Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu

The gen­er­al infor­ma­tion and guid­ance of Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu is offered at a one-stop venue in Busi­nes­sAs­e­ma and col­lab­o­rates with oth­er ser­vices. We pro­vide you with infor­ma­tion in dif­fer­ent lan­guages about dai­ly liv­ing in Oulu, as well as low-thresh­old guid­ance to ser­vices offered by var­i­ous orga­ni­za­tions, e.g. Busi­nes­sAs­e­ma guid­ance ser­vices for entre­pre­neurs and job seek­ers or Oulu Skills Cen­tre ser­vices.

If you are eli­gi­ble for the city’s inte­gra­tion ser­vices, we will guide you to them. By using our ser­vice, you will always get the newest infor­ma­tion and guid­ance to the ser­vice you need.

Con­tact us

On-site: Uusikatu 52, 90100 Oulu

Phone Num­ber: 08 558 558 10 (select option 5)
Mon­day to Fri­day from 9 AM to 3 PM.

Email: ihoulu(a)ouka.fi
We will respond as soon as pos­si­ble.

Guid­ance Ser­vices

Are you look­ing for the right ser­vice? Do you need sup­port in employ­ment and busi­ness mat­ters? Job­seek­ers receive advice and guid­ance on all employ­ment and busi­ness mat­ters from Busi­nes­sAs­e­ma Guid­ance Ser­vices.

You can find more infor­ma­tion on Busi­nes­sAs­e­ma’s web­site (opens in a new tab).

The guid­ance ser­vices desk is open on week­days from 9 a.m.  to 3 p.m.

You can call 08 558 55810 Mon–Fri 9 a.m.– 4 p.m.

Check the sched­ule for BusinessAsema’s ser­vices with­out appoint­ment here.

Mul­ti­lin­gual employ­ment sup­port ser­vices

Oulu Skills Cen­tre pro­vides sup­port ser­vices to all mul­ti­lin­gual res­i­dents of Oulu. They offer you sup­port with employ­ment relat­ed ques­tions:

• how to reg­is­ter as a job seek­er
• sup­port in under­stand­ing bureau­crat­ic process­es
• sup­port in mak­ing your cv
• sup­port in dig­i­tal­ly access­ing your employ­ment relat­ed deci­sions
• sup­port in under­stand­ing and access­ing dif­fer­ent gov­ern­ment ser­vices
• sup­port in find­ing a school or work­place

OSKE employ­ment coun­selling for non-Finnish speak­ers Mon–Fri at 12 noon – 3 p.m.

Con­tact: Dlo­van Ishaya
Employ­ment Advi­sor
+358 40 487 6735
dlovan.ishaya@ouka.fi
Lan­guages: Finnish, Assyr­i­an, Ara­bic, Kur­dish

Atten­tion!

If you are not a Finnish cit­i­zen, you can only start your job search for the first time by vis­it­ing the Busi­nes­sAs­e­ma. If you have the nec­es­sary bank­ing cre­den­tials to use the strong login func­tion, this can be done online, but iden­ti­ty ver­i­fi­ca­tion must be done at Busi­nes­sAs­e­ma.

Read more about Immi­grant ser­vices and inte­gra­tion plan — Inter­na­tion­al­i­ty — Job Mar­ket Fin­land (opens in a new tab)

• Inter­na­tion­al peo­ple in Oulu can receive free con­sul­ta­tions in Eng­lish about entre­pre­neur­ship, free­lanc­ing, and self-employ­ment. To receive a con­sul­ta­tion, you do not need to have a busi­ness idea, any pre­pared doc­u­ments or a spe­cif­ic res­i­dence per­mit type.

Our busi­ness advi­sor can dis­cuss with you the fol­low­ing top­ics:

• Prac­ti­cal ques­tions about start­ing a busi­ness in Fin­land.
• Busi­ness plan and finan­cial cal­cu­la­tions.
• Infor­ma­tion about com­pa­ny forms and their reg­is­tra­tion.
• Insur­ances, reg­u­la­tions, and tax­a­tion.
• Start­up grant and oth­er ben­e­fits for new busi­ness­es.

