This report seeks to find ways to improve Finland’s potential in attracting highly-skilled workforce by examining talent attraction from two different perspectives. The first part of this report identifies six trends that shape the global context where Finnish actors engage themselves in the intensifying competition for highly skilled workforce. These trends are examined through nine innovative cases of talent attraction around the world.

The second part of this report consists of a comparison of the Finnish work-related residence permit process models with the Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Dutch models. The comparison indicates that while Finland has a good basis for attracting highly-skilled workforce, the Finnish efforts to attract international talent could benefit from a smoother and faster permit process.