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Wednesday, 24.04.2024, 07:45
Growing career opportunities attract employees from abroad to Kaunas
Photo A. Aleksandravicius |
According to Eglė Adašiūnaitė, the head of the Work
in Lithuania program, more and more specialists living abroad are choosing
Lithuania for their careers, without leaving Kaunas behind.
"In 2019 alone, investment projects, attracted by the
Foreign Direct Investment and Business Development agency Invest Lithuania, are
planning to create as many as 4,600 new jobs, 544 of which will be in Kaunas.
Long term investments will contribute total of 135.8 mln euro , more than a
half of which - 76,5 mln euro will be in Kaunas. Thus, variety of career opportunities
are increasing in Lithuania."
According to E. Adašiūnaitė, Work in Lithuania program
partners in Kaunas region (for instance, Continental Automotive Lithuania,
Centric IT Solutions Lithuania, Festo Lithuania and others) are constantly
expanding their international teams, which significantly contributes to the
positive statistics of the new arrivals to Lithuania.
Continental
Continental Automotive Lithuania, based in Kaunas
FEZ, is a very international workplace. The factory currently employs over 200
people, about a fifth of whom are foreign nationals from 10 countries: the US,
Germany, Mexico, Philippines, Turkey, China, India, Russia, Egypt, Romania. Of
course, most of them are from other branches of Continental who have come to share
their experience at the newly established factory in Kaunas, working in various
positions - from central functions (finance, IT, personnel, etc.) to
production.
"Most of the foreign recruits are Continental employees
from other locations who come here to share their experience. These are people
who want bigger challenges or are interested in this particular Continental
project in Kaunas: after all, it is a rare opportunity to contribute to the
project from the very first moments when we design all systems and structures
from the start. Therefore, it is safe to say that colleagues from all over the
world are attracted to Kaunas by invaluable growth opportunity and exceptional
experience," Shayan Ali, the Head of the factory, says.
Most of the foreigners working at Kaunas Continental mention
the attractive quality-of-life and price ratio as well as comfort: short
distances, spacious and affordable housing, good quality public sector
services.
Currently, the company employs about 10 people who have
returned to Lithuania from abroad. Continental Automotive Lithuania has been
successful in attracting Lithuanian specialists from companies such as Intel,
Jaguar Land Rover or Ford to return to Kaunas.
"We are delighted that Lithuanians, who come back to
Lithuania for work, choose us as an employer that provides good opportunities –
our arrival to Kaunas encouraged them to return and continue their careers
here. We hope that there will be more of them in the future," Head of the
factory says reminding us that in the next couple of years, the company intends
to increase the number of employees five times - up to 1,000 people.
Centric
Centric IT Solutions Lithuania, a Dutch company
operating in the field of IT technology, currently employs eight foreign
workers who have come to Kaunas from Sweden and Norway. Several more employees
joined Centric after returning to Lithuania from emigration - Norway and
Germany.
Swedes and Norwegians working in the Customer Service Center
in Kaunas communicate with their customers in their mother tongue on a daily
basis. According to them, deciding to come to work in Kaunas was not difficult:
some were attracted by the opportunity to live in a completely different
culture, others by the chance to join a promising international Centric team
that has branches in 9 European countries.
Emil Hustvedt, who has come to Lithuania for a year
from Norway, says that he had never heard of the country or Kaunas before
coming.
"Actually, I didn't even know what language you spoke.
Lithuanian? Is there such a language? Oh, how cool!" Emil laughs. So, his
first acquaintance with a future place of work and residence started with
browsing Google Street View. And remembering the first months in Kaunas, he
first mentions people who turned out to be much more pleasant than expected,
who didn't refuse to translate for him and offered their help in general.
Emil is delighted with his current job in Kaunas because of
internationalism and opportunities for improvement, "The company makes
sure we improve not only as professionals but also as personalities. The work I
do, though similar to the one I had in the Norwegian public sector, is
different now - I work with private clients, with different support systems. I
wouldn't be exaggerating if I said that centric has opened up a lot of new
experiences for me, and my commitment to living and working in Lithuania will
give me more flexibility and courage to make similar decisions in the future -
whether to stay in Lithuania for longer than the agreed year or perhaps move to
work to other countries that have Centric units," Emil says.
Festo
A global supplier for pneumatic and electronic technology
production and process automation, Festo Lithuania, which has been
operating in Kaunas for several decades, not only works closely with colleagues
in other countries but also welcomes staff from abroad, emphasizing its
openness to all.
Company representatives say they do not have any prejudices
about the nationality of the employee when recruiting. First of all, they take
into consideration the attitude of the future employee (to cooperation,
development, learning, colleagues, difficult situations, etc.) and then their
knowledge and skills. There are also cases where the type of the position
dictates what kind of employee to look for. For example, if the position
requires excellent knowledge of a language that is not popular in Lithuania,
the company looks for candidates who would be native speakers.
When asking foreign colleagues about why they decided to
stay and work in Lithuania, the most frequently mentioned reason is the meeting
of a life partner here, in other words, immigration for love. The other part -
and it continues to grow together with the noticeably increasing foreign
investments in the city - consists of professionals, who come to Lithuania with
their families, in need of work.
Currently, the company employs 7 foreign nationals from
Poland, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Argentina. One of them, Italian Eugenio
Nicola Busciala has been living in Kaunas for almost two years, working as
a technical support specialist in his native Italian. After getting to know
Lithuania through Erasmus program in Vilnius during his studies, Eugenio
noticed the Festo ad that suited his skills and chose to work in Kaunas.
"The settling in did not cause any major problems:
until then I had lived in Lithuania for a year, so I was able to get acquainted
with the local culture, food, and customs. Extremely friendly and caring
colleagues helped - and continue to help - to adapt to the new city and job
environment. Things also seem more optimistic because of the constantly
improving city atmosphere and infrastructure with an increasing number of parks
to walk in, museums, restaurants; in addition, I keep discovering new events. I
also appreciate the convenience of public transport, the tranquility, and the
comfort of the city. What would I recommend to my friends visiting Kaunas? Be
sure to take a walk from Soboras to the Old Town, taste Lithuanian food and in
the summer, go see the Kaunas lagoon."
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