After a con­sul­ta­tion you will have an under­stand­ing of the ways you can run your busi­ness activ­i­ties in Fin­land, a roadmap with clear steps, as well as resources with fur­ther infor­ma­tion.

Con­tact: She­fat Islam
Busi­ness Advi­sor
+ 358 40 674 9457
shefat.islam@businessoulu.com

Advi­so­ry ser­vices of the Uusyri­tyskeskus for those plan­ning to start a busi­ness

Uusyri­tyskeskus’ busi­ness advi­sors can be met with­out an appoint­ment on Tues­days from 12:00 to 15:00 at Start­up Sta­tion. The ser­vice is for all those who are plan­ning entre­pre­neur­ship.

More infor­ma­tion on the Uusyri­tyskeskus web­site (opens in a new win­dow).

Peo­ple liv­ing and insured in Fin­land can apply for dif­fer­ent social secu­ri­ty ben­e­fits, for exam­ple if you are unem­ployed or receiv­ing a pen­sion, or have chil­dren.

Kela has phone ser­vice in Finnish (Soi­ta Kelaan | Henkilöasi­akkaat | Kela) (opens in a new tab) and Eng­lish ( Call Kela | Our Ser­vices | Kela) (opens in a new tab).

You can also get an instant inter­preter ser­vice or book an appoint­ment in your lan­guage at the Kela office.

Oulu’s edu­ca­tion selec­tion is inter­na­tion­al­ly cut­ting edge. After sol­id ele­men­tary edu­ca­tion, our ecosys­tem enables mov­ing ahead the way you want: you’ll find a wide selec­tion of career devel­op­ing job oppor­tu­ni­ties and esteemed research com­mu­ni­ties. What are you going to be when you grow up?

Day­care

Ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion ser­vices (day­care ser­vices) sup­port the growth and well-being of chil­dren under school age and their fam­i­lies. Read more about ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion (opens in a new tab).

Preschool

Preschool is for one year before the child starts basic edu­ca­tion. Preschool is free. Read more about preschool (opens in a new tab).

Basic edu­ca­tion

Basic edu­ca­tion (com­pre­hen­sive school) begins the year the child turns sev­en. Edu­ca­tion, school meals, school health­care and study mate­ri­als are free. Read more about basic edu­ca­tion (opens in a new tab).

If your child would like to attend school in Eng­lish, please con­tact the Oulu Inter­na­tion­al School, OIS (a City of Oulu school). In Sven­s­ka Pri­vatskolan i Uleåborg chil­dren can study in Swedish (not a City of Oulu school).

If you have just moved to Oulu and your child has not yet received a school place­ment deci­sion, please con­tact the region­al man­ag­er of your res­i­den­tial area. You can find detailed instruc­tions on the school’s enroll­ment page (opens in a new tab)

Prepara­to­ry edu­ca­tion, Finnish as a Sec­ond Lan­guage lessons, and moth­er tongue lessons

The City of Oulu offers prepara­to­ry edu­ca­tion for basic edu­ca­tion, which is intend­ed for stu­dents whose Finnish skills are not yet ade­quate for study­ing in basic edu­ca­tion groups. The City of Oulu also orga­nizes Finnish as a Sec­ond Lan­guage lessons and moth­er tongue lessons (pro­vid­ed that at least six pupils study the same lan­guage and that a teacher or an instruc­tor is avail­able for the group). Read more about edu­ca­tion for mul­ti­lin­gual stu­dents  (opens in a new tab).

