The working-age population in Eastern Finland is expected to decrease to around 25% by 2030 due to retirements and other factors. The birth rate has fallen strongly in recent decades, leading to an acute shortage of workers in many sectors. The University of Eastern Finland plans to respond to the shortage of experts by tripling the number of foreign students by 2030. However, international students in educational institutions across Eastern Finland face great difficulties in finding internships and jobs. Many students would like to stay in the area after graduation, but half of them end up moving elsewhere in search of better employment opportunities. Job offerings and training programs must be aligned so that graduation leads to employment. Furthermore, workplaces, as well as official and leisure services, should operate multilingually to meet the needs of a diverse workforce. UEF, Karelia, Savonia, Riveria, Sakky and YSAO aim to ensure that international students who come to our region find their place, secure employment, and integrate into Eastern Finland. We also aim to set a national example for what can be achieved at the regional level through cooperation between educational institutions, students, and employers in a relatively short period of time. It is essential for all of us to work together to ensure that our region remains vibrant for years to come. The project's activities have been planned in conjunction with the existing services of the educational institutions to make sure these activities can continue even after the project ends. The project’s objective is to equip international students with working life skills right from the beginning of their studies. The plan is to prepare, for example, self-study materials on working life skills that can be accessed anytime and from anywhere. The project supports students in finding connections with companies in their own field through internship and project collaborations, events, mentoring, alumni cooperation, and shared doctoral research. It is crucial to identify, articulate and productize students’ competencies and to have better understanding of the expertise required in working life. International students and talents interested in entrepreneurship are offered support and business education. Through cooperation between different educational institutions, we aim to compile the best career guidance practices that can be used across the entire network. This also enables students to utilize services from other educational institutions. International students seek more assistance in creating professional networks and obtaining information about companies in their own field. The objective is to engage in business cooperation on a sector-by-sector basis to allow students and employers in the same field to connect. One example of such collaboration is a pilot firm team model that helps students find jobs and internships. By collaborating with existing industry networks in the region, we can efficiently use available information and collaboration channels and tailor training solutions to meet sector-specific needs. The project offers employers continuous learning services to support the reception and guidance of international employees and to help them learn Finnish in the workplace. Help should be easily available in the form of targeted training at the workplace. On the other hand, there are also companies and communities in the area that regularly recruit international experts. Enabling the sharing of business-to-business, community-to-community and educational institution-to-educational institution competence is an important part of the project. We are aware that we are an important employer in the region. Our goal is to promote inclusivity, equality, internationalization at home, and anti-racism among employers, authorities and the third sector in the Eastern Finnish community through everyday practices, positive example, and strong communication.