Viisi vuotta työelämässä – five years in working life
is a report produced in 2006 by the national network of academic career and recruiting services engaged in monitoring early work careers and employability of new graduates. Some 4 500 graduates from the year 2000 answered the survey, with 570 University of Jyväskylä students. Their main message to today’s students was to focus particular efforts on building solid skills in both mother tongue and foreign language communication competence and on internationalization. Their experience of working life has been that some of the main language-related skills needed in the workplace are problem-solving skills, team working skills and social skills, presentation skills, and mother tongue communication skills, as well as well-developed ICT and information management skills and ability to work independently. It is worth keeping in mind here that almost 60 % of these graduates work in the public sector, although there are naturally differences between different fields.
(Source: Korhonen, Päivi & Juha Sainio 2006. Viisi vuotta työelämässä. Monialayliopistoista vuonna 2000 valmistuneiden sijoittuminen työmarkkinoille. Helsinki: Aarresaari 2006)
A survey done at the University of Helsinki Language Centre
in 2005 on what kind of foreign language skills are needed in the workplace indicated that the foreign languages used at work include at least English, Swedish/Finnish, German, French, Spanish and Russian. The main findings are that excellent mother tongue skills (presentations and writing) as well as good foreign language skills for both interaction and writing are needed. Particularly mentioned were negotiation and team working skills, as well as writing various kinds of documents and proposals. Moreover, cultural skills are important, as is confidence in participating in interaction and in giving presentations.
(Source: Lehtonen Tuula & Sinikka Karjalainen 2006. Good foreign language skills and the workplace. Paper presented at the Cercles 2006 conference in Frankfurt and der Oder)
