In the January 27 webinar on Experiences of Language-supported Higher Education Studies, participants learned about language-supported competence paths in sectors with labour shortages in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The ESF+ funded joint project aims to develop language-aware, field-specific teaching that supports the Finnish language skills of immigrants and international students.

Karoliina Kopsa and Päivi Virtanen from the University of Helsinki described experiences from the KIVAPE project on language-supported early childhood education competence paths, while Sylvia Hakari and Katja Sidoroff from Metropolia University of Applied Sciences presented the Bachelor of Social Services in Early Childhood Education path. Verna Pelkonen and Elisa Räsänen from Aalto University described experiences from the technology sector path. Students also made their voices heard in the webinar, as participants from every competence path explained their experiences from a student perspective. Eighty interested participants signed up for the webinar, where the speakers also fielded questions from the audience.

As many as 231 people signed up for the webinar, with the speakers fielding questions from the audience. The presentation also generated a lively discussion in the chat. 

Kielibuusti has gained recognition for its work: the Finnish Network for Language Education Policies and the Centre for Applied Language Studies granted Kielibuusti a recognition award named after Professor Kari Sajavaara. The award was announced and issued at the 16^th Kari Sajavaara Memorial lecture, held at the University of Jyväskylä on 23 January 2026.

The prize was awarded for Kielibuusti’s role as an important actor in the current discussion on the opportunities of immigrants to learn and study Finland’s national languages. Kielibuusti was also praised for making the material produced in the project available to many communities and for grounding it in recent research. 

Material produced by Kielibuusti can also be found in Work in Finland’s new Language Coach Programme, whose aim is to strengthen language awareness and improve company productivity in multilingual environments with the help of free coaching. The Language Coach Programme is based on the work of Kielibuusti, and Work in Finland offers the service in collaboration with Arffman.

During the spring, Kielibuusti will participate in several events, including the Talent Boost Network Day, held in Helsinki on 18 March 2026, and the Spring Forum for Higher Education International Affairs, held in Kotka on 18–20 May 2026. 

In addition, Kielibuusti will participate in the Summer Internship Programme in summer 2026. The cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa will take part in the programme, where universities are represented by the University of Helsinki, Hanken School of Economics, and Aalto University. Kielibuusti is responsible for the section of the programme devoted to language learning and multilingual working communities.

Kielibuusti is also engaged in important work inside Aalto University and the University of Helsinki. For example, the legislative change to grant permanent residence to students with 15 Finnish language ECTS credits is creating additional demand at both universities for language courses. In autumn 2026, for the first time, Aalto University will offer L2 Finnish as a minor subject, where the minimum number of credits is exactly 15. 

In addition, staff training and language awareness at work are being actively developed at both universities. You can read about the University of Helsinki’s experiences of multilingualism in the blog Flexibly in three languages? You can also read about the experiences of international staff at the University of Helsinki using Finnish to teach and guide students. Their thoughts can be found in a jointly written article published in Kielibuusti’s blog, titled Teaching and guidance in Finnish at Helsinki University. At the end of the article, you will find a list of tips.

This spring, the university of Helsinki will begin a small-group pilot offering bespoke Finnish language teaching and support to professors newly recruited from abroad to the PROFI9 programme. The pilot has been jointly designed by HR experts and Finnish teachers in the University of Helsinki’s Kielibuusti team. Information and tips and hints from internal development work at both Aalto University and the University of Helsinki will be shared later, for example in Kielibuusti’s webinars.

Use the material on Kielibuusti’s website

You can find continuously updated material on the Kielibuusti website on language learning and language support, both for language learners themselves and for the language learning environment. Here are a few tips for different focus groups:

Language learners, have you familiarised yourselves with Kielibuusti’s Learn Finnish at Work section? It offers tips and material for learning working-life Finnish for many different sectors. For instance, there are dedicated subsections for studying Finnish in the care sector, transport sector, hotel and restaurant services sector and construction industry. Or have you already read students’ inspiring texts about their learning?

Teachers, could you benefit from some tips on how to guide students in elementary independent study courses? Or have you already found the Weekend Finnish section for weekend homework tasks? They turn students’ attention to ways to learn languages in their spare time.

Study advisors, have you watched the video Multilingual practices in guidance or accustomed yourselves with the wide range of material in the Language Aware Teaching and Guidance section? Employees or employers, has your work community found the material on planning language-aware orientations or the inspiring example of becoming a customer advisor at a bank through developing language skills: language-supported recruitment stages?

Interesting content has been added to the online learning materials on the Kielibuusti.fi website. This includes teaching videos created in the University of Turku’s Guiding Towards Fluent Finnish project. A wide variety of videos are available on different topics (e.g. pronunciation, language structures and cultural information), where English is used as an instructional aid. The videos are useful to both students and teachers.

Furthermore, remember Kielibuusti’s tips for language learning in the Learn Finnish section! The webpage provides information on language assessment, language learning in everyday life and work and Language cafés and learning with a friend. A new addition to the page is the service provider Articulatte, which offers free and for-charge virtual language cafés in various languages, including Finnish.

In addition, the Swedish language content on the kielibuusti.fi website has recently been updated. You can now find the following material for higher education: Synliggör svenska i den engelskspråkiga undervisningen | Kielibuusti, Stöd för språkinlärning under högskolestudierna andI Aalto-universitetets vävverkstad vävs språk samman. Also, Att utnyttja språkteknologi is available for employers and work communities, while Swedish teachers can find information on how to organise reading circles: Bokcirklar i språkundervisning 

If you wish to offer or suggest suitable material for the website, such as tools, good practice, study material or research findings produced by various organisations or projects, contact us at kielibuusti-info@helsinki.fi.

Kielibuusti shares weekly language tips on Instagram and Facebook. A new hint to support language learning in everyday life is broadcast every Wednesday afternoon. Other content related to current events is also released now and then on social media, such as newsflashes about public holidays and advertisements for events arranged by the Kielisepät (Language Smiths) community. Therefore, it’s worth following Kielibuusti’s social media channels and/or suggesting them to language learners who need tips on language learning in everyday life.