New project aims to strengthen language‑ and culture‑aware guidance in healthcare sector
A new national development project, Pro Harkka, was launched at the turn of the year with the aim of strengthening guidance for students whose first language is not Finnish or Swedish within the social and healthcare sector. The project is funded by the European Social Fund and runs from 1 January 2026 to 30 June 2028.
Pro Harkka is carried out in five regions across Finland. In Western Finland, Turku University of Applied Sciences (Turku AMK) is responsible for the implementation together with Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (SAMK), Vaasa University of Applied Sciences (VAMK) and Novia University of Applied Sciences.
The project aims to strengthen organisations’ ability to guide an increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse group of students.
This will be achieved by:
- increasing language and cultural awareness within work communities
- developing more consistent guidance practices
- building regional networks that support supervisors
- providing practical materials, digital trainings and workshops
From Novia University of Applied Sciences, Camilla Pitkänen participates as project manager and Åsa Lågland as project specialist. At VAMK, Kirsi Lehtola serves as project manager and Jessica Nygård as project specialist. The Ostrobothnia Wellbeing Services County participates as a project partner.
Pro Harkka aims to ensure that supervisors receive the tools and competencies needed to support the multilingual workforce of the future within the social and healthcare sector.
Photo: From left Åsa Lågland, project specialist at Novia UAS, Kirsi Lehtola, project manager VAMK and Camilla Pitkänen, project manager at Novia UAS.
For more information, please contact:
- Novia University of Applied Sciences, Project Manager Camilla Pitkänen, camilla.pitkanen@novia.fi