In a lobby at the Helsinki office of Startup Refugees, a group of international professionals is nervously laughing over a game of networking bingo and puzzling over the unwritten rules of networking in Finland: When is it okay to approach someone you don’t know? Are you being friendly, or interrupting their personal space? A few metres away, in a small meeting room, a software engineer from Ukraine and a data analyst from Nigeria are practising for their upcoming interviews together, listening to each other’s answers and offering feedback under the supervision of their career coach.

The scene captures a much bigger challenge: finding your place in a new labour market is not only about the skills you bring with you, but also about understanding the context, building confidence and connections, and having opportunities to put those skills to use. For many international professionals, building a career in Finland comes with a frustrating contradiction: you can have the education, experience and motivation to work and still find it difficult to get your foot in the door.

Qualifications are only a part of what opens opportunities. Understanding how recruitment works, being able to communicate your expertise in a way employers recognise, having professional networks and gaining that first experience in a Finnish working environment can make an enormous difference. For someone who has only recently arrived in the country, these are things that take time to build.

This is the gap that SkillUp Project, run by Startup Refugees is working to close. Saastamoinen Foundation granted the project 100 000 euros for the year 2026.

Building skills, confidence and connections

Startup Refugees has worked for over ten years to support refugees, asylum seekers and other international professionals in finding employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in Finland. Its work brings together jobseekers, employers and a network of partners, with a focus on practical routes into working life.

SkillUp builds on this experience. Launched in April 2026, the year-long project combines practical working-life skills training, digital learning, individually tailored career guidance and opportunities to build professional networks. Participants work with real job advertisements, develop their CVs and cover letters, learn about the rules and practices of Finnish working life and practise interviews and recruitment situations. Sector-specific and digital training helps participants develop skills relevant to their professional goals, while individual guidance allows the support to be adapted to each person’s situation.

In one recent digital training, 26 participants explored project management and agile methodologies, building practical knowledge relevant to both the workplace and their job search. In their feedback, participants highlighted concrete takeaways ranging from project management vocabulary and interview preparation to learning how to identify hidden job opportunities in Finland.

Other activities focus on questions that can be difficult to learn from a handbook: How do you talk about your previous experience in a Finnish recruitment process? What do employers expect in an interview? How do you even start a professional conversation when you do not yet have a network in Finland? Much of the learning happens between participants themselves: They practice together, share experiences and contacts, and meet others facing the same challenges.

Many participants already bring years of education, professional experience and expertise with them. SkillUp helps them recognise that expertise, communicate it in a new labour market and build the connections that can help turn existing skills into opportunities.

Encouraging early results

The SkillUp Project is still in its early stages. Launched in April 2026, it’s too soon to measure its long-term impact on employment, education and entrepreneurship. The first participant feedback, however, provides encouraging signs. Responses indicate a clear shift from uncertainty about Finnish working life and interview practices towards greater confidence and readiness to pursue new opportunities. 88.9% of respondents reported increased professional confidence, while participants rated the usefulness of the sessions an average of 9.3 out of 10.

Confidence may sound difficult to measure against something as concrete as finding a job, but it matters. Repeated job applications and rejections can make people question whether their previous education and/or experience is valued in a new labour market. Being able to identify your strengths, explain them clearly and approach employers with greater confidence is an important step towards moving forward.

The longer-term ambition of the project goes beyond individual outcomes. By helping people make use of skills and experience they already have, the project seeks to prevent long-term unemployment and social exclusion, support faster integration and contribute to a more diverse Finnish working life.

Creating opportunities, not only building skills

One lesson is already becoming increasingly clear: training and workshops alone are not enough.

International professionals may know what they can do and still lack the local networks, practical experience or employer contacts that would allow them to demonstrate it.

“Limited professional networks, language requirements, and employers’ hesitation to recognise international experience can create barriers not because of a lack of talent, but because accessing the right opportunities remains challenging,” says Arkan Aal-Owayef, Head of Business & Skills Development at Startup Refugees.

This is also a question of how well Finland recognises and makes use of the skills that are already here. When people with education and professional experience spend long periods outside working life, knowledge and potential remain unused. Creating access to networks, workplaces and practical experience can change that. One professional connection can lead to another introduction. A real project can give someone their first Finnish reference. A conversation with a mentor can provide insight into an industry that is difficult to gain from the outside.

“We meet skilled newcomers ready to contribute but end up waiting for their first break in Finland. When their expertise stays unused, Finland loses out on innovation and economic growth. But when we open doors to networks and practical experience, individuals gain confidence and independence, employers unlock vital talent, and our whole society gains a far stronger, more competitive workforce,” says Aicha Manai, Chief Executive Officer at Startup Refugees.

The support from Saastamoinen Foundation makes it possible to offer SkillUp free of charge and to combine digital learning with more resource-intensive forms of support, including individual guidance, workshops, recruitment practice and mentoring. It also creates continuity: instead of offering participants a single training session, SkillUp can support them through different stages, and it gives Startup Refugees room to adapt the programme as the team learns more about the barriers participants encounter in the labour market.

“For Saastamoinen Foundation, the project addresses a gap that is easy to describe but difficult to close: the distance between the skills people in the job market already have and the opportunities to use them. The SkillUp Project reaches people who fall outside existing services and does so in a way that serves both them and Finnish society,” says Kalvin Karttunen, Member of the Board of Saastamoinen Foundation.

From learning to practical experience

The next phase of SkillUp will take this approach further by placing an even stronger emphasis on professional networks and practical experience.

An upcoming IT mentoring programme will connect international technology professionals with experienced professionals working in Finland. Mentor-mentee pairs will have the opportunity to exchange knowledge, discuss Finnish working life and build a professional relationship over a longer period. Selected participants will also take part in a hackathon, where teams will work on real business challenges together with companies. Working on a real challenge allows participants to collaborate with others in a professional setting, show what they can contribute and build relationships that may continue after the programme itself.

SkillUp will also organise practical AI and digital skills workshops, focusing on how participants can use emerging tools effectively in their work and job search. Training on Finnish working life, recruitment practice and individual career guidance will continue throughout the project.

There is no single route into Finnish working life. For some participants, the next step may be a job; for others, further education, and for some entrepreneurship. SkillUp helps make those next steps possible, while ensuring that the experience and expertise people already bring with them are not overlooked along the way.