National Labour Market Training Week starts in mid-September

The National Labour Market Training Week will take place for the first time from 11 to 15 September. During the week, TE Offices around Finland organise trade fairs related to labour market training, open-door events at educational institutions providing labour market training and TE-live information broadcasts. The purpose of the labour market training week is to highlight the variety of labour market training on offer and to share information on what a great and flexible channel to employment labour market training is. The event is coordinated by the Southwest Finland TE Office in cooperation with the Uusimaa TE Office.

– The idea for the labour market training week emerged from the realisation that labour market training has earned its own big event. We thought it would be great to celebrate it all over Finland while the TE services still exist in their current form, says Eija Erlamo, who works as a specialist in event production at the TE Office of Southwest Finland (pictured in the foreground). She refers to the transfer of responsibility for organising employment services to local authorities in early 2025.

Labour market training is primarily aimed at persons who are over the age of 20 and unemployed, or at risk of unemployment, and who have completed compulsory education. In labour market training, you can complete a vocational upper secondary qualification or a further or specialist vocational qualification, or parts of them. Further and continuing education and entrepreneurial training are also available. 

Labour market training is organised to meet the needs

Labour market training is organised in sectors where there is a shortage of labour. There is regional variation in the need for labour in different sectors.

– One of the main areas suffering from labour shortages is the care sector. The situation is similar in the metal sector. The construction sector has also been in need of workforce for a long time, but the field is currently subject to cyclical fluctuations. This leads to, among other things, co-operation negotiations, says Satu Oja, who serves as an expert in the training services of the TE Office of Southwest Finland (in the background).

There is also a shortage of labour in the restaurant sector, but there are not enough applicants for labour market training in the field.

– The attractiveness of the sector faded as restaurants had to be closed during the coronavirus pandemic. The situation is also contradictory in that employers cannot afford to offer full-time hours to employees even if there is work available. In addition, the working hours in this sector are challenging, Oja lists the reasons for the shortage of applicants.

– TE Services and educational institutions organise labour market training on the basis of which sectors attract job seekers. In other words, training is not provided if there are not enough participants. This shows that labour market training is a highly adaptable form of education, Eija Erlamo adds.

However, training is always available in sectors with an apparent shortage of labour.

– It is also worth remembering Recruitment Training, which is one type of labour market training. In Recruitment Training, individual companies seek employees. It is a very applicable form of training in many different fields, Satu Oja points out.

How efficiently does labour market training lead to the employment of job seekers?

– Very efficiently. For example, about 80 per cent of those who participate in labour market training in the financial administration sector in our own region in Southwest Finland end up finding employment. We continuously monitor the number of people that find employment after training. If it appears that the effectiveness of some training is weaker, we begin to assess whether the training is worth organising at all, or in what way and how often would be the most profitable way to organise it, Oja explains.

It is advisable to actively follow training courses open for applications

Eija Erlamo feels that job seekers should be curious about labour market training.

– It may be slightly difficult to monitor the labour market situation in your own residential area. If you check what kind of labour market training is organised in your region, you will get an idea of which sectors are attractive in your area, in other words, what is worth studying.

Moreover, Satu Oja encourages people to acquaint themselves with labour market training organised outside their home municipality. It should also be noted that some of the training is only available online, which means that you can study anywhere in Finland.

– If you were not awarded a study place this year, it is worth remembering that there may be labour market training available in the field you are applying for. In certain labour market training programmes, you can complete an entire degree, for example, by continuing your studies in an apprenticeship after the actual labour market training. It is a good idea to check what kind of training is available on the TE Services website on a weekly basis, as the application period is short in some of the training programmes. You should also follow TE Offices’ YouTube channels, as they often contain information on labour market training, Oja explains.

You may also find yourself in a position in which you have not figured out which field to study. In such situations, participation in career coaching is a good option, as career coaching allows you to familiarise yourself with different fields of education and educational institutions.

High expectations

Since the spring, educational institutions providing labour market training have had the opportunity to plan what kind of events they wish to organise during the labour market training week with the TE Offices of their region.

– This is an outstanding opportunity for educational institutions to tell people about the training they offer. In addition, this is a fantastic chance to develop a completely new type of programme, and the organisers may also get new each ideas from each other for use in future events, Eija Erlamo points out, and says that she hopes that the labour market training week will become an annual event.

– Our expectations for the labour market training week are high. We hope that it will, for example, help us dispel the misconception that labour market training consists of some kind of generic labour market courses. Labour market training is a genuine form of education, in which you can, for example, update your competence or train in a completely new field. It is also a very quick way of entering the labour market. We have wanted to gain visibility for these matters for a long time already, says Satu Oja.

The National Labour Market Training Week will start on Monday 11 September with a national TE-live broadcast, which will be streamed from the TE Office of Ostrobothnia. It will provide answers to the most common questions about labour market training. Later in the week, different TE Offices will stream TE-live broadcasts focusing on the themes of local labour market training. For example, the broadcasts feature stories about persons who have completed labour market training.

You can find all the events of the National Labour Market Training Week on Google Maps. The information may be updated until the event starts. You can also find more information on the website of the TE Office of your region.

• Koko Suomen tapahtumat Valtakunnallisen työvoimakoulutusviikon aikana (google.com, in Finnish)
• Contact information (toimistot.te-palvelut.fi)

You can read more about labour market training at Job Market Finland. You can familiarise yourself with the labour market training courses open for applications on the TE Services website.

• Labour market training
• Haussa oleva työvoimakoulutus (koulutukset.te-palvelut.fi, in Finnish)