solution
The quality of higher education should be improved by strengthening core funding, streamlining access to higher education and ensuring the employment potential of higher education.
The quality of higher education should be improved by strengthening core funding, streamlining access to higher education and ensuring the employment potential of higher education.
A parliamentary working group should be set up to draft a plan to raise our competence and education standard to a leading international level. This work should draw on the experiences from the work of the parliamentary RDI working group. The working group should also define the milestones and indicators for Government terms in order to monitor the progress towards achieving the goal.
The financing and steering system of higher education institutions should be reformed to support their specialisation and employment potential, and emphasise quality as a steering criterion to replace the current results-based approach.An index guarantee should be implemented to strengthen core funding.
Access to higher education should be streamlined.Higher education institutions should be encouraged to mould the currently fragmented course provision during the transition phase (e.g. open university, path studies) into field-specific study modules that are common to all higher education institutions. Young people without a student place in further studies and groups that are underrepresented in higher education should be guided towards them.
The functionality of the education and training voucher pilot should be assessed and practices that hasten access to higher education made permanent. The employment potential of the highly-educated should be increased by making the costs related to developing expertise tax-deductible like other expenses for the production of income.
The possibility of creating a public-private partnership project in Finland in accordance with the Danish model should be clarified: a Pact for Skills with the aim of one million AI experts.
Reasoning
Finland’s education level can be turned to an upward trend
The share of young adults with a higher education degree in Finland is lower than the OECD average. In order to turn the situation around, we need a parliamentary long-term plan, with the aim of streamlining access to higher education, reducing drop-out numbers and hastening degree completion. The plan would also support economic and employment growth.
Higher quality for the higher education financing and steering system
Sufficient and predictable core funding, an index guarantee and the strengthening of qualitative indicators are necessary to secure the quality of education. This will ensure the strategic benefits higher education brings to the individual and society.
A changing working life requires constant competence development
Technological development, the green transition and rapidly increasing AI use are changing competence requirements. We need a competence leap to keep up with international development. We need new incentives to support constant learning, such as wider tax deduction rights for competence development costs and broader study possibilities for the unemployed.
Highest yield?
Higher education.
Think.
Employment rates for people aged 25–34 with upper secondary and higher education in EU and ETA countries in 2024
The employment rate for young people with a higher education is above that of people of a similar age with an upper secondary education in all EU and ETA countries (with the exception of Czechia). In most cases, the difference is significant. This also demonstrates that an increase in those who receive a higher education has not weakened the employment of the highly-educated. Source: EUROSTAT edat_lfse_03
Akava’s solution
The prerequisites for higher education institutions and research should be improved
The financial autonomy of higher education institutions should be strengthened, thus improving the capability of higher education institutions to raise the education and competence level. The R&D funding for basic and applied research should be significantly increased in 2028–2030 and higher education funding raised to the EUR 10 billion level through exploitation of the State’s company ownerships.This will support the long-term renewal of the economy and strengthen the freedom of science, art, research and teaching.
Low-threshold RDI programmes for SMEs should be created, in which higher education institutions work as intermediate organisations and the financing encourages long-term collaboration. Shared infrastructures should also be built.
Reasoning
Strong investments in education and research improve Finnish well-being.
Increased human capital and strengthened RDI investments facilitate the most sustainable economic growth. Without additional investments in education, research and foreign experts, Finland’s overall production may suffer in the long term.
Higher education institutions’ financial autonomy supports innovation and renewal. Sufficient financial resources for higher education institutions mean financial autonomy, which will strengthen the quality and impact of research, increase the possibilities of agile reaction to changes in competence needs, and support international competitiveness and long-term RDI activities.
Thinking will lift Finland to growth.
Think.
Finland does not grow through machines alone, but through thought.
GDP/person and share of people with higher education in EU and ETA countries in 2024
There is a strong correlation between higher education and national income level (GDP/person). On the one hand, a large number of highly-educated people allows economic specialisation in jobs with high added value; on the other, a wealthier nation means improved opportunities for completing higher education.
The core funding for higher education has not increased in line with the rise in student numbers and added tasks.
Costs per student in Finland are down -13.5%
In other OECD countries, the costs are up +8.6%
Finland does not grow through machines alone, but through thought.
Akava’s solution
Companies should be supported to renew and hire experts
The business subsidy system should be reformed to strengthen company growth, renewal and RDI activities, and to promote intangible investments and the green transition. Preservation-oriented subsidies should be trimmed, the position of growth companies as subsidy recipients strengthened and the share of loans in the business subsidy system increased. A points-based model for business subsidies should be created to place more emphasis on projects that produce results and ideas with the potential to spread widely into other businesses, sectors, the entire innovation system or society rather than staying within the company.
