International teacher mentoring continues at TAMK

Riku-Matti Kinnunen was greeted with a bouquet of flowers by Eeva Piirainen, one of the International Teacher Mentors, for his steering the teacher mentors for two years. The TAMK International Services will take over next year, but the good work will linger on.

TAMK created international teacher mentoring to faciliate the integration of international visiting lecturers and other guests at TAMK, and to enhance knowledge share among colleagues. Eleven active and enthousiastic teacher mentors have welcomed dozens of visitors to TAMK since August 2008 when the first meeting of the International Teacher Mentors was held.

The teacher mentors have grown experts in showing the most interesting faces of Tampere and the surrounding area to their visitors. The mentors have shared meals at the local restaurants and the feelings of cultural and sportive events of the city with their guests. Introducing the foreign colleagues to the business and industrial life in the Tampere Region, as well as making the guests familiar with the facets of TAMK's educational services and know-how - often beyond the guests' own field of expertise - has been greeted with pleasure for the past two years.

Now that TAMK is under a lot of changes due to the merger with PIRAMK since 1 January 2010, the International Teacher Mentors are happy to hear that this kind of mentoring will continue in the Academic Year 2010-2011, too. It seems that even a larger group of internationally-minded TAMK staff will be summoned to host and mentor foreign colleagues.

Story: Riku-Matti Kinnunen
The author is International Coordinator/Study Counselling at Tampere UAS
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