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Information for those who work in customer service

People working in customer service meet immigrants in person, online or by phone. The time they can spend with a customer is often short. They can use interpretation services, plain language and versatile materials during the short encounter. You should keep the steps of face-to-face customer service in mind.
 

 

Interpretation and translation According to the Act on the Promotion of Immigrant Integration, authorities must ensure interpretation and translation services when needed. Customer service people must make sure that the customer understand matters related to them.
InfoFinland.fi InfoFinland is a multi-lingual website providing important information in one place for those planning to migrate to Finland or already living here. The website also serves the authorities in the dissemination of multi-lingual information.
Integration in Swedish The Act on the Promotion of Immigrant Integration gives immigrants the right to choose Swedish or Finnish as their primary integration language.
Plain language Materials written in a clear and plain manner are a good tool at the early stages of language learning when the person’s Finnish skills are not sufficient for understanding communications by authorities.
Multilingual materials Multilingual materials related to Finnish society and culture help integration. You can also use the materials in customer service and guidance.
Identifying and preventing harmful practices Customer service people should be aware of and identify harmful practices, such as human trafficking, close relation, “honour”-related violence and female genital mutilation.

News for those working at customer service

null Partnership platform – a workspace for integration and refugee reception experts to go online today!

Partnership platform – a workspace for integration and refugee reception experts to go online today!

Publication date 2.12.2021 9.00
News item

The Partnership platform is an interactive, digital and communal platform for operators, experts, stakeholders and networks involved in integration, immigration and reception of refugees. The platform will open as a beta version to users on Thursday 2 December 2021. Register for the platform and join the Partnership platform community!

The aim of the Partnership platform is to provide a neutral, safe and free space for all those involved in integration and reception of refugees. The platform will facilitate cooperation, exchange of information and networking around a specific topic, region or event. 

The workspace is a closed extranet site that at the beta stage consists of workspaces, contact person search and user profiles. It is our hope that hundreds of registered members from all over Finland will join the platform!

Partnership platform is a safe community requiring registration

Access to the platform is permitted only to registered users, which the platform administrators must approve beforehand. Approval can take 1–5 working days. However, the waiting period can be longer immediately following the launch of the platform. We will send login details to all registered users in due time.

Registration is easy and fast, and due to the user approval by the administrators, operating on the platform is safe. The users are also approved separately for the platform’s workspaces, which increases the safety of the platform. However, the Partnership platform should not be used for sharing classified or secret material. 

We recommend that you register on the platform primarily with your work email address. That will speed up the approval by the administrators and promote the platform’s functionality in your search of cooperation partners, for example. After registration, you can log in to the Partnership platform using your Google (Gmail) details, for example, if your email address used for those services matches the one used in registration. 

Registration and access to the platform is available to those involved in integration, refugee reception and immigration; experts encountering immigrants in their work; persons participating in various working groups on integration, refugee reception and immigration; and active volunteers. In order to maintain safety and professional approach, access to the platform is selective.

Before registering, please see the ‘Information about the service’ page for terms of use and instructions for the platform. Register for the platform at kumppanuusalusta.kotoutuminen.fi.

Confirming your registration may give an error message: "Failed to verify your registration request. Your registration request has already been confirmed or the address is invalid." You don't have to worry about this error message. It is a known technical problem. If you do not receive the password message within 7 working days of receiving the error message, please contact us at [email protected].

After registration to the Partnership platform, you can:

  • create workspaces for discussing, sharing and processing files and other materials
  • look for operators or partners in your region by using the contact person search by region or topic
  • engage in networking or create new networks

Development of the platform will continue in 2022

The Partnership platform has been published as a beta version and its development will continue next year. Because demand for the partnership space has been high, we have decided to launch the service unfinished. Technical implementation and all features of the platform are not yet complete, and there may be shortcomings in the language versions. However, the functionalities already in use at the beta stage offer opportunities for cooperation in the field of integration and reception of refugees.  

More detailed instructions on the Partnership platform and its use will be available on the ‘Information about the service’ page. After the platform has been published, we will organise short briefings and support clinics. If you experience problems related to registration and use of the platform, you can join the clinics without registration. Information events will provide more general information about the platform. 

Welcome to the Partnership platform - information events

General information about the platform and a short opportunity to ask general questions. Register in advance. In Finnish. Registration opens on Thursday.

Partnership platform - support clinics

Technical support and problems, incl. registration. No advance registration, but only 15 people will be allowed to the clinic at the same time.

The Partnership platform is maintained by the Centre of Expertise in Immigrant Integration and the Labour Migration and Integration Unit of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The platform is part of the online service of the Integration Partnership Programme, which also includes kotoutuminen.fi and kotoutumisentukena.fi. The Partnership platform and online services are intended for all experts encountering immigrants in their work.

More information:
Kumppanuusalusta.kotoutuminen.fi
Information about the Partnership platform
Register for the Partnership platform
Integration Partnership Programme
Integration.fi
Kotoutumisentukena.fi