INGENIUM brings international expertise to South-Eastern Finland

The INGENIUM project was launched in 2023 and has since progressed rapidly in its key areas, i.e., pedagogical innovations, entrepreneurship, inclusiveness, and sustainability. Xamk oversees an important work package focused on developing innovative pedagogy and lifelong learning.

INGENIUM has formed an extensive community with 14,300 employees and 170,000 students, offering ample opportunities for teachers, researchers, and other specialists alike to network. This also includes students, who are actively involved in INGENIUM’s development work and events and even have their own steering group consisting entirely of students.

According to Xamk’s INGENIUM Project Director, Eeva Kuoppala, various partners from the Kymenlaakso and South Savo regions were also involved in the INGENIUM cooperation.

“Our regional partners contribute to INGENIUM’s activities by, for example, offering real-life development challenges for students and through our regional steering group.”

More international visibility and new expertise in the region

Minna Malja is the Executive Director of Kymenlaakso Higher Education Society, an association focused on strengthening the research, development, and innovation activities in Kymenlaakso. According to Malja, active international cooperation is highly beneficial for the region, as evidenced by the work done by the steering group.

“Xamk’s part in INGENIUM has been successful and beneficial for the development of education. I believe there is also a wider need for our pedagogical expertise and educational development. Our social innovations, such as new teaching initiatives and tested learning methods, could also be export products.”

Anne Kokkonen, Manager of Regional Development at South Savo Regional Council, explains that regional councils work in close cooperation with municipalities, higher education institutions, companies, and organisations to develop the local region and plan for the future. As the importance of international cooperation, networks, and projects in their work has increased in recent years, regional councils put increasing emphasis on improving the possibilities for internationalisation in their regions.

“INGENIUM promotes South Savo’s international visibility and recognition, increasing our possibilities for bringing new international expertise to the region. In the best-case scenario, thanks to this increased mobility, companies in our region will be able to hire international, skilled professionals more easily than before. And that is just one of the many beneficial opportunities this international network can offer to our regional partners.”

Minna Malja also agrees that local regions will need more and more international professionals in the future.

“Student and staff exchange are essential for our region. We can easily showcase what Finland has to offer by increasing the number of incoming exchange students and organising events such as 10 Days of INGENIUM. Perhaps some of these students will return here to work and develop our country!”

According to the Skills Pulse, a survey on skills needs conducted by the Technology Industries of Finland, the technology sector alone will need more professionals from abroad in the coming years, as the domestic workforce supply is insufficient to meet the field’s demands.

“According to the survey, nearly 90% of companies were interested in hiring international employees. Similar results also came up in the employment survey conducted by the Finland Chamber of Commerce,” says Malja.

Achieving regional goals requires internationalisation

In the summer of 2023, South Savo became the first region in Finland to draft a regional RDI roadmap, published by the South Savo Regional Council as a result of extensive cooperation. The main goal outlined in the roadmap is to increase RDI expenditure to 4% of the gross domestic product by 2030. The roadmap especially emphasises the need to increase business-driven RDI activities.

“To achieve our goals, there is no question that South Savo will need cooperation with national higher education institutions as well as diverse international cooperation, and INGENIUM is a shining example of the latter. INGENIUM has strong potential to boost international RDI activities in our region by offering a new platform for them, which can help us reach the goals laid out in the RDI roadmap,” says Kokkonen.

For a recent publication of theirs, Minna Malja, together with Paula Rissanen, examined various strategies and plans concerning the region of Kymenlaakso from the state to the municipal level. They noticed that internationality was rarely mentioned.

“The region could really benefit from any projects and activities aiming at international cooperation,” says Malja.

More information · More about INGENIUM on Xamk’s website and INGENIUM’s website