NETWORKING AND MULTICULTURAL GUIDANCE SERVICES A challenge for counsellors and their organisations IAEVG Conference Jyväskylä, FINLAND Sauli Puukari & Matti Taajamo

Results of a Finnish ESF project  Project: The Multiprofessional Cooperation to Support the Integration of Immigrant into Working Life The project was a sub-project in CHANCES project coordinated by the Finnish National Board of Education Type of project: research and development Aims: Together with local and regional authorities the project aimed at developing multi- professional cooperation based on networking to support the integration of immigrants into working life

Interviews:  Various groups of people working with immigrants: guidance and counselling, questions concerning immigration and immigrants.  Topics: Need for information on intercultural education Good practices of immigration work Regional networking

Reflection Planning of the training (contents and pedagogy) Planning of the training (contents and pedagogy) Feedback gathered at the end of training sessions Research interviews (main data) Research interviews (main data) Reflection Observation Research dataIn-service training In-service training sessions Synthesis of the results Further development of the in-service training

Results related to communication and encountering  Aiming at equity between the counsellor and counsellee  The importance of dialogue in counselling relationship  Culture-sensitive knowledge makes the encounter easier

Results related to communication and encountering  ”The one who does the job must first have the right attitude for it, so that he/she meets people as persons, even if they were from anywhere from the world, and works for students, so that he/she sees their opportunities. When working in a group with different ethnicities there can be many different kinds of people, and there might be political and historical tensions. So for functionality of the group an athmosphere of respect must be established.” (Careers guidance teacher for immigrants, Technical College, Kotka, Finland)

Results related to integration  The teacher has a great responsibility in enhancing integration  Learning Finnish language is important  Questions related to sufficient personal resources and resilience

Results related to integration  ”I believe that differentiating is the thing/key for the classroom. For that we need the tools. … So then, in the teaching and learning huge amount of energy is required, when the students/pupils represent different nationalities and languages.” (Teacher, immigration coordinator, Kotka)

Results related to experienced challenges in working with immigrants  Financial resources are not stable  Both Finns and immigrants need to develop more positive attitudes  Networking between different professionals is crucial  We must make certain that transitions in students’ learning path are smooth

Results related to experienced challenges in working with immigrants  ”The starting point is that they are unemployed, seeking for work with [the help of] employment office. From there with the assistance of employment office staff they apply to courses. We have solid cooperation with the employment staff from the student selection (to the course) to the end of the course.” (Careers guidance teacher for immigrants, Technical College, Kotka, Finland)

Co-operation and networking  No author can alone respond to customers’ need  Problem areas relate to the sufficiency, flow and coordination of information  Multiprofessional and cross-sectoral/cross- departmental co-operation is the solution

The most important observations regarding the challenges experiences in working with immigrants among the participants in in-service training The experienced challenge the levels covered by the experienced challenges The intensity of the experienced challenge The need to develop multicultural counselling competences Individual, organisational, local, and regional levels Great or medium The need to develop cultural knowledge Individual, organisational, and local levels Great or medium Development of decision making and allocation of resources Organisational, local, and regional levels Great

The most important observations regarding the challenges experiences in working with immigrants among the participants in in-service training The experienced challenge the levels covered by the experienced challenges The intensity of the experienced challenge Coordination of multiprofessional collaboration Organisational, local, regional level, and national levels Great Development of multiprofessional working culture and approaches Individual, organisational, local, and regional levels Great or medium Recognition of the significance of immigrant work within one’s own organisation Individual, and organisational levels Great or medium

Discussion  The role of leadership is important in developing guidance and counselling services for immigrants!  More attention should be paid to integrating also leaders in development project, not just people who work directly with immigrants  One solution: In-service training which involves all key groups – including leaders - in developing guidance and counselling services

Discussion  Although the need for multiprofessional collaboration is widely acknowledged, too little attention has been paid to systematic development of appropriate approaches and leadership  Leaders from collaborating organisations at local and regional levels should have regular meetings in order to find ways how they could enhance and support multiprofessional collaboration

Discussion  Leaders should familiarize themselves with the everyday guidance and counselling work in order to undertand the needs and requirements of counsellors and other professionals working with immigrants  Counsellors and other professionals should provide the leaders with sufficient information on the situation in their field- work and negotiate about how to ensure good quality in guidance provision

Discussion  Summa summarum: better connections between the management level and field workers as well as between different organisations at local and regional level are needed in order to provide immigrants with good guidance and counselling services

HAVE A NICE SUMMER TIME!