Finland has received lots of attention for its ambitious goals to harness AI and its applications - including its implications for the future of work. The government’s AI strategy (launched in 2017) has been setting the stage for new initiatives committed to making the country a front-runner in artificial intelligence.

In many countries, the private sector drives innovation, but in Finland, the public sector goes head to head with private technology. The Finnish public sector is developing the virtual assistant, Aurora, that will create a platform for people to seamlessly connect with public and private service providers such as employment agencies and healthcare professionals. Users will be able to monitor the relevance of their skills, when these need updating, and receive support to apply for jobs. Another initiative, the ‘Elements of AI’ free online course, has attracted tens of thousands of participants all over the world and is set to become the most popular course in the history of the University of Helsinki.

It comes as no surprise then that the European Commission ranked Finland as the most digitally advanced nation in Europe last year, in its annual Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), marking the first time the country claims the top spot. This index captures the number of internet users, citizens with basic digital skills, the supply of ICT professionals and STEM graduates. Overall, adult participation in learning is one of the highest in the EU and has increased consecutively during the last ten years. According to The Education and Training Monitor 2017, Finnish adults are one the most dedicated learners in the EU with the score 27,4% in 2017 (EU average 10,9%).

Despite all this, the supply of talent with the right technical skills is behind demand as in many other high-tech countries.  Finnish companies are forced to hire candidates from abroad in many instances, simply because the tech sector in Finland is bigger, and growing faster, than the talent supply.  But last spring, the government proposed allocating an additional 60 million Euros in its budget for skilling the labour force, with a special focus on digital skills. And according to a recent report from the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, almost 20 billion Euros public and private funds were directed to the development of skills and education in Finland in 2017.

This is all great news if you want to be a Developer, Data Scientist, DevOps, Qlikview or programmer in another hot technology. Not only does everyone want to help you succeed, but there are free resources available to help get you started.  Plus, if you live in Finland – it won’t matter what gender you are when it comes time to get a job.  According to the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Gender Gap Report 2020, Finland is the 3rd most equal in terms of gender equality in terms of hiring and pay.

So with the government pursing AI, a nation dedicated to learning, a big budget for skilling the labour force with digital skills and a culture of equality – well, it is safe to say Finland seems to be leading the game in all the right ways.

Hats off to Finland.  Or should we say keyboards up? 😊

For more information on tech jobs in Finland, please get in touch at katja.dolan@oliverparks.com

About Oliver Parks

Oliver Parks offers search-based recruitment solutions to the technology sector, specialising in the ERP, CRM, CMS, ECM, BI and Open Source Technology spaces. The firm’s multilingual consultants operate in narrowly-defined niche market segments, enabling them to gain extensive knowledge of the people and companies operating in each technology.  Oliver Parks has a proven track-record with more than 100,000 candidates worldwide and more than 300 clients globally.