New Competence for SMEs
Sari Turunen-Zwinger Programme Manager EDUFI
10.5.2017
Introduction
• Aim of the project
• Investigate if SMEs utilise the competence of foreign HE and VET trainees and foreign graduates from Finnish HEIs? What are the benefits and challenges encountered by companies? Solutions found?
• Lower the threshold for SMEs to host international talents.
• Why?
• Most jobs are created at SMEs
• International students need job and traineeship opportunities
• International talents can help SMEs go international and grow
• What?
• Data collection via a survey to SMEs, interviews, workshops in spring and autumn 2016
• Outcomes
• A report of the project results
• Slidesets with project results and tools
• Videos with SME interviews: social media campaign
• A total of 386 SMEs responded to the survey conducted as part of the study.
• 32% of the respondents had hosted international talents: 64% had hosted foreign higher education students, 43% foreign VET students, and 7%
both.
• In most cases, the companies had hosted two students. Two larger companies had received up to 200 students.
• The most common period in which companies had hosted students was 2014-2016 (77%).
International
talents in SMEs?
43%
31%
29%
26%
32%
51%
Yes (N 125) 17%
No (N 196)
No, but we have had other
international employees (N 65)
Foreign HEI graduate recruited:
HEI student from abroad as a trainee:
Foreign HEI degree student as a trainee:
VET student from abroad for a work placement:
H as t h e co m p an y h o st ed f o r e ig n st u d en t s?
to ta l 64%
Compared to SMEs that had not hosted international talents, SMEs that had hosted them:
• Contain a higher share of growth- oriented and international companies.
• In almost all of the companies, English is one of the working languages.
• Also include a slightly higher share of older companies.
• Companies of all sizes have hosted students. The greatest numbers of students had been working in
companies with 5-49 employees.
• Almost all sectors were represented.
Mostly, the students had been working in the service, industrial, information and communication, and hotel and catering sector as well as in wholesale and retail companies.
0 % 1 0 0 %
0% 1 0 0 %
0% 1 0 0 %
0% 1 0 0 %
26 47
69 91
%
%
Pr o f ili n g o f r e sp o n d en t s:
The company has hosted international talents
The company has not hosted international talents
Share of companies with international operations
49 82
25 32
Share of strongly growth-oriented companies
One of the working languages is English
The company has also hosted a Finnish HE trainee / VET student on work placement
Companies with international talents:
Results: Why had the company hosted international talents?
2%
7%
9%
12%
23%
30%
33%
37%
40%
3%
5%
26%
12%
15%
43%
38%
25%
40%
We needed an employee for a branch located abroad Competence for international subcontracting Competence for import or export trade or for a new market area Competence for finding and managing intl. customers in Finland Competence for developing new products and/or services An extra pair of hands for productive work The student had special competence We wished to carry our corporate social responsibility A person’s international background does not matter
Higher education VET
Companies with international talents:
Results:
How did the company find the international talent?
35%
47%
30%
7% 7%
57%
28%
32%
26%
20%
The student contacted
the company directly Established cooperation with the education institution
The company was contacted by an educational institution
(no established cooperation)
We actively sought international talents for our company
We were contacted by some other network or
actor VET student Higher education student
Results: Benefits brought to companies by international talents by level of
education
Companies with international talents:
”The international talents managed their tasks just as well as our other employees”
95
”The international talent had a positive effect on our operating culture”
90
95 83
”The international talent brought new viewpoints to our company”
85 81
76 ”We improved our induction training” 88
Ex pe r ie nce o f be ne f it s % *
”We found growth opportunities in a new market area”
41 28
”The international talent helped us in establishing useful new contacts”
51 54
”The international talent brought a competitive advantage by contributing a new type of competence to our company”
77 100 63
% %
VET student Higher education
student
* Was ”useful to some extent” – ”extremely useful”
On the basis of data on the companies’ motives for hosting international talents, different profiles were modelled. These motives partly overlap.
• ”Aiming abroad” companies wanted to draw on the students’ skills to support their internationalisation.