Income tax progression should be eased to increase incentives for extra work, better work performance and career progress. The membership fees of labour market organisations must be tax-deductible in the future.
Finland’s appeal should be improved to attract and commit more international experts to Finland. It is essential to improve the preconditions for building a stable life, such as psychological safety, i.a., by creating a faster track for a permanent residence permit, for example, through the implementation of a points-based model to assess integration and competence potential.
Reasoning
Business subsidies can benefit society much more than they currently do if they are built and allocated in a new way.
The current business subsidy system does not nearly always promote the growth opportunities of the national economy or speed up corporate renewal, the creation of new ideas or RDI activities. Too often, the subsidies are granted to large and already profitable companies. By using different forms of subsidies in a versatile manner and assigning points to subsidised projects based on externalities we can improve the allocation of subsidies, which will benefit the entire society more broadly and provide an opportunity to save public funds.
Strict income tax progression destroys the incentives for work, education, career progress and the development of new ideas.
In Finland, income taxation gets strict fast at a relatively low income level, which weakens the desire to progress in one’s career, develop expertise and take on responsibility. Easing progression improves the incentives for work and entrepreneurship, supports the possibilities of companies to reward competence and sends a strong signal that Finland is a competitive operational environment for competence-intensive businesses.
Finland needs a stable and predictable immigration policy, so that people dare to build a life here.
The growth of the working-age population and economic success stories require immigration, but the current permit system breeds uncertainty that weakens commitment to Finland. A points-based fast track to a permanent residence permit would improve psychological safety, encourage integration and strengthen Finland’s ability to attract and above all commit international experts.
In 2024, companies were granted around EUR 1.1 billion in unconditional benefits. About half of that went to major corporations. During the same timeframe, loans granted amounted to EUR 300 million.
Source: Kuosmanen: business subsidies and the reform of business subsidy system, Akava Works
An increase of 10,000 persons per annum in work-based immigration would alleviate the financial pressure on the economy by around EUR 1.4 billion.
Source: Ministry of Finance’s sustainability calculations
Without experts, Finland will come to a halt. Think.
Working life and labour markets
Work is productive when responsibilities are clear, harmful loading is prevented and the quality of working life is secured. The productivity of work improves when co-operation is smooth, there is an atmosphere of trust in the workplace, and the organisation’s top management supports the possibilities of employees and work communities to utilise their full potential. Well-being at work, competence, equality, good leadership and functional labour markets make this possible.
Akava’s solution
The current Occupational Safety and Health Act should be specified and a new decree on psychosocial workload issued. The position and responsibilities of supervisors should be clarified and the grounds for a corporate fine strengthened.
Occupational safety and health legislation should be updated to correspond to changes in working life. An employer’s responsibility for the prevention and management of psychosocial workload must be specified. The decree should clarify what kinds of factors related to the content and organisation of work and the activities of the work community can cause loading. It should also define how these factors are monitored, assessed, processed and prevented.
The responsibilities and mandates of supervisors for occupational safety and health should be clarified in relation to the employer, and the sanction system for occupational safety and health reformed by strengthening the grounds for a corporate fine. A supervisor should not be held personally responsible if they have tried to act with care but the employer has not provided adequate resources or support. This will strengthen the legal protection of supervisors and the realisation of employer obligations.
Reasoning
Psychosocial workload refers to psychological and social factors present in the work, such as issues related to the nature of the work, work arrangements, interaction and the functionality of the work community, which may cause harmful loading or expose employees to adverse effects on health and wellbeing.
The increasing intensity of work, changes in working life and increased harmful psychosocial workload form a significant risk to health and work ability.
Psychosocial risks are just as serious as physical ones. The employer has a legal obligation to ensure that the work does not endanger the health of employees. Without detailed legislation and development of management, an increasing number of employees are at risk of a decline in work ability.
Job burnout risk groups
How much of a risk do you consider burnout to be in your work? (n=2002)
Clear regulation that defines which factors related to the nature of work, work arrangements and the functioning of the work community may cause loading supports the realisation of the employer’s obligation. In addition, systematic prevention and monitoring help to identify load factors before they lead to disability.
Occupational safety and health and wellbeing at work are the employer’s statutory obligations and the responsibility of the legal person. Clarifying the responsibilities improves the legal protection of supervisors, and strengthening the grounds for a corporate fine directs the organisation towards responsible operations.
