STUDY IN ESTONIA BROUGHT TOGETHER INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND EMPLOYERS

For the first time, as a new project, Study in Estonia brought together foreign students studying in Estonian universities and employers for the INTERNATIONAL STUDENT JOB DAY. The full day event took place on Tuesday, 19th of November at Tallinn University of Technology and offered different info-sessions and discussions for the participating companies, employers, university staff and international students. In addition, Job Market took place creating an excellent platform for students and employers to exchange information and to look into the working possibilities.

The INTERNATIONAL STUDENT JOB DAY was carried out in three parallel parts: the first focusing on foreign students to give them an overview of the working environment in Estonia, different laws and regulations related to working (presentation was given by Estonian Police and Border Guard Board) and to give the students some practical advice and tips about finding work in Estonia. Very popular were the presentations by Tiit Paananen, the former Head of Skype in Estonia and Ragnar Sass, Co-Founder of the successful start-up Pipedrive, who both gave inspiring lectures and brought out some amazing success stories encouraging the students to be entrepreneurial and active when planning their career in Estonia.

The second part of the INTERNATIONAL STUDENT JOB DAY concentrated on employers and gave an overview of different topics related to foreign workforce and hiring international staff members: laws and regulations, tax system, working with multicultural teams, advantages of international employees were just some of the themes discussed. In addition, best practices were shared by companies who already have foreigners working.

Thirdly, there were different companies presented at the Job Market to introduce their organizations and available positions. All students could make direct contact with the companies to explore the working possibilities and get answers to their questions. Discussions continued at the World Café where international students, employers, career counsellors and all interested participants could exchange their ideas and experiences. The World Café created an excellent platform for the inclusion of all parties and helped to raise the awareness of different expectations, problems and practices related to international students working in Estonia.

“It is natural, I think, in today’s world to have foreigners working in our companies”, commented Kiira Kure from HireRight, when asked about the need for such event, “We must look around, we are living in a globalizing world. Not only do we lack people in certain fields in Estonia and are in the need for more qualified workforce, but we also need different knowledge, people with different background and new viewpoints to be successful in the changing environment. And who could fulfill these needs better than international students – educated in Estonia and already familiar with our environment, people and culture?”. Kiira Kure from HireRight also participated at the Job Market, like number of other companies, and collected tens of contacts of international students interested in working with them.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT JOB DAY was organized for the first time by Study in Estonia (Archimedes Foundation), but the intention is to make such event a tradition and focus more on the international students work and internship themes.

22 Nov 2013