Musa Nuri: International Internship at ELY Centre for Lapland (Lappi)

Musa Nuri, PhD student at the University of Lapland completed his 3-month long internship as a part of the European Social Fund funded project 'Coordinating structural change and matching of labour supply and demand' and the Unit for Employment, Entrepreneurship, Competence, and Immigration.

My internship at ELY Lapland has been the most rewarding and motivational experience I have had. The exciting project had three major themes: structural change, knowledge management, and matching of labor supply and demand. This project is interesting because it is working for the structural change in Lapland and creating knowledge on how people in Lapland could meet the significant challenges in terms of employment, the matching of the labor supply and demand, and the vitality of the regions.

During my internship, I connected with job seekers, entrepreneurs, business owners, project workers, and different experts in those fields, which directly and indirectly supported my growth as a future project worker in the EU region.

Supportive assistance from the project team has helped me understand my specific interest in immigrant and migrant issues. I learned from the project team and from participating in unit and network meetings, and those meetings create a feeling that teamwork is the whole process of working in ELY. 

I worked on a benchmarking study on the best practices related to the project's target groups. It was one of the best parts of my internship to develop knowledge through learning from other project activities across Europe. Identifying the services for the international people also taught me about the limitations of services for immigrants and migrants in Lapland. 

During my internship, I had a field visit to Kemi and Utsjoki. The Kemi trip gave me insight into the multicultural center Mikseri, which is doing its best for international immigrants and migrants. The Utsjoki trip provided knowledge about ongoing structural change in a sparsely populated area. 

Developing soft skills and networking

Within my project internship, two distinct learning experiences stand out to me as the most influential aspects of my development: developing soft skills and networking. Soft skills such as working abilities in a team by coworking were developed eventually with the interaction and learning from team members. My networking skills were developed by participating in different meetings, seminars, and workshops. 

ELY is a place for employees' well-being, and the organization also arranges gym sessions for its employees. I have participated in the gym session organized by ELY, which also built my health consciousness. 

I hope ELY will continue this internship process for international people so that more international people can integrate with society through the help of ELY. The new graduate student should grab this internship opportunity at ELY as their best learning prospect for their future. It will help them develop soft skills, project working ability, and build a network for a future career.