According to research by Akava Works and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health:
10% of Finns suffer from probable job burnout
15–30% are struggling with a clearly heightened risk of job burnout.
How much harmful loading do the following factors cause in your work?
Akava’s solution
The increasing commonality of expert work should be recognised and work legislation amended to correspond to changes in the ways of working
The Act on Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement and Cooperation on Occupational Safety and Health at Workplaces should be amended to correspond to changes in working. The Act on Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement and Cooperation on Occupational Safety and Health at Workplaces should be specified as concerns agreement on remote work practices and an employee’s right to detach themselves from work duties and be digitally unreachable outside of working time. Guidelines concerning detachment from work duties and unreachability during leisure time should be agreed on as part of occupational safety and health cooperation.
The Workers’ Compensation Act should be expanded to include accidents that occur during remote work.
Reasoning
Remote work, hybrid work and multi-location work have become more common in Finland. Thanks to digitalisation, expert work, in particular, is increasingly less tied to location or time.
It is important for workplaces to find the modes of hybrid work that best suit the organisation. Within the workplace, the rules of remote work need to be discussed with the personnel and the best solutions need to be built together, so that the time and the place of doing the work serve and support both employer and employee, the work itself and its productivity and safety.
According to data from the mandatory labour force survey in EU countries, work is done at home relatively frequently in Finland and other Nordic countries. Eurostat publishes the share of persons working from home, with Finland ranking in the top five in the past years. Like in other Nordic countries, hybrid work is common in Finland.
Since the application of the Workers’ Compensation Act to remote work is highly subject to interpretation, the legislation should be specified to ensure the safety of remote work.
Akava’s solution
The position of fixed-term employees should be improved and pregnancy and family leave discrimination reduced and prevented
The Employment Contracts Act should be amended so that hiring a new employee for the first time on a fixed-term contract lasting no more than a year on the employer’s initiative without a justified reason would no longer be possible.
The Employment Contracts Act should be amended so that the employee is entitled to terminate a fixed-term contract of longer than six months.
Legislation should be strengthened so that fixed-term employment relationships include the possibility of developing competence during the relationship.
It should be ensured that pregnancy or family leave do not influence the terms of an employment relationship or its continuity. The law should be specified so that the taking of a pregnancy or family leave is not allowed to influence whether a fixed-term employment contract is made or its duration continued. A reversed burden of proof should be decreed for discrimination situations concerning fixed-term contracts and the return from family leave.
Employees returning from a family leave should be guaranteed increased protection against dismissal, the length of which is relative to the length of the family leave.
A 60-day earnings-related unemployment security, granted based on six months of employment, should be implemented.
In order to receive earnings-related unemployment allowance, an employee that has become unemployed currently has to meet a 12-month employment condition. In fixed-term employment and especially at the start of a career, meeting this condition is too demanding for many. Unemployment security could be improved by implementing a short-term earnings benefit that could be granted based on a shorter period of employment.
Reasoning
The share of employees in fixed-term employment relationships is higher in Finland than in several other EU countries. In Finland, the share is the fifth highest among the EU countries.
The impacts of unjustified fixed-term employment relationships on employment and the economy are small, but they have significant negative impacts on both the individual employee and the society as a whole. A long fixed-term employment relationship may prevent the employee from getting a new, permanent employment relationship. Information about a pregnancy may also influence the receipt of a new fixed-term contract.
Pregnancy and family leave discrimination is one of the most significant equality issues within the Finnish labour market. Such discrimination is especially prevalent in fixed-term employment relationships, and the problem has not been eliminated or alleviated despite the current prohibition on discrimination.
Family leave discrimination is a problem for both the employee and the labour market. Discrimination based on the use of a family leave lengthens periods of absence from the labour market, causes breaks in careers and weakens the income level. An employee returning from family leave should have increased protection against dismissal, as during pregnancy or family leave. The protection should be relative to the length of the family leave.
Discrimination should be decreased by reforming legislation. Current legislation does not provide adequate protection to pregnant employees or employees returning from family leave. Not everyone has the desire or courage to take even the clearest cases of discrimination forward. Legal remedies are slow, and employees dare not use them for fear of stigmatisation or hindering their employment or career progress.
Pregnancy discrimination in Finland
Experiences of pregnancy discrimination, fear or other negative issues related to pregnancy in connection with pregnancy or family leave, % of pregnant employees during 2012–2023 per current level of education. N = 5,436. Source: Pregnancy discrimination in Finland: Statistical survey 2024. Reports and Memorandums of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health 2024:20
Akava’s solution
Compensation for groundless termination of an employment contract should be increased to 6–30 months
The compensation payable to the employee for the groundless termination of an employment contract should be raised to 6–30 months. The compensation payable to a personnel representative should be raised correspondingly to 36 months.