Upper sec­ondary edu­ca­tion

A young per­son fin­ish­ing ele­men­tary school must apply for upper sec­ondary school, voca­tion­al train­ing or prepara­to­ry train­ing for them. Oulu Lyseo high school has the Inter­na­tion­al Bac­calau­re­ate (IB) pro­gram. Appli­ca­tions for sec­ond-lev­el stud­ies are sub­mit­ted in the spring through a nation­wide joint appli­ca­tion process on the Opin­topolku ser­vice (Study Path). Read more about the Study Path. Read more about Oulu’s edu­ca­tion options (opens in a new tab).

Voca­tion­al edu­ca­tion

OSAO Ovi pro­vides guid­ance and advice on apply­ing for voca­tion­al edu­ca­tion. OSAO Ovi admis­sions ser­vices help in all mat­ters relat­ed to apply­ing. They will pro­vide you with guid­ance on sub-selec­tion.

You can ask for advice on how and when you can apply or, for exam­ple, how you would finance your stud­ies. You can meet study and career coun­sel­lors every week­day for per­son­al career guid­ance dis­cus­sions. You can vis­it in per­son or meet remote­ly via Teams.

OSAO Ovi (opens in a new tab) at Busi­nes­sAs­e­ma, Uusikatu 52: Wed 12– 3 p.m (room 22)

High­er edu­ca­tion

Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences

Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences (Oamk) offers free of charge guid­ance on edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for immi­grants who are inter­est­ed in high­er edu­ca­tion. Oamk also offers edu­ca­tion that helps immi­grants get to uni­ver­si­ty, for exam­ple Finnish prepara­to­ry lan­guage cours­es.

In Oamk there is also a sep­a­rate selec­tion for high­er edu­ca­tion in sev­er­al fields of study for immi­grants. They also offer guid­ance on reg­u­lat­ed pro­fes­sions for peo­ple who have com­plet­ed a uni­ver­si­ty degree.

Con­tact us: Yliopis­tokatu 9, room 7A153E
020 611 0215 / simhe@oamk.fi / Insta­gram

Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu is one of the north­ern­most sci­ence uni­ver­si­ties in the world, locat­ed in the city of Oulu, Fin­land.  Inter­est­ed in becom­ing a degree stu­dent in one of their inter­na­tion­al pro­grammes? Read more about bachelor’s and master’s pro­grammes taught in Eng­lish: Inter­na­tion­al Pro­grammes | Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. (opens in a new tab)

Have ques­tions? Check how to reach the uni­ver­si­ty’s Admis­sion Con­tacts. (opens in a new tab)

Inter­est­ed in doc­tor­al stud­ies? Read more about the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu Grad­u­ate School and its doc­tor­al pro­grammes. (opens in a new tab)

You can find more infor­ma­tion about study­ing in Oulu here (opens in a new tab).

The offi­cial lan­guages of Fin­land are Finnish and Swedish. The major­i­ty of peo­ple liv­ing in the Oulu region are Finnish speak­ers. It is impor­tant to study Finnish, as lan­guage skills make it eas­i­er to find a job and to inte­grate into dai­ly life. Start today! Sev­er­al insti­tu­tions offer Finnish lan­guage cours­es (suomen kie­len kurssit) at dif­fer­ent lev­els.

Free cours­es

Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Cen­tre Vil­la Vic­tor pro­vides free of charge Finnish teach­ing from the ele­men­tary to the advanced lev­el in sev­er­al groups, both in the class­room and online. You can join a group that suits your own skills and timetable. Read more here (opens in a new tab).

More cours­es all year around

• Oulu-opis­to is a com­mu­ni­ty col­lege owned and run by the City of Oulu. It offers hob­by and study oppor­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple of all ages. Oulu-opis­to also organ­is­es tai­lor-made Eng­lish and Finnish cours­es for for­eign groups. Read more here. (opens in a new tab)
• Vuolle Insti­tute offers many cours­es in Finnish. Read more here (opens in a new tab).
• Sum­mer Uni­ver­si­ty of North­ern Ostro­both­nia offers var­i­ous cours­es all year round. Read more here (opens in a new tab).

You can find more options here:  Finnish Study Resources for Every Lev­el
(opens in a new tab)