CV

Work experience

• April 6th, 2020 – present

  Laurea University of Applied Sciences

  I am involved in research, development and innovation in the area of career guidance and competence upskilling. My duties include cooperating with enterprises in matters of skills development (micro-credentials and coaching), drafting peer-reviewed articles and reports, being a member of the editorial board of the Laurea Journal (peer reviewing articles to be published), lecturing at national and international seminars/conferences, running training programmes to career guidance practitioners, providing expertise to national authorities, networking at national and international levels, participating in EU-funded projects to develop new digital tools and service arrangements, and acting as a thesis supervisor to university students.

• January 1st, 2020 – March 31st, 2020

  Independent

  Co-authoring a novel (humorous fiction) that deals with survival of small municipalities in Finland in the era of globalisation. 

• March 1st, 2019 – December 31st, 2019 A temporary project assignment

  European Commission DG EMPL / Everis

  I worked as a Career Guidance and International Mobility Expert on the European Commission’s new Europass online platform on lifelong learning and career development. My main task was to ensure high level of userfriendliness and client-orientedness in how the platform and its different web-based tools work for individual citizens. I contributed to content provision in the platform by drafting articles on topics such as skills development, identifying skill needs, career planning and learning, working in an intercultural environment. Other tasks included drafting briefing notes and background papers for the European Commission; designing and developing an online training programme addressed to guidance practitioners, HR experts, youth workers, and recruiters; and presenting the new Europass at international events. A 10-month temporary project assignment (full-time) for which the European Commission specifically invited me.

• January 1st, 2017 – April 13th, 2020

  Finnish National Agency for Education

  My duties as a Senior Information Specialist comprised national and international cooperation across education, training, employment and youth sectors, including competence development, project management, networking, lecturing, and service design. I was in charge of coordinating the communications and promotion activities of the Euroguidance network consisting of 34 European countries (under European Commission DG EMPL). My tasks with European countries involved consultancy, skills development, knowledge exchange and transfer, joint projects and events to promote career guidance and international mobility. The European Commission, the European Parliament, EU Agencies, national ministries, regional/sectoral authorities, and higher education institutions were the key partners. (I was on a leave of absence during 1 April 2019 – 29 February 2020 while working in Brussels.)  

  [N.B. Due to the merger between two former national agencies (the Centre for International Mobility CIMO and the Finnish National Board of Education) a new national authority under the auspices of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture was established as of 1 January 2017: the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI). EDUFI is the National Agency for Erasmus+ programme in Finland.]

• February 18th, 2014 – May 31st, 2019

  University of Helsinki, Faculty of Educational Sciences

  P.O.Box 9 (Siltavuorenpenger 5A), 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland, Switchboard +358-9-19120510, www.helsinki.fi/university

  During 2014-2019 I conducted doctoral studies on top of my full-time employment in the Finnish governmental services. I successfully completed and defended my doctoral dissertation in May 2019 at the University of Helsinki. My doctoral research (monograph), entitled ‘Homo interculturalis - Identity, interculturality and career learning within European Union institutions’, is available online at https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/300012 For additional details see www.launikari.eu/phd/

• June 1st, 2012 – December 31st, 2016

  Centre for International Mobility CIMO (public sector, national authority)

  As a Senior Information Specialist I was organising national and international events (seminars, workshops); acting as a trainer to foster professional development of teachers and guidance counsellors on international mobility; coordinating European/national development projects; cooperating with the European Commission, national authorities (incl. ministries), relevant EU agencies and EU-wide networks (Euroguidance, European Employment Services, Eurydice, Europass, EURAXESS, …); coordinating information and publication work (incl. editing and authoring duties) on the international/multicultural dimension in lifelong learning and employment. I was in charge of coordinating the promotional activities of the Euroguidance network with 34 member countries across Europe (under European Commission DG EMPL). I was on a leave of absence from April 2014 until March 2015 to launch my doctoral studies at the University of Helsinki.

  [CIMO’s main task was to promote international cooperation and mobility with specific emphasis on education, training, working life, culture and young people. CIMO was the National Agency for Erasmus+ programme.]

• June 1st, 2007 – May 31st, 2012

  European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop; EU Agency)

  In the context of human capital development, my duties as a Project Manager consisted of EU policy and strategy level cooperation in the areas of lifelong guidance and entrepreneurship education. To this end I was closely collaborating with the European Commission, the European Parliament and the EU Member States. This work included monitoring the progress made in the EU Member States in implementing the EU level policies and strategies (policy analysis, studies); contributing with expertise to the European Union presidencies; initiating and coordinating research studies as well as supervising the work of external research groups; organising European policy level events; designing and delivering training programmes on multicultural guidance; contributing as a presenter to international conferences; networking across Europe and beyond with relevant national ministries, social partners, sectoral bodies/associations, leading professional experts, EU-wide networks; budgetary planning, execution, follow-up and reporting.

  [The EU Agency Cedefop’s strategic objective is to strengthen European cooperation and support the European Commission, Member States and social partners in designing and implementing policies for vocational education and training that promotes social inclusion of all citizens in Europe.]

• April 25th, 2005 – June 30th, 2007

  Finnish National Board of Education (public sector, national authority)

  As a Project Manager I managed a large-scale EU-funded development project focusing on preventing the exclusion of young people from education and training. The project contributed to guidance practitioners’ competence development regarding culture- and gender-sensitive guidance, multiprofessional and network-based cooperation, and service development for young people with special needs. Cooperation with Denmark, Italy and Spain on culture- and gender-sensitive counselling as well as on labour market segregation was part of the project.

  Parallel to the above, I was representing Finland in the Joint Action Group (an initiative of the European Commission) with partners from Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany and Poland. This transnational cooperation aimed at developing a holistic guidance provision for citizens at risk.

  [The Finnish National Board of Education was in charge of the development of the pre-primary, basic, general and vocational upper secondary education and training, and adult education in Finland.]

• October 1st, 1995 – April 30th, 2005

  Centre for International Mobility CIMO (public sector, national authority)

  As a Senior Adviser I coordinated Euroguidance network-based activities linked to promoting international mobility in Europe. I initiated and managed an EU-funded development project with partners from six EU countries (1999-2001) with the aim to improve multicultural competences of guidance practitioners, teachers, trainers and youth workers. This project entitled Towards a European RAINBOW – Increasing the intercultural awareness among guidance counsellors (1999-2001) was included in the Intercultural dialogue Good Practice Series n:o 8 published by the European Commission in 2004. Moreover, I authored and edited national and international publications, wrote articles for Finnish and European journals, produced and disseminated promotional materials; lectured at national and international conferences, seminars and workshops, and acted as a trainer myself. The main cooperation partners were the European Commission, national education and labour authorities in the EU/EEA member states and EU candidate countries, international associations, higher education institutions, European networks.

• August 1st, 1994 – April 30th, 1995

  Oy Skandinaviska Ledningsgruppen SLG-Thomas International Ab (Consulting)

  Human Resource Management Junior Consultant was a project-based, tempory assignment. My main task after the 1,5 month training period on the Thomas Human resources assessment system was to support the senior consultants in identifying potential business clients, to promote the Thomas assessment system to companies in the Helsinki capital region and to run human resource assessments at clients.

• January 1st, 1994 – May 31st, 1994

  Language Bureau Kielikimara

  As a Project Coordinator my main responsibility was to assist this newly established language school in promoting its language training services to Finnish companies as well as to contribute to designing a German language training programme addressed to business people. This assignment was a temporary job and linked to providing some initial support for a successful business start-up.