Reasoning
Protection against dismissal on person-related grounds has been weakened and the uncertainty of working life has grown. The legal state as concerns a proper reason for termination will remain unclear for a long time.
In Finland, the compensation level for unjustified termination of an employment contract is, based on practice, too low and, as a result, its preventive impact limited. The sanctions for groundless termination of an employment contract are a part of an employee’s employment protection, protecting them against unjustified termination of employment.
When the threshold for person-related termination is lowered, the risk of unjustified terminations, erroneous interpretations of new regulation and discriminatory dismissals shrouded in other reasons increases. An adequately efficient compensation system works as a balancing legal protection measure that prevents abuse.
Raising the compensation for groundless termination of an employment contract, as specified in Chapter 12, Section 2 of the Employment Contracts Act, would strengthen the preventive impact of the regulation.
The proposed changes strengthen employees’ employment protection and position as the weaker party in an employment relationship and, thus, improve labour market balance.
Akava’s solution
The sanction system should be balanced as concerns compliance with general collective agreements. The compensatory fines for violating and neglecting the supervision of general collective agreements should be increased to the level that the Collective Agreements Act stipulates for violations of the industrial peace obligation.
The compensatory fines for an employer that violates and neglects the supervision of a general collective agreement should be raised to at most EUR 150,000, and a minimum level for the compensatory fine decreed at EUR 10,000. These changes would ensure the integrity of the sanction system and the balance between the social partners.
Reasoning
A balanced general collective agreement system is a whole in which the agreements genuinely bind both parties equally. The latest amendments to the sanction system have been unilateral, and the compensatory fines for violations of the industrial peace obligation have been raised significantly. When raising the compensatory fines for industrial peace violations, the employer party’s violations or neglect related to compliance with general collective agreements have not been considered.
The purpose of the compensatory fine is to enhance the compliance obligation of the employer and employer unions and to ensure that individual employers comply with the general collective agreement. If an employer violates the conditions of a general collective agreement, they may cause significant harm to a large group of employees.
A balanced general collective agreement system and sanctions maintain labour market stability and ensure the functionality of the agreement system.
Akava’s solution
Labour market stability should be improved and adequate income ensured during career breaks and retirement
The Act on Mediation in Labour Disputes and mediation activities should be reformed in three ways: by producing a better knowledge base, by strengthening the prerequisites for branch and sector-specific solutions and by increasing the resources of the National Conciliator’s Office.
Functional social security also safeguards the stability and functioning of the labour market.
The limiter on earnings-related allowance should be removed, so that the rate of compensation would be consistent and at least 45 per cent at practically all income levels.
The short and long-term situation of the earnings-related pensions scheme and development needs should be assessed based on preparation by the central labour market organisations. Matters concerning earnings-related pension policy should be prepared in collaboration with them.
The preparation by the central labour market organisations is based on a shared knowledge base and long-term perspective, expertise and financial responsibility.
Reasoning
The labour market is changing: agreement activities are becoming more decentralised, company-specific contracts more common and the negotiation system is diversifying. This has led to a situation where the mediation system is constantly at its limits and current legislation no longer meets labour market needs. The restrictions added to the Act on Mediation in Labour Disputes concerning the National Conciliator’s proposals stiffen the labour market and may politicise, in particular, the most difficult labour disputes.
In practise, the current mediation model relies on a general salary policy that serves as both the floor and the ceiling. This suppresses the needs of different industries and prevents consideration of their situations, outlooks and salary development. Labour disputes cannot be solved equally without shared, impartial and transparent financial information.
The National Conciliator’s Office needs an impartial financial unit that produces economic, salary and income development calculations on the entire economy and from different industries and sectors. Shared information increases transparency, reduces misunderstandings and promotes the finding of solutions before labour disputes heat up.
Different industries often have different economic situations, development views and salary challenges. Especially in predominantly female fields where salaries are lagging behind. The current mediation system does not facilitate consideration of these differences, because the general salary policy has turned into a mechanism that guides mediation proposals independent of branch-specific conditions.
The Act on Mediation in Labour Disputes should better take into account the situations of different industries and sectors, so that mediation corresponds to the reality of diversifying labour markets. Exceptions to the general policy should be allowed, for example, in order to promote equal pay or the availability of educated and competent labour.