• ”Talent hunters” often already are international companies, and the talent's background thus makes no difference. What matters is their competence and potential.
• ”Internationalisation at home” companies had hosted an international talent as an extra pair of hands, or maybe to strengthen their competence in serving foreign customers.
• ”Corporate social responsibility” companies hosted international talents when requested to do so as an
additional resource or to improve the employees’ linguistic and cultural skills.
Results: Companies’ motives for hosting international talents:
Companies with international talents:
Corporate social responsibility Aiming abroad
Talent hunters
Internationali- sation at home
Benefits brought by international talents to companies examined by
the company's motive:
Results:
Companies with international talents:
95 90
80 78
27 56 63
“Internationali- sation at
home”
“Corporate social responsibility”
93 82 89 82
50 25 57
”Aiming abroad”
96 96 88 96
81 81 100
97 88
52 69 91
” Talent Hunters”
100 100
”The international talents managed their tasks just as well as our other employees”
”The international talent had a positive effect on our operating culture”
”The international talent brought new viewpoints to our company”
”We improved our induction training”
”We found growth opportunities in a new market area”
”The international talent helped us establish useful new contacts”
”The international talent brought competitive advantage through new type of competence”
% %
Ex p e r ie n ce of b e n e f it s % *
* Was ”useful to some extent” – ”extremely useful”
Challenges experienced by companies
Average 1 (none) – 4 (very many)
• The most common
challenges encountered by companies that hosted foreign VET students for work placement were inadequate resources for guiding the student and the lack of a common language.
• For companies that hosted higher education students, inadequate resources for guiding the student and challenges arising from differences in working cultures were somewhat more common.
Companies with international talents:
Results:
1,7 1,7
1,6
1,5
1,4
1,3
Inadequate resources for
guidance
Lack of common language
Challenges arising from differences in work cultures
Challenges arising from
cultural differences
Difficulty in transferring competence
to others
Difficulty in integrating the intl. talent
in the work community
Companies with no international talents
Results: Companies with no international talents
• The most common reason for the companies not hosting international talents was that the companies and the
students had failed to meet, or the company had no need for trainees in general.
• Companies could need the additional
resources and special competence brought by an international talent in the future.
About one out of four believed that they could use international talents to support their internationalisation.
Intl. talents have not applied: 47 %
No need for trainees: 33 % The background of the student does not matter: 23 %
Insufficient language skills: 22 %
W h y n ot ho ste d in ter n ation al t alen ts?
N o t n ow , b u t m a yb e in t h e f u tu r e ?
Breakdown of “to support foreign trade or when entering a new market area”: companies with international operations 47%, with national operations 39% and with local operations 6%.
An extra pair of hands for productive work: 43 %
Special competence: 28 % To support internationalisation:
26 %
Results: What type of support is required from educational institutions?
All companies
• Companies would like more information about the
possibilities of hosting and benefitting from international talents
• Among companies that have hosted international talents, the ones that had hosted higher education students, in particular, appeared to have less need for support.
• Companies that have hosted foreign VET students have received more support from educational institutions.
26 %
18 %
19 %
W h a t t y p e o f su p p o r t w o u l d y o u n e ed f r o m e d u ca t io n a l in sti t u t io n s?
48 %
20 %
40 %
31 %
24 %
Company has hosted intl. talents Company has not hosted intl. talents More information about the possibilities of hosting students:
Support for language problems:
Support in charting suitable tasks:
Support in guiding the students:
Key messages to educational institutions
Better matches in recruitment
• Matching international talents with companies is based on knowing the persons. How can you facilitate this?
Information about possibilities
• Communicate about how international talents’ competence can be utilised.
• Market the benefits and make them visible.
Developing guidance and instruction
• Career guidance and linguistic studies should have closer links with everyday life.
• The students should have more capabilities for making their competence visible.
Business cooperation
• Operate as bridge-builders, listening to the companies: company visits,
invitations, fairs, recruitment meetings - there are many ways of doing this.
Companies are different, which should be taken into account in the cooperation.
