The project runs from 2021 to 2023. It establishes a collaboration network to provide on-the-job training periods and study opportunities for Finnish higher education students of social and health care services in the administrative areas for Finnish in Sweden and the bilingual Swedish-speaking municipalities in Finland.
The focus is on public sector organisations offering social and health care services, which provide a practical setting for a meaningful interaction between students, Swedish-speaking Finns and Sweden Finns. The aim is to strengthen the participants’ cultural awareness and language and communication skills in both Swedish and Finnish. Moreover, the project aims at improving and ensuring the patient’s (or the client’s) right to use their own language in Swedish and Finnish, which has a significant impact on their experience of the treatment and services provided as well as patient safety and healing. It ensures other rights, such as the patient’s right of self-determination and the right of access to information and medical care, too.
The project produces
- on-the-job training periods
- innovation project studies
- final year projects
- learning assignments
- elective study modules
These activities aim to increase mobility within higher education in the Nordics.
Project results
The expected results are as follows:
- The students will improve their language, communication, culture and presentation skills and they will have authentic opportunities to use and practice Swedish language, communication and culture skills.
- The project provides new ways of learning language, culture and communication skills as well as learning assignments.
- The patient (or the client) has better opportunities to use their own language in Sweden and Finland, which has a significant impact on their experiences of the treatment and services provided as well as patient safety and healing.
- The student and social and health care professional will better understand the patient’s (or the client’s) right to use their own language, the right of self-determination and the right of access to information and medical care in Finnish and Swedish.
- The threshold level for using the patient’s first language (i.e., Swedish and Finnish) and working in the Nordic countries will become lower.
- The students will gain insight into how the social and health care services are organised in Sweden.
- The participants of the project in the Gävle Municipality and other Sweden Finns will have authentic opportunities to use and practise Finnish.
- The Swedish-speaking social and health care professionals in the administrative areas for Finnish in Sweden will have an insight into working and living in another language than one’s own first language.
- The participants of the project in the Gävle Municipality will get up-to-date information on the current trends and studies of social and health care services, and they will update their Finnish language skills and field-related vocabularies.
- The Finnish Institute in Stockholm promotes and implements the co-operation between Sweden and
Finland by supporting and developing various networks among universities of applied sciences and
organisations in both countries. During the project, the Finnish Institute in Stockholm will introduce their
programme, activities and premises to create and maintain new co-operation opportunities. - A new collaboration network for the teachers and students of the Metropolia UAS will be established
during the project. Other Finnish universities of applied sciences and administrative areas for Finnish in
Sweden may utilise it as well. - The Finnish Institute in Stockholm updates the homepage of the project and commits to updating and
maintaining the homepage once the project has ended. - The Finnish Institute in Stockholm is going to arrange the End of Project Seminar.
All activities and results will be utilised in future/follow-up initiatives once the project has ended.
Project Partners
A two-year project is jointly implemented by
- Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland)
- Gävle Municipality (Sweden)
- Finnish Institute in Stockholm (Sweden)
The organisational sustainability of the collaboration network is ensured by following the principles of testing and continuous improvement during the project’s implementation.
Contact information
Katja Hämäläinen,
project manager
katja.k.hamalainen [at] metropolia.fi (katja[dot]k[dot]hamalainen[at]metropolia[dot]fi)