We were lucky to be able to visit Kenya and our partners during the last week of March. Our delegation consisted of representatives of TAKK, TAMK, Varala Sports Institute and Business Tampere. Together as a team from Tampere we can tailor the best possible education for our partner Counties. Our strength is that we see each other as partners, not competitors.
We signed agreements with Elgeyo-Marakwet County led by H.E Alex Tolgos on training Property Maintenance and Food Services professionals. Our first groups for these new openings will start towards the end of this year. It is vital that we have a constant dialogue with our Kenyan partners as well as our local industry representatives here in Finland. Our job is to tailor programs that fit the Finnish job market demands.
As Finnish institutes we are used to work life-based trainings that have a strong emphasis on practical skills. This enables us to offer programs that guarantee hardworking students’ jobs after graduation. As a small country with a declining working age population we cannot afford to train anyone to become unemployed. The Finnish ministry for interior affairs is putting more and more focus on work-based immigration (in Finnish). In our education export model, we can guarantee the work-life skills of graduates because they are trained by our professionals here in Finland.
As a part of our trip, we also met the parents of our current Kenyan students. The parents expressed their gratitude, and it seems like Finnish quality education is getting a wide and well-known reputation in Kenya! Some parents even proved that students are able to send money back home from the side jobs they are doing while studying. This shows the dedication of our Kenyan students. It is our job to keep Finland an attractive destination in the ever-increasing global market for professionals.
Peter Perttula
Director of International Partnerships
Read more about the cooperation between TAKK and Kenia (in Finnish).
