FBC China

During her trip to China the Finnish minister of Education, Mrs. Henna Virkkunen, stopped by in Shanghai and among other things spoke at the opening of the Finland Day in Fudan on November 13^th. The Finland day at Fudan is a day entirely dedicated to introducing students at Fudan with Finnish companies as well as with opportunities to study in Finland.

In her opening speech Minister Virkkunen stressed the role of education in building mutual trust between nations and cultures. Chinese students are the largest group of foreign students in Finland and Minister Virkkunen invited more students to consider studying in Finland and a career in Finnish companies.

Other speakers were Deputy commissioner of Finland’s Expo team, Mr. Mikko Puustinen and the Chairman of the Finnish Business Council, Mr. Tero Kosonen. Mr. Puustinen introduced the concepts of the Finnish Expo project and welcomed the Chinese students to come to the Finnish exposition to find out more about Finland. Mr. Kosonen gave the students advice on what kind of talents and characteristics Finnish companies are looking for. Integrity, teamwork and a long term perspective were the key components stressed by Mr. Kosonen. Both gentlemen impressed on the student audience deeply by mixing their English language presentations with elaborations in fluent Chinese.

The afternoon continued with presentations by Finnish companies such as Nokia, Kone, Wärtsilä, Metso, Konecranes, Outotec, Pöyry, UPM, Nokia Siemens, NTWS and Cargotec. The Finnish education system was represented in the form of the Turku Centre for Computer Science, the Aalto University, the Cross Border University and the University of Oulu.

Mr. Juha Tähkämaa, Liasion officer for the Finnish ministry of Education in Shanghai, characterized the event as successful. “It was the first time we organized anything like this, so it was a learning experience for us also. I think we achieved the goals we had and attracted enough students to make it worthwhile for the Finnish companies and universities. Next time it will be even more successful!”

“It was great to finally have a Finland Day at Fudan. In the past we have organized similar events for Denmark, Norway and Sweden so it was great getting Finland on the map as well. I hope the event marked the beginning of a new yearly tradition.” said Mr. Martin Bech, Head of the Nordic Centre at Fudan University.