A woman who came to Finland in her forties was disappointed that there were not enough opportunities to practice the Finnish language. Studies stopped with the marriage.
Source to study in Finland without entrance exams! Your year of study will be counted in your favor when you apply for citizenship!
The Initsiativa Center in Petrozavodsk advertises its Finnish language courses and consulting services on social media, such as VKontakte, Russia's equivalent of Facebook. Help is promised both in obtaining a place to study and citizenship.
On Saturday, HS told about the recruitment activities that Finnish students have done in Russia. Many high schools and secondary education institutions are trying to secure their future with the help of foreign students. Concern has been raised about how the backgrounds of Russian immigrants are investigated.
Initiative is one part of the ecosystem that enables Russian students to enter Finland.
It promises to help in obtaining a residence permit not only for the student, but also for his family members based on family ties.
The minimum price of the consultation is around 110 euros, and a wider package preparing for entrance exams and entry into the country costs around 330 euros.
Initsiativa, registered as a social organization, was founded in 2003. Last year, its turnover was around 34 million rubles, or 380,000 euros at the current exchange rate.
Initiative uses students who have come to Finland in its marketing. On the company's social media, students tell how they got their residence permit quickly and succeeded in their studies.
At the end of August, Initsiativa advertised its paid webinar on VKontakte, a Russian service similar to Facebook. In it, an adult student at Jedu, who graduated as a psychologist in Petroskoi in 2006, told about his adaptation to Finnish student life Yevgenija Rahmatova.
Rahmatova started media studies in Jedus in the fall of 2022. HS asked her why the forty-year-old Russian came to Finland.
“I think that Finland and Russia have a similar culture and values, and Finns generally have a positive attitude towards students. Finland is a fairly safe country where human rights are respected,” explains Rahmatova in a Whatsapp conversation.
He says that he also appreciates the social benefits of studying.
“Students have free dormitory and free food. It is very attractive.”
Rahmatova says that working in Finland alongside studies is possible, and a good salary level after graduation makes it possible to stay in the country.
Difficulties have been caused, for example, by the bureaucracy associated with opening a bank account and the Finnish language, even though he had previously taken Finnish language lessons in Petrozavodsk and passed the basic language proficiency test.
According to him, in Jedu, Russian-speakers studied mainly among themselves, and there were hardly any opportunities to practice the language.
“Teaching Finnish was mostly self-study tasks,” he says.
HS also communicated with Rahmatova in Russian.
At the same time that Rahmatova held a student webinar for Initsiativa, her own studies at Jedu had been interrupted.
She married a man from southern Finland in the summer, and the journey from her new home to Kalajoki would have been too long. Now Rahmatova does freelance work as a psychologist with Russian-speaking clients and is applying for the qualification of a licensed psychologist from the authorities.
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