Even though, according to the Finnish Immigration Service statistics (2025), the number of foreigners coming to Finland had dropped in the year 2025, the Immigration Service received around 180000 applications, with 80000 applications made by women (Finnish Immigration Service, 2026). Although there is still a significant number of foreigners coming to Finland, the work-based permit applications have dropped significantly, by 25 %.
Moreover, female immigrants are more prone to apply for the residence permits due to family reasons, not career opportunities. Reports made in 2020 show that the employment rate of the third-country female migrants was only 41 %. Furthermore, according to the National Report of Finland (2022), immigrant women are progressing in their careers significantly slower than Finnish females or immigrant or Finnish men (EMN Study 2022). To improve the statistics and allow immigrant women to join the Finnish labor market, a project focusing on employment was created.
CeMeWE Project Manager Petrovic A. and CeMeWE Project Volunteer Viluma J. (Petrovic A.)
The CeMeWE project, Central Baltic Mentoring for Migrant Women seeking Employment, is a part of the Interreg Central Baltic Programme 2021-2027 that is co-funded by the European Union. Its main goal is to integrate immigrant women into the labor market by offering them various seminars and peer support groups. By offering both practical and theoretical knowledge, the project aims to educate the immigrant women on the process of joining the labor market. Some seminars, offered by the CeMeWE project, also target the improvement of professional skills and networking that would allow female refugees to boost their career journey. For instance, the “Personal Branding” seminar, organized as a part of the project activities, allowed immigrant women to learn about the ways social media allows an individual to be seen by a potential employer and encouraged participants to participate in networking. Apart from valuable skills, CeMeWE targets immigrant women who might not have any knowledge of the country’s official language, and some seminars also teach the basics of Finnish.
Career Development Event
To allow immigrant women to learn about the recruitment process, as a part of the CeMeWE project, Laurea University of Applied Science, in a partnership with Auroras Network, hosted a hybrid Career Development Event on January 29, 2026. Participants received valuable knowledge and feedback on the job application process and received advice on how to increase their chances of being chosen for the position.
To both motivate the participants and allow them to learn about the recruitment from the perspective of the recruiter, the main speaker at the event was Lena Belozerova. An immigrant woman, the founder of English HR Community in Helsinki and Head of People & Culture at Verda with 15 years of hands-on experience in HR and recruitment, shared valuable insights on how future employers rate the candidates for the role. The previous experience allowed her to share the non-obvious tips for the participants and motivate them to continue their career journey.
Theoretical Part of the Career Development Event (Petrovic 2026)
The first part of the event contained strictly theoretical knowledge. The seminar followed the presentation From Resume to Interview – The Recruiter’s View made by Lena Belozerova. It was stated that while the market in 2025 was overfilled with competition and lacked opportunities, it is estimated that the year 2026 will have more offers for the workforce. According to Lena, the highest demand is currently monitored in IT, Social, and Medical fields. Furthermore, such information is also supported by the Work in Finland website, which, by taking into account the statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Finland (2024), estimates that a similar figure is also seen in the environmental field. Furthermore, Lena Belozerova advised participants to search for open positions in international companies as well. According to the statistics of the Foreign Affiliates in Finland from 2021-2024, around 330000 people were employed by the foreign companies in Finland.
Additionally, the presentation of Lena Belozerova also consisted of useful advice for the participants. Firstly, as recruiters are able to see the number of applications, it is a good idea to choose only the most interesting positions. The smart application is not only the most convenient type of application, but also the one that preserves the time and energy of the future employee. Then, to ensure the attention of the recruiter, it is important to stay visible on social media as well. Frequent posts and use of keywords in the description of the profile allow companies to offer an applicant job offers in their respective fields. Furthermore, it was recommended to apply only if at least 70% of the CV fits the requirements. The 30 % of the experience that does not correspond to the job requirements could be learned through practice. Additionally, if the position does not provide the information on the salary, the applicant should name the sum they find appropriate taken the experience. It is also important to note that the recruiter makes a final decision on the applicant in the first 15 minutes. Thereby, the participants were advised to stay professional and charming throughout the interview.
Finally, the network was another important aspect mentioned in the seminar. Lena mentioned the so-called “Hidden job market”, which, according to Caroline Ceniza-Levine, refers to the jobs that are not published and can be accessed only through communication (Ceniza-Levine 2023). ”Such a labour market takes up to 60 % of the job offers,” stated Lena Belozerova. For this reason, the participants were highly advised to reach out to the companies directly and expand their network to the best of their abilities.
Practical Part of the Career Development Event (Petrovic A.)
After the theoretical part, the participants were invited to implement their theoretical knowledge in practice. As this seminar was attended internationally, participants who joined through the Zoom platform were also invited to take part in practical activities. By networking and sharing their struggles, participants were able to achieve a strong sense of belonging and motivation that allowed them to see their career journey from a different angle. Furthermore, the participants were divided into two groups: Finnish language group and English language group. While the English language group completed the tasks in English, the Finnish language group was offered a unique opportunity to improve their language and learn new professional terms.
To conclude, the Career Development event was one of the steps towards higher employment of immigrant women in the Finnish job market. By allowing participants to gain insights into how the recruitment process works from the perspective of the recruiter, this seminar became a unique opportunity for improving the CV and overall knowledge of the Finnish labour market.
This activity was supported as part of Project – Central Baltic Mentoring for Migrant Women seeking Employment – CeMeWE CB0100070, as Interreg Central Baltic Programme 2021-2027 project co-funded by the European Union.
Authors
- Antonina Petrovic (PhD, PM) is a social scientist who works at Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Senior RDI Specialist and Project Manager.
- Julita Viļuma is an IVY volunteer of the CeMeWE project at Laurea University of Applied Sciences.
References
