Empower Wednesday, the event series for international talents, has been rebranded as Career Talks Turku. The new series starts up in the autumn of 2022.
Empower Wednesday began in the early days of the COVID crisis. We invited international talents to take part in regular virtual meetings that allowed all of us to distance ourselves from our pandemic worries. We also wanted to ensure that the talents would receive necessary information through official channels. After a few meetups, the idea was developing further: it’s hard enough to find a job in normal circumstances, and it’s even more difficult when you can’t meet with anyone face to face. We wanted to find ways to support our network of international talents and help them find their own pathways to employment in these difficult times.
The first Empower Wednesday series was organised in 2020 in co-operation with the TEMPO initiative (HUMAK) and International Working Women of Finland. The themes included building one’s professional identity on social media, preparing for interviews, setting up a business in Finland, and finding “hidden” jobs. Most of the speakers were international talents themselves, sharing their experiences and expertise. About 400 people attended events in the first series.
The fifth series will take place in the autumn of 2022. This marks the first time these events are organised on-site. The event series also has a new name: Career Talks Turku. The focus points of this series include themes of job searching and entrepreneurship, as well as face-to-face meetings and effective networking among talents.
“Over the course of the pandemic we have all come to realise that virtual meetings are no match for seeing each other face-to-face. Getting to know one another and to network – that requires real contact, it does not work in a virtual environment. By organising these in-person meetups I want to strengthen the talent network. Recognising the network’s needs is also crucial to the further development of our operations in general,” says Megumi Hayashi, specialist at Turku Business Region.
The Career Talks Turku series for this autumn begins September 27th, 2022.
More information: www.careerinsouthwestfinland.fi
The Career in Southwest Finland website is intended for international talents looking to settle in Turku and Southwest Finland. The website collects articles on success stories, news on important topics, as well as information on interesting events in the region.