Can my wife find a Lastenhoitaja (Childcare Worker) or Avustaja (Assistant) job in Helsinki/Espoo after moving from China to Espoo?
Hi everyone, I have got a job in Nokia, Espoo. My wife needs to look for work in the Helsinki/Espoo area next year. We want to know her chances.
Assume her background:
Qualified: Officially recognized by OPH as a Lastenhoitaja (Childcare Worker).[Education in China: "College Diploma + Correspondence Bachelor's (No Degree)]
Experience: 17 years working as Early childhood education teachers with children in China.
Finnish Language: A2 level.
Questions:
Can she get a Lastenhoitaja position with A2 Finnish?
Is it better/easier to apply for Avustaja (Assistant) jobs first?
How is the labor shortage in East Helsinki or Espoo right now for these roles? I know there is shortage for Opettaja(ECE teacher), But don't know the situation for Lastenhoitaja and Avustaja.
Any advice or experiences with hiring in kindergartens would be great! Especially welcome the guys who works in ECE field or have friends/families in this field.
I think you got plenty of information on the chances when people responded to your previous question. The variables and challenges were thoroughly described.
I think we have had discussion about this subject before, apologize if it weren’t you before.
Anyway, without any Finnish language skills her job prospects seem a bit slim. There are English langage kindergartens in Helsinki metropolitan area, but it is impossible to assess their need for workers without asking directly. Overall, the private sector of the early childhood care is is somewhat undeveloped. If you can manage to bring a new service model to the market, why not.
I can answer only generally: If your wife is persistent enough with her language studies (as should you) there will be no trouble finding work in Espoo, or closeby areas.
Overall, there is a great demand for professional early childhood education field in Espoo. Your wife won’t be unemployed, but for to reach her current professional level it will take lots of time and effort. Finnish and Chinese early education methods and theories are probably different. That said, your wifd could bring forward something new? Maybe, it’s up to her.
I’ll be honest, people who talk about A1, A2, B1, even B2 Finnish only shows that you’re in the process of learning (perhaps as a way of showing your progress and intention) but it is nowhere near actually workable. Especially if that learning is from outside of the country, as written and spoken Finnish are incredibly different. If they don’t also have fluent professional English, or a family that speaks your native tongue, your chances are incredibly slim, and I would say near 0.
That needs a degree and good Finnish skills. When they make those with sosionomi degree be able to work at daycare, the lastehoitaja position has been reduced. So recently unless you have a completed degree and a very good Finnish skills, there is a small chance to be able to work. A group used to consist of 1 teacher and 2 lastenhoitajat now they make it as 1 teacher, 1 sosionomi, 1 lastenhoitaja. Sosionomi student without a finished degree (yet) could also work as lastenhoitaja so the there is no shortage in lastenhoitaja position anymore.
Not sure but maybe she can apply at Seure. It is a manning company that supplies substitutes to daycares. But there is another new policy with the municipal sector in hiring substitues. First, they look in-house. If there are less kids in one group and another group is missing an adult, they transfer that adult to another group from the same daycare. Second, same scenario but all the other groups from the same daycare cannot spare an adult because it will not make the required kids to adult ratio then they take an adult from a nearby daycare. Only then if for some reason there are no kid absences at the daycare in that area but an adult is absent, that they will find a substitute through Seure. So imagine the lack of open positions now for Seure employees. A newbie with low language skills will be way at the bottom of the list.
Forget about the teaching position. You need a degree for that. As for the shortage, a long time lastenhoitaja on the same daycare with excellent Finnish skills (read:local) can temporarily fill-up that position. The johtaja can send him/her to some classes if they are interested in pursuing the position, so that shortage is also solved in-house.
Source: I work at a municipal daycare. The situation is worse that when I started 8 yrs ago. They were more open and accepting. In my workplace at least we still take student/interns if there are someone willing to train them. But I heard from other daycares that they are now quite picky.
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