Professional development
The University of Helsinki is most of all an expert organisation so it is of primary importance that the people working in the organisation develop continuously.
The professional skills and expertise of staff are key success factors for the University of Helsinki and it supports them, for instance, by versatile staff training.
Nearly 3000 university staff members participate annually in staff training, which is free of charge. Approximately 250 different training courses are organised annually. The training offered by the Personnel Services aims at promoting professional skills, supporting leadership and communication, language and computer skills, and offering training in financial, personnel and project management and apprenticeship training.
Staff skills can also be improved and widened in many other ways besides staff training. One of the methods used here at the University of Helsinki is mentoring, which is based on the mentor and mentee working together.
Job orientation promotes job satisfaction of both individual employees and the whole work community. When a new recruit begins work at the University, the work community introduces the newcomer to the work environment, work conditions and the goals, operations and methods of the work community. After the actual job orientation, regular employee development interviews and collective work unit meetings create the foundation for the continuous development of the staff and the work community.
Being multidisciplinary, the University of Helsinki offers its staff good opportunities for personal development, for instance, by means of
- job orientation
- employee development interviews
- development tasks agreed annually
- work community development sessions
- transfer of experience and competence within the work community
- support people
- teamwork
- challenging duties
- temporary positions
- work groups and networks
- integrating new methods into work processes
- staff rotation
- mobility in organisational changes
- apprenticeship training
- staff training
- other training
- integrating things learned in training into work
- coaching
- mentoring
- counselling
- conferences
- following new trends and literature in the field
- excursions, visits, benchmarking
- international teacher and researcher exchanges