ProHarkka Etelä-Suomi - Ohjausvoimaa kieli- ja kulttuuritietoiseen harjoitteluun sote-alalla

Background and goals

ProHarkka Southern Finland - Guidance Power for Language and Culture-Aware Internships in the Social and Health Care Sector addresses the challenges of the social economy in cooperation with other ProHarkka projects. More traineeships are needed as the number of foreign-language trainees increases. The project will develop language-supported mentoring, which will increase the number of traineeships. The language and cultural competences of traineeship supervisors and teachers are variable and lacking; the project will provide an opportunity to update and develop these competences together with workplace supervisors. There are challenges in client and patient safe communication and information flow, which will be addressed through language-aware guidance and the development of a language learning environment.

Foreign language trainees face difficulties in finding employment. The project will develop guidance skills and ensure that traineeships run smoothly, thus supporting their employment and integration into the labour market of the welfare area. This will also address the labour shortage in the social and healthcare sector and increase regional vitality. There is insufficient national cooperation in the development of traineeships, which means that the results of the various projects are not used effectively. The ProHarkka Southern Finland project will provide coherence both at regional and national level in terms of access to, implementation and guidance of traineeships. In addition, the lack of a comprehensive network of experts and a coherent approach to the development of traineeships is a challenge. The project will intensify cooperation between higher education institutions and representatives of the world of work, coordinate cooperation between projects in different cooperation areas and describe a coherent approach for national use.

Objectives and benefits

The project aims to develop and strengthen the language and cultural competences of social and health care organisations and higher education institutions. By strengthening and consolidating guidance skills, organisations will be better placed to offer traineeships. In addition, the aim is to develop and consolidate a regional and national placement model that supports the learning and integration of foreign language students in the social and health fields. This will indirectly address labour shortages in the sector. The project also aims to strengthen cooperation between higher education institutions, welfare regions and other providers of social services, and to develop and share guidance skills in expert networks. The project will develop and describe a national approach.

Results

The concrete results of the project and their measurement will show the development of guidance skills, the effectiveness of training models and the intensification of cooperation. Three surveys of nursing teachers, placement supervisors and partners will provide quantitative information on the development of guidance skills and the effectiveness of placement models. The CALD measure provides qualitative feedback on the diversity of placements. The qualitative feedback collected from participants after the trainings and workshops will give an indication of their usefulness and effectiveness. The growth and occupancy rate of traineeships is monitored quantitatively through Jobiil, Workseed and the Peppi learning information system. The national model will be published in the final report of the project, on the website and on the open learning material website (AOE.fi).

Societal impact

The long-term effects will be improved access to internships for foreign language students, improved Finnish language learning, improved customer and patient safety, improved guidance skills and diversity in the workplace, and the embedding of a nationally coherent model. Workplaces will be more willing to accept foreign language students, which will increase the number of traineeships and smooth the progress of studies. Students will receive systematic language support during their traineeships, which will accelerate their language development and improve patient and client safety. Work communities will be provided with concrete tools for language and culture-aware supervision, which will increase the capacity of supervisors and work communities to deal with multicultural and multilingual staff. The national model developed in the project will become a permanent part of the structures of the social care training and will support cooperation between universities and workplaces in the long term.

The effectiveness of the project will be evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively. The qualitative evaluation will include the development of supervisors' skills and attitudes, as well as practical changes in work communities. The quantitative evaluation will cover the development of placements and the number of foreign language students, the training and use of tools by supervisors, the development of language skills of students, and the development of employment and the availability of the health and social workforce.