Ministerial working groups approve Talent Boost action programme

A ministerial working group on skills, education and innovation and a ministerial working group on promoting employment approved the interdepartmental Talent Boost action programme at meetings held on 16 June 2020. The aim of the action programme is to make Finland an internationally attractive place to work, study, research and pursue private enterprise, with a view to applying the expertise of international specialists to accelerate the growth, globalisation and regeneration of businesses and RDI.

The interdepartmental Talent Boost programme for specialist, worker, student and researcher immigration was launched in autumn 2019 to promote the objectives of the government programme. The action programme was prepared on a steering group chaired by the Permanent Secretaries of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Ministry of Education and Culture.

The aim of the action programme is to make Finland an internationally attractive place to work, study, research and pursue private enterprise, with a view to applying the expertise of international specialists to accelerate the growth, globalisation and regeneration of businesses and RDI. A further goal is for employers to be increasingly willing and able to recruit international talent. Accelerated and streamlined residence permit processing is a key element in promoting the Talent Boost action programme.

The priorities and measures of the programme allow for the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought an especially heightened need for skilled employees, students, researchers and start-up entrepreneurs in areas of labour demand and occupations requiring special skills.

Accelerated residence permit processing with roadmap work to begin in the autumn

The government programme includes a target of one month for the average processing time of work-based residence permits. In addition to this, the ministerial working groups have today approved proposals to reduce the processing times of residence permits issued to students and researchers to an average of one month. Shortening the residence permit process for students and researchers to an average target time of one month will make Finland more attractive to international students and researchers, promoting the recruitment and retention of these migrants in Finland and the efficiency of the Finnish labour market. A broad interdepartmental project to improve immigration legislation and permit procedures has been launched under the co-ordination of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

The ministerial working groups also decided to launch roadmap work on education and work-related immigration in autumn 2020. Immigration related to education and employment as a phenomenon is in need of a review and goal-setting that transcends the terms of office of successive governments. The roadmap will define the direction of desired progress in the longer term up to the year 2035. The aim is to complete the roadmap work in time for the government’s mid-term review. The starting points for the objectives and measures to be determined in the work are demographic and skills requirement forecasts and studies, together with key guidelines and processes related to immigration, education, research and innovation policy.

Inquiries:
Sonja Hämäläinen, Migration Director, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. +358 29 504 7112
Pipa Turvanen, Project Manager, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. +358 29 504 7226
Birgitta Vuorinen, Director, Ministry of Education and Culture, tel. +358 29 533 0335
Ulla Mäkeläinen, Counsellor of Education, Ministry of Education and Culture, tel. +358 29 533 0223