The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has allocated discretionary government grants to organisations, municipal competence centres and guidance and counselling services for activities promoting integration.
In addition, funding has been available for Talent Hub activities from the Ministry’s Talent Boost programme.
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment allocates discretionary government grants to organisations
Since 2016, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has allocated special discretionary government grants to organisations to support the work of the third sector in promoting integration.
In 2021, the grants were used to support the development of activities in small organisations. Earlier grants have supported, for example, projects that coordinate volunteer activities, support the development and transfer of competence in organisations and advance the use of support persons to help integration of unaccompanied minors. Last year’s funding was used to promote immigrants’ knowledge and awareness about the Finnish society, in particular issues related to equality, sexuality, the right to self-determination and harmful traditions.
Competence centres to support employment
In 2020–2021, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has awarded a special discretionary government grant to support the activities of competence centres for immigrants. This funding aims to speed up the educational and employment paths of immigrants and to alleviate problems related to the availability of skilled labour through cross-administrative cooperation and support measures.
At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Culture has allocated funding to the development of continuous learning and skills. The special discretionary government grant also covers the activities of competence centres.
The competence centres offer support for identifying competences, finding employment and developing professional skills. Such competence centres have been established in Finland's largest cities.
Discretionary government grants are used to support the development and establishment of guidance and counselling services
In 2020–2021, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has awarded discretionary government grants to municipalities and joint municipal authorities to launch and develop low-threshold guidance and counselling services for immigrants. The aim of the development work is to improve the integration and employment of immigrants by providing better access to guidance and counselling services and developing the content of these services in multidisciplinary cooperation.
The aim is to develop a nationwide network of guidance and counselling services consisting mainly of the central cities of the regions. This network, together with multi-channel counselling, can also meet the needs of other municipalities.
Read more:
Grants to organisations 2021 (in Finnish)
Grants to organisations 2020 (in Finnish)
Previously supported organisations (in Finnish)
Talent Boost programme
