The employability of foreign Tourism Management students in Jyväskylä

Foreign students around the world are increasingly seeking higher education abroad and Jyväskylä has become one of the growing cities among them. The thesis focused on the challenges foreign students studying Tourism Management in Jamk University of Applied Sciences faced when searching for working placements in Jyväskylä. The idea for the study formed when observing the struggles that foreign stu-dents faced when seeking practical training and working placements in Jyväskylä. The objective of the research was to figure out possible solutions to the issues foreign students face when searching for work-ing placements in tourism industry in Jyväskylä. While there are limited studies on the challenges of international student’s employment in Finland, the research aims to address these issues by studying the difficulties that international students face in job seeking and orientation in working places in Jyväskylä. Jamk acted as a commissioner for the thesis. For the data collection methods both qualitative and quanti-tative methods were used. Semi-structured in-depth interviews and a survey were used to gather infor-mation from students and tourism organizations representatives. One of the major findings was that the Finnish language proficiency became a significant obstacle for for-eign students seeking for workplace in the tourism industry in Jyväskylä. The language issue was con-firmed by the tourism organizations managers, who agreed Finnish language being essential especially for customer service roles. As the research showed, support is still needed regarding the orientation process and the inclusivity as well as adaptation to the new working community for foreign students. The re-search highlights the need for organizations to address the language barrier and take proactive steps to create a welcoming working environment for foreign students. The results of the study assist Jamk and organizations in recognizing and overcoming the challenges foreign students faced regarding their em-ployability in tourism industry in Jyväskylä