New opportunities for rewarding alumni co-operation

Last week we celebrated the opening of the academic year. What a great day and feeling – we are welcoming new and older students back to Arcada and once again the campus is full of enthusiastic students.

This fall the programme director for our nursing programme, Pamela Gray, is introducing a new course for international students on diversity and inclusion. This course is a working-life project. The goal is for students to get a better insight into the Finnish working life and culture, which in turn will lead to better integration in Finnish society and better prepare those who aim for professional careers here. I’ve had the opportunity to participate in the development of the course, and I’m excited for the students to get going and to see the results and find out how the students experienced it later this fall.

Preparing international students for the Finnish labour market is an ongoing effort at Arcada. We’ve e.g. made videos that support students in their job-hunting, continue to spread information about Finnish working life and also offer opportunities for job shadowing. Oh yes, the videos! Last academic year I was involved in a course for introduction to media production, where students made videos on how to apply for a job in Finland (External link).

If you as an alumni would like to support the students who signed up for the course on diversity and inclusion, e.g. if you would like to offer a student an opportunity to follow you at work for half a day or so, do contact me. This is a great way for students to learn about Finnish working life. Within this course, there will also be a Nursing day – where e.g. alumni come back to Arcada and share their stories with the students. During Nursing day students, both international and Swedish-Finnish, will be networking and getting better acquainted. I’m sure this will give our students new understanding of different cultures, as it has done for example within the degree programmes in business at Arcada, where this kind of interaction has been a successfully part of the studies already for a couple of years. The business-student community has grown stronger after their change in the study plan. These kinds of activities offer many great opportunities to learn about each other and getting new friends.

I also want to remind you that you can be part of the education or courses at Arcada and support our students – you are an important role model for our students. You can offer them support in many different ways that benefit both you and the students. Do you have a need for research in your organization? You can offer a project within a course or a commissioned thesis work. Would you like to develop new ideas? Or do you have a need for a trainee? Would you like to share your story or knowledge among students? We are always happy to invite you back as a guest lecturer. There are different ways you can co-operate with Arcada, reach out to us and we can discuss your needs and different opportunities for co-operating. These external projects are highly appreciated and motivating for our students. You can always get in touch via alumn@arcada.fi to find out more.

We also want to invite you back to Arcada. During this fall, there will be several alumni events within different fields – and we are happy to invite you to events like Arcada Masters School proudly presents: Anssi Tuulenmäki – Licence to act differently (External link) on 11.10.2017 from 16.00–18.00 as an after work event. Do reserve the date – you do not want to miss this opportunity! We will get back to you with an invitation soon.

Have a great week!

/Mia

Alumni coordinator